When you compare website costs, most people look at the sticker price. The agency quotes $8,000. Wix costs $16/month. Ted costs $500. Simple comparison, right?
Not even close. The sticker price is a fraction of the true cost. Here is the honest breakdown.
Option 1: Web Design Agency
Sticker price: $5,000-$15,000 for a small business website.
Hidden costs: - Your time: 20-40 hours over 6-12 weeks (discovery calls, feedback rounds, content provision, revision reviews). If your time is worth $100/hour as a business owner, that is $2,000-$4,000 of your time. - Ongoing maintenance: $100-$500/month for hosting, updates, and security patches. Agencies love recurring maintenance contracts. - Content updates: $75-$150/hour every time you need a text change, new page, or photo update. Average small business makes 2-4 update requests per month. - Redesign cycle: Websites age. In 3-4 years, you will need another redesign. That is another $5,000-$15,000.
True Year 1 cost: $8,000-$25,000 (including your time) True 3-year cost: $15,000-$45,000
Option 2: DIY (Wix, Squarespace, WordPress)
Sticker price: $16-$45/month for the platform.
Hidden costs: - Your time: 40-80 hours to build the initial site. Learning the platform, writing content, choosing templates, sourcing images, troubleshooting mobile issues. At $100/hour opportunity cost, that is $4,000-$8,000. - Premium features: Custom domain ($12-$20/year), email hosting ($5-$12/month), premium templates ($50-$200), plugins ($10-$50/month each), forms ($10-$30/month), booking tools ($20-$60/month). - SEO limitations: DIY platforms have inherent SEO limitations. Slow page speeds, limited technical control, cookie-cutter URL structures. These limitations cost you organic traffic. - Ongoing time: 5-10 hours/month maintaining, updating, and troubleshooting. Over a year, that is another $6,000-$12,000 of your time.
True Year 1 cost: $5,000-$15,000 (mostly your time) True 3-year cost: $12,000-$35,000
Option 3: SitesByTed
Sticker price: $500 one-time for Launch, or $500 setup + $300/month for Grow.
Hidden costs: - Your time: 30 minutes to submit your URL and review the preview. That is it. - Ongoing maintenance: Included. - Content updates: Included on Grow and Scale plans. - Redesign cycle: Not needed. Ted continuously optimizes your site.
True Year 1 cost (Launch): $500 True Year 1 cost (Grow): $4,100 True 3-year cost (Launch): $500 (if no monthly plan) True 3-year cost (Grow): $11,300
The Opportunity Cost Nobody Calculates
Every day your website underperforms, you are losing potential customers. If a better website would generate even 5 additional leads per month at $500 average customer value, that is $2,500/month in missed revenue — $30,000/year.
The agency takes 6-12 weeks to deliver. That is $7,500-$15,000 in opportunity cost just from the waiting period.
Ted delivers overnight. Your opportunity cost window is measured in hours, not months.
The Bottom Line
The cheapest option is not the lowest sticker price. It is the option that gets a high-performing website live the fastest, with the least ongoing cost and time investment. By every measure, that is Ted.
Ready to see your new website?
Ted scores your site and rebuilds it overnight. $500.