Every Charge You Could Ever
Get From Us, on One Page.
Build fees split in two or three. Care billed on the 1st, Net 15. Ad spend paid directly to Google and Meta, never through us.
Every charge is agreed in writing before the work happens. You will never get an invoice for something nobody told you about.
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The complete list
Five things. That is the entire list, and it has not changed. That is the whole list, if a charge is not one of these, it is a mistake and we want to know.
Build fee
Split at kickoff and launch. A third at kickoff on Growth.
Fixedquoted before you sign
Monthly care
The 1st of each month, starting the month after launch.
Fixedby product
Build modifiers
A store, a portal, a directory. Quoted with the build, at kickoff.
Fixedplus added monthly care
Work beyond your care allowance
Only when you ask for it, and only after you approve the quote.
$350up to 2 hours, or $175 for 1
Things bought for you
A premium plugin, a stock license, a domain. Listed before we buy anything, never a surprise line.
Cost + 5%card and transfer fees, itemized
Ad spend is not on this list, because it never touches us. See below.
Build fees
Split so you are never paying for work that has not happened. Half at kickoff, half at launch, or three ways on Growth, because it is a longer build.
| Product | Total | How it splits |
|---|---|---|
| Marquee | $2,000 | $1,000 at kickoff · $1,000 at launch |
| Presence | $2,500 | $1,250 at kickoff · $1,250 at launch |
| Foundation | $5,000 | $2,500 at kickoff · $2,500 at launch |
| Growth | $12,000 | $4,000 at kickoff · $4,000 at day 45 · $4,000 at launch |
Three things worth knowing
- “At launch, or on the published launch date.” The final payment is due when the site goes live, or on the published launch date if it has not, because a build that stalls is almost always waiting on assets from your side, and we cannot carry that indefinitely. If a delay is ours, the clock does not run.
- Build modifiers follow the same split. A $1,500 store added to a Foundation build simply increases both halves.
- Pay in full if you prefer. Some people would rather have one invoice. No discount for it. We would rather publish one honest price than pretend a prepayment discount is a favor.
Monthly care
Billed on the 1st of each month, Net 15. Your first invoice comes the month after launch, not the month you signed.
| Product | Monthly | What the step buys |
|---|---|---|
| Marquee | $50 | Hosting, CDN, SSL, backups, security, updates, monitoring, support |
| Presence | $250 | All of the above, plus listing and uptime monitoring, and 1 site update a month up to 20 minutes |
| Foundation | $500 | All of the above, plus monthly local SEO, citation maintenance, rank tracking and reporting, and 2 updates a month up to 30 minutes |
| Growth | $1,000 + 20% of ad spend | All of the above, plus ad management, lead scoring and automation, with 6–16 support hours by spend level |
One price per product now
We used to offer two care levels per engine, “$250 or $500, pick your level”, and it was a bad idea. Nobody could tell what the difference bought, which meant everyone guessed and half of them guessed wrong.
One price per product, with the differences written out above. If you are on an old two-tier arrangement, your rate is honored until you tell us otherwise. Nothing changes on an existing client without a conversation first.
Every level gets the same infrastructure, same hosting, same security stack, same backups, same monitoring. There is no tier where your site is less protected. The step buys work, not safety.
What we will never charge you for
Worth publishing, because several of these are standard practice elsewhere.
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A markup on your media spend
Our 20% is a management fee on its own invoice, not a markup. You pay Google and Meta directly on your own card, so you can open their billing summary and check what they charged. A markup is when the agency buys the media and hands you one blended number you cannot verify. That is the difference, and it is worth knowing which one you are paying.
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Licenses for tools we use on every client
The stack we reuse across clients costs you nothing. Anything bought specifically for your site is billed at cost plus 5%, listed before we buy it. That 5% is the card and transfer fee we pay to make the purchase, not a margin.
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Adding pages yourself
Every site ships with a pattern library. Build new pages whenever you like, free, forever.
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Setup, onboarding or project management fees
Those are the cost of doing the job. Charging separately for them is a way of making a quote look smaller than it is.
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An exit fee, or a charge to get your files
You own it from day one. Leaving costs nothing and we hand over everything.
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Anything you did not approve in writing first
No line appears on an invoice that you have not already seen and agreed to.
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If it is not on the list of five, it is not a charge.
Several of these are standard practice elsewhere, which is exactly why they are written down here.
How you pay
Everything runs through Stripe. We never see or store your card details.
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Credit and debit
Visa, Mastercard, Amex, Discover.
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ACH bank transfer
Lower fees on larger invoices. Worth using for build payments.
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Auto-pay
Optional, and we recommend it for monthly care. One less thing to remember, and no late-payment conversation.
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Check
Ask. It slows things down, but we are not going to refuse a check.
Every invoice shows
- An invoice number and both dates, issued and due
- Itemized lines, so you can see what each charge is for
- The ad management fee broken out separately, on Growth
- A pay-online link, and a PDF you can download for your records
Invoices go to your billing email and stay available afterwards. Ask any time and we will resend one.
If a payment is late
Almost always an expired card. Here is exactly what happens, so nobody has to wonder.
- Day 1Automatic reminderYour card failed or the invoice went unpaid. An email goes out. Ninety percent of these are fixed in a minute by updating a card.
- Day 7Second reminderStill automated. Nothing has changed on your site.
- Day 14We call youAn actual phone call, not a threatening email. If something is going on, this is the conversation where we sort it out.
- Day 30Non-essential work pausesSEO work, ad management, updates and change requests stop. Your site stays online, your backups keep running, and your security monitoring stays on. We do not take a business offline over an invoice.
- Day 60A real conversation about what happens nextBy this point we have called twice. If we cannot reach you at all, we will write to you about ending the arrangement and hand over your files.
No late fees. Call us instead.
We do not charge late fees. If money is tight, tell us before the invoice is past due and we will work something out, a payment plan, a pause, a smaller care level for a few months. Every one of those is easier than chasing you.
Businesses have hard months. We would rather keep a client through one than collect $25 for the privilege of annoying them.
Canceling and refunds
Monthly care
30 days notice, by email so we both have it in writing. Your care ends at the close of that billing cycle. We do not prorate a partial month, and we do not bill you for another one.
You keep the site, the domain, the ad account and the data. We hand over a final backup of files and database, remove ourselves from your Google Business Profile and ad accounts, and tell you what you need to know to host it elsewhere. There is no exit fee and nothing is withheld.
Build fees
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Before kickoff
Full refund of the deposit. If you change your mind in the first few days, that is fine and it costs you nothing.
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After kickoff
Prorated against work completed. Design and build hours already spent are not refundable, and we will show you what they were.
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Third-party costs
Non-refundable once purchased. Domains, client-specific licenses, anything bought in your name.
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If we failed to deliver
We make it right. That means finishing it or refunding it, and we would rather finish it.
Care ends when you say so. Nothing auto-renews into a term, because there is no term.
Sales tax
Michigan does not tax most services, so a website build and monthly care are not taxed. Physical goods are, printed material, yard signs, tap cards, tents. Where tax applies it appears as its own line on the invoice.
If you are tax-exempt or buying for resale, send your exemption certificate before we invoice rather than after, because fixing it afterwards is a credit note and a conversation.
Your accountant is the right source for what you owe. We are the right source for what we charged you and why.
Straight answers
When does my first monthly invoice arrive?
The month after launch, on the 1st. Care starts the day the site goes live, not the day you signed. You are never paying to host a site that does not exist yet.
Can I pay the whole build up front?
Yes. No discount for it. We would rather publish one honest price than dress a prepayment up as a favor.
What does “at launch, or on the published launch date” actually mean?
The final build payment is due when the site goes live, or on the published launch date if it has not. A stalled build is almost always waiting on assets from your side and we cannot carry it indefinitely. If the delay is ours, the clock does not run, and we will say so rather than make you argue it.
My card failed. What happens to my site?
Nothing, immediately. You get a reminder, then another, then a phone call at two weeks. Non-essential work pauses at 30 days, but your site stays online and your backups and security monitoring keep running throughout. We do not take a business offline over an invoice.
Do you charge late fees?
No. If money is tight, call before the invoice is past due and we will work something out. That is a genuinely better outcome for both of us than a $25 fee.
Can I change care levels?
Up any time, effective the next invoice. Down is a real conversation, dropping from Foundation to Presence means the monthly local SEO work stops, and rankings decay when nobody tends them. We will tell you honestly what you would be giving up rather than just processing it.
Why is the ad management fee different every month?
Because it is 20% of what you actually spent, not 20% of your budget. Spend less, pay less. It is broken out as its own line and you can check it against your Google billing summary in about a minute.
Will you ever raise my price?
Not without telling you well in advance and explaining why. If it happens, existing clients get notice and the option to leave with everything, same as always. We have not done it yet and we are not planning to.
Can I get an invoice made out to my company or my accountant?
Yes. Send the exact business name, address and billing email you want on it and we will set it up so every future invoice is right.
What if I dispute a charge?
Call us before you call your bank. A chargeback costs us a fee and costs you a working relationship, and almost every dispute we have seen anywhere is a misunderstanding that a five-minute call would have fixed.
Something on an invoice you do not recognize?
Call. Every charge is supposed to be something you agreed to in writing first, so if one is not, it is our mistake and we will fix it.
Mon–Sun, 9am–9pm ET · Waterford, Michigan
Related: client onboarding · request a change · pricing
- Published pricing
- Month to month, no minimum term
- You own everything
