No games, and no surprises
Every man in this trade has been surprised by a bill. What follows is every number we have, including the ones you would pay somebody else, so that none of them is a surprise later.
The site
$75
an hour
Invoiced weekly. No deposit, no cap, and no fixed price.
Your domain
Under $15
a year
Your name. Your address. Your control. We paid under eleven dollars for ours, at cost, with nothing added on top.
The assistant
From $20
a month
In your name, on your card. This is the one real monthly and we say it out loud.
You will see the number before we start the work. Always.
Two ways in
Take the whole job, or take an afternoon
Both are the same rate underneath. The difference is how much you commit to before you have seen how we work.
The work itself
Hourly, invoiced weekly
You see it as it happens rather than in one lump at the end, and you can stop it any week you like.
- No fixed price
- No cap
- No deposit
- Nothing charged for being on call. Ongoing work is bought as hours
What we will not do is put a total on your job before we have looked at your job. A produce stand and a construction outfit are not the same work.
Or start small
$225 the setup session
Three hours, sat with you and whoever keeps your information up to date. We work on what you already have. Whichever of these you need is what we spend it on:
- Going through what is on your site now, and what ought to be
- Setting up your own Claude account, in your name, on your card
- Teaching your person to use it on your own information
- Getting a first office job running, if that is what you came for
The Claude account is part of the session, and it is a subscription in your name on your own card. We tell you what it costs when you book, not when we arrive, so you can say no before anybody drives anywhere.
Travel is charged on top of the $225. You will be told what it comes to before we set a date, the same as everything else.
No new website, and no commitment past the afternoon. It is the minimum, not a deposit against something bigger. Plenty of people will start here, find out how we work for the price of an afternoon, and decide about the rest afterwards.
Before you have to ask
What it costs to keep running, after we are gone
This is the part that usually gets discovered at signup instead of said out loud. So here it is, out loud.
| What | Roughly | Whose name it is in |
|---|---|---|
| Your domain name | Under $11 a year for ours, bought at cost | Yours |
| Domain and business email together | Around $100 a year | Yours |
| The assistant that lets your own person change the site | Starts around $20 a month | Yours |
| Anything payable to Stoltzfus Web & Office, monthly | Nothing, and there never will be | — |
Read that third line rather than skipping it. It is a real monthly bill and it is the only one. It goes in your name, on your card, and you can cancel it without telling us. We say the price in the conversation, before you sign up for anything, because finding it at checkout is exactly the thing this business exists to stop.
On hosting: we aim to get your site onto hosting that costs you nothing, and we have done it. It is a design target, not a promise, because it depends on your site and it is not ours to guarantee.
Charged as its own job
Office work is quoted on its own
The back office work is real work and it is quoted separately, every time. It is never folded into a setup session and it is never assumed because you asked about a website.
One thing we will not do
No savings figure until you show us a bill
What a man thinks he pays for his website and what he actually pays are usually two different numbers. We are not going to put a savings figure in front of you built on a guess, and anybody who does is selling.
Bring the actual invoice. Then we can talk about it honestly, and that conversation is free whether you hire us or not.
Straight answers
The questions we get asked
Why hourly, and not a fixed price?
Because a fixed price on a job nobody has looked at yet is a guess with a number on it, and one of us has to lose. When it comes in over, the corners get cut. When it comes in under, you paid for hours nobody worked. Hourly with a weekly invoice means you see it as it happens and you can stop it any week you like.
So what is this going to cost me in total?
We will tell you once we have looked, and not before. That is the whole point of the first call. What we can tell you today is the rate, and that you will be invoiced weekly, and that there is no deposit to find up front.
Can I stop partway through?
Yes, and you would not be walking away empty handed, because every account is already in your name from before the work started. You pay for the hours worked to that point and you keep everything.
What happens if something breaks after you have gone?
You call, and it is billed at the same hourly rate. There is no free first call and there is no support contract. We would rather be straight about that now than have you assume otherwise and be annoyed later.
Do I have to buy the office automation as well?
No. It is quoted as its own job and plenty of people take the website and none of the rest of it. You will not be sold something you did not ask about.
Do you take a deposit?
No. The first invoice comes at the end of the first week of work, for the hours in that week.
Start by finding out what you pay now
Call and we will look at your current bill with you. It costs you nothing, and you may well find out something worth knowing about your own accounts.