How much does a website cost in Ottawa?
Ours starts at $499 CAD one-time for a custom hand-coded build, plus one flat monthly plan from $59. That is from $1,207 all-in for year one, or $4,087 if you want the SEO work with it. Written, fixed quote before anything starts.
What this guide will not do is tell you what everyone else in Ottawa charges. We have not verified their numbers, and we do not publish figures we cannot stand behind. What we can do is show you ours in full, and explain exactly what moves them.
Updated 2026-08-11 · all prices CAD
The one-time cost: from $499.
A custom website, designed and hand-coded, is a one-time project. Ours starts at $499. We are a new studio still building our portfolio, and every build runs on one of our monthly plans for its first year - one team building the site AND running it. Those two things together are why the one-time number sits where it does.
“From” is doing real work in that sentence. It is a starting rate, not a flat price: the written, fixed quote depends on how big and how complicated the site is. The three things that move it are below.
What the build price covers
- Custom design and hand-coded development - no template, no page builder
- Yours to own: you can take the code anywhere, no platform lock-in
- On-site SEO foundations: page titles, structured data, clean URLs
- Built mobile-first, because most local searches happen on a phone
- A listed profile on the Ottawa Service Directory, our own homeowner directory
- Ready for your review within 14 business days of the scoping call
$59, $299 or $388 a month. Nothing else.
A website is not finished when it launches - it needs hosting, an SSL certificate, backups, security updates and someone to change the copy when your prices change. That is the $59 plan. The two above it add the work that gets you found, and then the work that answers the people who find you.
| Plan | Monthly | What it adds | Year one all-in |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hosting & Care | $59CAD / month | Managed hosting and SSL, backups, security monitoring and updates, two content-edit requests a month, priority support. | $1,207$499 + (12 × $59) |
| Hosting + SEO | $299CAD / month | Everything above, plus on-page and technical SEO, local search and Maps 3-Pack work, Google Business Profile management, local citations, and monthly ranking reports. | $4,087$499 + (12 × $299) |
| Hosting + SEO + AI Agents | $388CAD / month | Everything above, plus the AI front desk on your site: chatbot and smart-form lead capture, automatic booking, missed-call text-back, review follow-up, and lead alerts to your phone. | $5,155$499 + (12 × $388) |
Year one all-in = the $499 build plus twelve monthly payments. The build price is a starting rate, so a bigger site moves the one-time half of that sum - your written, fixed quote settles it before anything starts.
One optional extra exists: the AI voice Receptionist, which answers your phone 24/7 with 200 voice minutes a month, is +$199/mo on the $388 plan. It is the only add-on, and it is not required by anything.
Wondering what the SEO half of that is buying? How much does SEO cost in Ottawa breaks the $299 down line by line - including what no budget can buy.
Three things, and only three.
If your written quote comes back above the starting rate, it will be for one of these. We would rather you could predict that before the call than be surprised by it after.
How many pages
A five-page site for one trade in one city is not the same job as thirty service and neighbourhood pages. Pages are the single biggest driver of a build quote, and the easiest one to estimate honestly on the scoping call.
Features beyond a standard build
Multi-step quote calculators, member areas, gated content, online payments, a booking flow with real availability - each one is software, not a page. They get scoped and priced separately so you can see what each is costing you.
Integrations
Connecting your site to a CRM, a calendar, a payment processor or an inventory system means building against someone else's API and testing it. Straightforward, but not free, and it varies by what you already run.
Two other things change the timeline rather than the price: whether your words and photos are ready, and whether we are migrating an existing site with its URLs and redirects intact. Both get settled on the scoping call, in the written spec, before a date is agreed.
What “request a quote” leaves you doing.
Most web design pricing in this city is a form. That is a defensible choice - scope really does vary, and a flat number for every project would be a guess. But it moves the work of finding out onto you, and it is worth being clear-eyed about what that costs before you fill in three of them.
None of this means a studio without published prices is hiding something. It means you cannot tell yet - and that is the part a published starting rate fixes in about thirty seconds.
Without a number on the page
- You cannot compare two studios without booking two calls.
- You cannot tell whether you are in the right shop until you are already in a sales conversation.
- You cannot budget the ongoing cost, which is usually the larger number over three years, until the build is already being discussed.
- You have no way to check later that you were quoted the same as anyone else.
Our answer is to do both. The starting rate is published so you can compare us against anyone. The fixed quote is still written down before work begins, because that is the number you actually pay.
The follow-up questions.
Is $499 really the whole price of a website?
It is the whole build price, and it is a starting rate rather than a flat one - the written, fixed quote depends on the size and complexity of the site. What $499 is not is the whole first-year cost, and we would rather say that plainly than have you find out later. Every build runs on one of our monthly plans for its first year, which is part of what makes that build rate possible. On Hosting & Care at $59 a month that is $1,207 all-in for year one; on Hosting + SEO at $299 a month it is $4,087. Both numbers are on the pricing page and both are confirmed in writing before we start.
Why do most web design agencies not publish a price?
Usually because scope genuinely varies, and a single number for every project would be either a guess or padded. That reasoning is fair. The cost of it lands on you, though: without a published figure you cannot tell whether a studio is in your range without booking a call, and comparing three of them means three calls before you have seen a single number. Our answer is to do both - publish the starting rate so you can compare us in seconds, and still put the fixed quote in writing before anything begins.
What is not included in the build price?
Anything outside your plan gets a quick written quote first, never a surprise line on an invoice. Concretely: content edits beyond the two small requests a month included with every plan, new features or pages added after launch, and custom software - internal tools, apps, dashboards and integrations are scoped and quoted per project rather than folded into a website build. Ongoing SEO is a plan, not a build extra: it is the difference between the $59 and $299 monthly plans.
Is SEO extra on top of the website?
It is a different monthly plan rather than an add-on line. Hosting & Care at $59 a month keeps the site fast, patched, backed up and supported, but it does not include SEO. Hosting + SEO at $299 a month includes the hosting and the SEO in one figure - on-page and technical work, local search and Maps, your Google Business Profile, citations, and a monthly ranking report. It also works on a site you already have; you do not need to buy a new build to get it. The SEO portion is month-to-month.
Can I just use a website builder instead?
Sometimes, honestly, yes. If you need a single page to hold a phone number and you are comfortable building it yourself, a DIY site builder will do that and you should not pay an agency for it. What you are trading is your time, a template other businesses can buy, and the technical control that local SEO actually runs on - structured data, page structure, speed, clean URLs. If the website is meant to bring you work rather than exist, that control is the part that matters, and it is the part a builder does not hand you.
What happens after the first year?
Your plan is cancel-anytime after year one, and the SEO and AI portions are month-to-month from day one. The site is yours either way - it is hand-coded and you own the code, so there is no platform holding it hostage if you leave. Practically, what you would be giving up is the managed hosting, the backups and updates, the support, and whichever of the SEO or AI work you were on.
Does the price change if I am outside Ottawa?
No. Ottawa and Gatineau are where most of our work is and where we know the local search landscape best, but the build price and the monthly plans are the same for service businesses elsewhere in Canada and the United States. The one thing that is genuinely local is SEO: the competition, the directories and the map pack differ by city, which is something we look at on the scoping call rather than price differently.
Now you know the number. The quote is free.
Tell us what you do, how many pages you think you need, and where your work comes from today. You get a written, fixed price before anything starts - and if a new site is not the thing standing between you and more work, we will say so.
Building from scratch is web design in Ottawa. Already have a site that simply is not being found? SEO in Ottawa is $299/mo on the site you already own, hosting included. Every price on this page lives on the pricing page too.
Prefer to browse first? All guides