Pricing
Every price, on the page
£375 for one page, £499 for up to five, £799 for up to ten, and the renewal cost written down before you buy. No quotes, no "starting from", no phone call to find out what it costs.
- Nothing is taken until you have seen your design and approved it
- 12 months hosting included, then £15 a month, stated on every tier
- The site and the domain are in your name, transferred free on request
- A domain is £13 a year, registered in your name rather than ours
Two sizes, plus a bespoke option for anything bigger. All three are designed around your business, and you see it before you pay.
Starter
£499
Paid once. No monthly fee for 12 months.
For a business that needs to look real and be findable, without a page for every service.
- Up to 5 custom pages, designed for your trade
- Contact form and tap-to-call on every page
- Google Business Profile set up properly
- 12 months hosting, then £15 a month
- Live within 7 days of approving your design
Complete
£799
Paid once. Everything in Starter, with room to grow.
For a business that wants to be found for each service it sells and each town it covers.
- Up to 10 custom pages
- A page for each service and each town you cover
- Booking or enquiry system, connected to your email
- Local search set-up, and the words written for you
- 12 months hosting, then £15 a month
Bespoke
From£1,500
Priced after a 15-minute call.
For anything with a login, a database or a connection to software you already run.
- Custom system, CRM or customer logins
- Connects to the software you already use
- Built on the same foundations, so it stays fast
- Hosting included while we work together
Only need one page? A single-page site is £375, with the same free design first and 12 months of hosting. There is no VAT to add to any of these prices: we are not VAT registered, so the price you see is the price you pay.
If you don't like it, you walk away
Your design is made and shown to you before any money changes hands. If it isn't right, say so and we part company. If it's close, tell us what's wrong and we change it, because that's part of the price and not an extra.
Domains are £13 a year. That's the whole story
The same £13 every year, not 99p now and £22 later. Registered in your name, not ours, and transferred to you free whenever you ask. If you already own one, we point it at your new site and charge you nothing.
What happens after the first 12 months
Hosting is included for a year. After that it's £15 a month, and here's exactly what that does and doesn't buy, so nobody has an awkward conversation later.
£15 a month covers
- Hosting, security certificates and daily backups
- Uptime monitoring, so we know before you do
- Up to 30 minutes of text or photo changes a month
- Price and opening-hours updates, done the same working day
£15 a month doesn't cover
- New pages, or a redesign of an existing one
- New features: booking systems, shops, customer logins
- Connecting other software to your site
- Support for software we didn't build, including your email
Those are quoted before we start, and most small jobs come in around £75. You'll always know the number before we touch anything.
The care plan is optional. If you would rather take your site elsewhere at the end of the 12 months, we hand over the files and the domain and charge you nothing for it.
What £499 buys, next to the alternatives
Typical costs at the time of writing, for a small business with five pages and no shop.
| Website builder | Design agency | Consult Optio | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What you end up with | A template you build yourself | A custom site, properly done | A custom site, properly done |
| Cost in year one | £120 to £200, plus your weekends | £3,000 and up | £375 to £799 |
| Cost in year two | £120 to £200 | Hosting and retainer, typically £40+ a month | £180 |
| Time until it's live | However many evenings you give it | 6 to 12 weeks | 7 days |
| Who actually builds it | You do | A designer, through an account manager | The designer |
| Your domain | Often free year one, then £15 to £25 | Usually held by the agency | £13 a year, in your name |
Builder and agency figures are typical UK prices and will vary. We've used the mid-range rather than the worst example we could find.
How paying actually works
You see the design first
We build a real design of your homepage and send it to you. Nothing has been taken at this point and you aren't committed to anything.
You pay when you approve it
One payment by card, Apple Pay or Google Pay, handled by Stripe. The seven days start here.
Nothing else for 12 months
The £15 care plan is set up at the same time but doesn't charge for a full year, and you can cancel it before it does.
The questions that decide it
Do I actually own the website?
Yes. The site is yours and so is the domain, registered in your name. If you ever want to move to another designer or host it yourself, we hand over everything and charge you nothing for it.
Do I have to pay anything to see a design?
No, and we don't ask for card details to start. You tell us three things about your business, we build a real design of your homepage, and you decide from there.
What counts as a page?
Anything with its own web address: a home page, a service page, a town page, an about page, a contact page. Starter covers up to five, Complete up to ten. If you need more than ten, that's a conversation before you pay rather than after.
How many changes do I get?
Two rounds of changes to the design before we build, and 30 days of free changes once the site is live. After that the care plan covers 30 minutes a month, and anything bigger is quoted first.
What if I don't like the design?
You walk away and it costs you nothing. The design deliberately comes before any payment so this decision is easy. If it's close but not right, tell us what's wrong and we change it.
Can I edit the site myself?
Most people would rather email us a photo and have it done within the day, which the care plan covers. If you would rather do your own changes, say so at the start and we build it so you can.
What happens if I stop paying the £15?
We email you before anything happens, twice. If you want to leave, we transfer the site and domain to you free. If a payment simply fails, the site stays up while we sort it out with you.
Is the £13 domain really the same price every year?
Yes. There's no cheap first year followed by a painful renewal. The only thing that could change it's the registry raising its own price, and if that happens we tell you before your renewal rather than after.
Do you work outside Essex?
Yes. We're based in Basildon and can meet you anywhere in Essex or east London, but the whole process works by email and phone and plenty of it does.
See your design before you spend anything
Four quick questions, about two minutes, and you see the real thing before any money changes hands.
Free. No payment details. You'll have a reply within one working day.