The most common question I get from business owners is some version of “how much is this going to cost me?” It’s a fair question, and most answers online dodge it with “it depends.” It does depend, but not as much as people make it sound. Here are real numbers, including mine.
I’m Jose. I run Fuegaux Design Co., a one-person web and app studio in Dallas-Fort Worth. I build WordPress sites for local businesses, and I publish my prices because I think you should know them before you ever talk to me.
What DFW designers actually charge
I went through the published pricing of several Dallas-Fort Worth web designers in September 2026. These are their numbers, not mine, and prices change, so check their pages before you rely on any of them.
- eTollFree in Fort Worth advertised a $99 build (regularly $699) with monthly plans from $29 to $159.
- Signal & Form in Grapevine listed a $1,000 starting site, a $5,000 tier, and $10,000 and up, with a $100 monthly plan.
- Bless Web Designs in Mesquite listed template sites at $750 to $1,500 and custom sites at $2,500 to $5,000.
- Connect Media in Coppell put a brochure site at $1,500 to $3,500 and a fuller small business site at $3,000 to $7,500.
- North Texas Web Design listed starter sites from $1,600 and standard sites at $3,500 to $7,500.
So going by what local designers publish, a professional small business site in DFW costs somewhere in the low to mid four figures to build, with a monthly fee on top. Under that you’re usually buying a template with your logo dropped in. Over that you’re paying for a bigger agency, a bigger site, or something custom like online ordering or a member area.
What I charge
These are my standing prices. They’re the same for everyone.
- Starter, $1,200 plus $79 a month. One long page with your services, reviews, service area, a contact form and click-to-call. Built for a solo trade or a single-location shop that just needs to show up and be reachable.
- Standard, $2,750 plus $149 a month. Up to five pages, separate pages for up to four core services, a photo gallery, and I write the copy for you after one call. This is what most businesses need.
- Premium, $5,500 plus $249 a month. Everything in Standard plus one system that does real work: online booking, online ordering, or a small store.
- Custom, from $8,500. Multiple locations, memberships, big catalogs, or connecting to software you already use.
Year one on Starter comes to $2,148. Standard comes to $4,538. Premium comes to $8,488. I’d rather you see those totals now than get surprised later.
Why there’s a monthly fee at all
A lot of owners expect to pay once and be done. Some designers offer that. Here’s what usually happens next: the site goes up, the hours change, a photo needs swapping, a plugin needs an update, and nobody’s there to do it. Two years later the site still says you close at 5 on Saturdays and the contact form quietly stopped sending emails.
On my plans the monthly fee covers hosting, the security certificate, daily backups, uptime monitoring, software and security updates, and a set amount of edit time each month for things like new hours, prices, or photos. The amount of edit time goes up with the plan.
For context, one WordPress maintenance company that publishes its research says most small businesses pay $75 to $200 a month for a plan with a real person behind it. Plans below that are usually automated updates and nothing else.
The costs that don’t show up on the quote
The build price is the part everyone compares. These are the parts that catch people:
- Your time. Somebody has to answer questions about your business, send photos, and read the draft. On my Standard plan you answer questions on one call and I write the copy, but you still have to read it and tell me what’s wrong.
- Photos. Real photos of your shop, your work, and your team make more difference than almost anything else on the page. If you don’t have any, budget for them. I’m also a photographer, so I can shoot them, but that’s a separate cost and you don’t have to use me.
- Your domain and email. If your domain is stuck in an old GoDaddy account someone else set up, getting it back can take real time. Business email is usually a separate subscription.
- Extra pages later. Every designer charges for these somehow. Ask what it costs before you sign, not after.
- Booking or store software. If your site takes appointments or payments, the booking or payment service often has its own fees. Those are yours, at your own rates, and they should be.
How to tell if a quote is fair
Price alone won’t tell you much. A cheap site and an expensive one can look the same in a screenshot. Here’s what I’d check:
- Who owns the domain? It should be you, in your name, in an account you can log into.
- What happens if you stop paying monthly? Can you take the site with you, or does it disappear?
- How many rounds of changes are included? One, two, three? Get the number in writing.
- Who writes the words? If it’s you, that’s fine, but it’s work, and it’s usually the reason projects stall.
- Can you see real sites they’ve built? Live ones you can click through, not mockups.
If a designer can’t answer those plainly, the price doesn’t matter much.
Where I fit
I’m not the cheapest option in DFW and I’m not trying to be. There are $99 sites out there, and for some businesses that’s enough. I’m also well under what a larger Dallas agency charges, because I’m one person and I don’t have an office or a sales team to pay for.
The thing I do differently is this: I build a preview of your actual site before you pay anything. Not a template with your name on it, a real draft with your business, your services, and your area. If you like it, we talk about which plan fits. If you don’t, you walk away and it costs you nothing.
I also build with AI tools, and I’ll be open about how in a separate post. The short version is that it makes the first draft faster. It doesn’t replace me reading every word, checking every fact with you, and making sure the site actually works on your customer’s phone.
See your site before you decide
If you run a business in Dallas-Fort Worth and want a website, I’ll build you a free preview first. Tell me about your business on the project form and I’ll put one together so you can see your actual site, not a template. You don’t pay anything until you’ve seen it and said yes.
You can also look through the websites I’ve built and the apps I’ve shipped first.