Why we don't negotiate our website pricing, and what we do instead

Our website pricing is published, and we don't negotiate it. When a prospective client asks us for a lower number, we answer with a smaller plan built to the same standard, at a price we can stand behind for the life of the project.

That can sound stiff on first read, so this article explains where our fees come from, why we hold them, what happens when your budget is tighter than the plan you wanted, and how to get the most out of a first meeting with us. If you run a law office, a paralegal practice, a dental clinic, an accounting firm or a veterinary hospital, you price your own work the same way, and you will recognise most of what follows.

How we set our website pricing

We know how long this work takes. We have been doing it for a long time, so our fee is based on a fair price for the amount of work, effort and time a project needs, combined with the experience that goes into it.

That experience is specific. Frank Alfano, our founder and head developer, spent 33 years in Ontario courtrooms as a paralegal before he built websites full time. Jana Smith, his partner in the business, is a paralegal. Between us we know what an intake form for a regulated practice has to collect, what a privacy notice has to say, and what a client of a law office or a clinic expects to find in the first ten seconds on the page. We charge for knowing that, because it saves you weeks of explaining it.

Here is what the arithmetic looks like on our pricing page, in Canadian dollars plus HST, as of November 2026:

• A Ready-Built site, finished before you pay and customised to you on purchase, is $1,800.
• A Local Business site for shops, trades and services is $3,500.
• A Practice Website for lawyers and paralegals, with intake forms and practice-area calculators, is $6,500.
• Larger builds with client portals, payments or booking systems start at $10,000 and get a scoped, fixed-fee quote.
• Hosting for any of them is $25 a month, or $250 a year.
• Marketing plans with articles, social posts and reporting start at $1,195 a month.

Prices change with time, the same way rent and software licences do, so the pricing page is the place to check for the current numbers. What doesn't change is the method: we work out the scope, we name one price for it, and our regular rate is the same for the next client who asks for the same work.

We have written separately about how much a website costs in Canada in 2026 if you want to see where those numbers sit against the rest of the market.

Why we don't negotiate the fee

A negotiated discount only works if the first number had room in it. Ours doesn't. We price from the hours a project takes and the experience behind those hours, and we publish the result. If we quoted every client 30 per cent high so we could come down for the ones who asked, the client who trusted us would be paying for the client who haggled. That is an odd way to thank someone for trusting you.

Holding the price is also how we stay fair between clients. A family law firm in Hamilton and a dental clinic in Burlington that ask us for the same scope get the same regular rate. Neither one has to wonder whether the other got a better deal by pushing harder in the meeting.

Then there is the work itself. When a fee comes down and the scope stays the same, something else gives. Usually it is time. The testing gets shorter, the content gets less attention, and the small decisions that make a site load fast and read well get made in a hurry. You would not notice on launch day. You would notice six months later, when the contact form drops enquiries or a page you paid for never shows up in search.

We would rather tell you the honest number on day one than deliver a cheaper version of the job without telling you.

A discount travels further than you think

Charging too little has a second cost, and it shows up months later. Clients describe you to their friends the way they experienced you. A client who got the job cheaply passes your name along as the one who works cheap, and the people they send arrive looking for the same deal. Do that for a year and you have a reputation for cheap work, whatever the quality of the work was.

We would rather have a reputation for good work. When a happy client sends someone our way, we want that person to arrive expecting a fair price and a website that does its job.

What a career of flat fees taught Frank

Frank priced his work this way long before he built websites. In his paralegal practice he charged flat fees, such as $1,500 to defend a ticket for using a handheld phone while driving. Some of those trials were adjourned three or four times, and every adjournment ate up hours that nobody billed for.

That flat fee protected the client. Billed by the hour, each of those adjournments would have landed on the client's invoice, and the final number could have been far higher than anyone expected when the file opened. With a flat fee, the risk of a slow court sat with the person who knew how long these files really take.

The fee itself came from experience. Over the years Frank developed his own rates, the way a mechanic does. Each one reflected how long that kind of file takes, what it costs to run the practice and the experience behind it.

So when a client asked, "Can you do it for less?", Frank heard what the question was really asking: for him to value his time at less than it was worth. He stayed friendly and polite, and his answer was plain. This isn't really a negotiation. This is what the work costs.

Once in a while, when a client's circumstances were genuinely hard, he charged less. That was his choice to give his own time to someone who needed it, which is a different thing from being talked down.

"If I don't value my time, I can't expect anyone else to. It begins with me." Frank Alfano

We run Exhibit A Media the same way. A fixed price for agreed work protects you from the slow weeks, and it only works if we hold it. Haggling doesn't move it.

What we do when your website budget is smaller

None of this means we walk away from a tight budget. We are happy to hear it. Tell us the number in the first meeting and we will build a plan that fits it, with a scope sized to your budget and built to the same standard as everything else we ship.

We are in business to make a profit, the same as you are, and we price so that we can still be here to answer your email in three years. Inside that, there is a lot of room to work with you. In practice, fitting a plan to a smaller budget looks like this:

• We launch with fewer pages and add the rest in a second phase, when the first pages are already bringing in enquiries.
• We start you on a Ready-Built site at $1,800 instead of a full custom build, if one exists for your kind of business.
• We move you off a platform you are already paying for with our Escape Plan, at $2,500, so your monthly costs drop from day one.
• We pick individual marketing services instead of a monthly plan, so you pay for the two articles you need and nothing you didn't ask for.

Some things stay in every plan, whatever the budget. Security patching, a mobile layout that works on a phone, your own page titles and descriptions for search, and ownership of your code and domain on full payment, subject to any pre-existing and third-party licences, are part of the standard. We don't sell a version of your website without them, because that version would cost you more to fix later than it saved you at the start.

There is an old rule that holds in most trades: a job can be fast, cheap or good, and you only get to pick two. Fast and cheap won't be good. Cheap and good won't be fast. Fast and good won't be cheap. We don't give up on good, so a tighter budget means we build a little less at launch or take a little longer.

So the difference between negotiating and planning comes down to which side moves. In a negotiation, the price moves and the work quietly follows it down. In a plan, the scope moves and the quality stays where it was.

No nickel-and-diming after the fact

A fair price said once also has to be the price you actually pay. The second half of our approach is that we don't add charges halfway through a project that nobody mentioned at the start.

Before work begins, your service agreement confirms the deliverables, ownership, cancellation and handover terms. You know what you are getting, what it costs and what happens at the end. Everything outside the build, from Site Care at $95 a month to a single article at $450, is optional and priced per line, so you can see exactly what each piece costs and decline the ones you don't need.

If you ask for something new during the project, such as an extra page or a booking system you decided you want after all, we tell you the price in writing before we do the work. You decide. There is no surprise invoice at the end for "additional time", and no line that reads "miscellaneous" with a number beside it that nobody can explain.

That is also why we don't bill builds by the hour. An hourly bill puts the risk of a slow week on you, and it rewards the developer for taking longer. We explained the same reasoning for search work in how long SEO takes, and why we don't bill it by the hour. A fixed fee for an agreed scope keeps both of us focused on the result.

How to compare our price with a cheaper quote

You will probably collect more than one quote, and you should. Web design pricing varies widely, and the useful question is what each quote includes, because two numbers for "a website" can describe very different jobs.

When you lay them side by side, check who owns the code and the domain at the end, whether hosting is $25 a month or $199, whether the price includes the content or expects you to write it, and what happens if you leave. A quote that is $800 cheaper on the build and $150 a month more on hosting costs you more by the end of the first year. Our article on comparing website design quotes with one scope worksheet gives you a single page to do that comparison on, and do you actually own your website? covers the ownership questions in detail.

If our number is higher once you have done that, we will tell you plainly what the difference buys. If the cheaper quote is the better fit for your practice, we will tell you that too. We would rather lose a project honestly than win it on a price we can't keep.

Getting the most out of your first meeting with us

The first meeting is where the scope and the price get decided, so it pays to come prepared. We put together a short guide, How to get the most out of your first meeting, that we send ahead of a consultation and that anyone can request free and have emailed to them. The short version:

• Bring your number. A budget range is enough, and it lets us plan to it instead of guessing.
• Know what you want the website to do. More booked consultations, fewer phone calls asking the same question, or a practice that looks as good online as it does in person.
• Gather your logins. Your domain registrar, your current host, your Google Business Profile and your social accounts, or at least the names of the companies that hold them.
• Collect your brand files and a few websites you like, even from other industries.
• Bring the person who makes the final decision, so the plan we build together is one that can be approved.

With those on the table, a first meeting can end with an agreed scope and a fixed price, rather than a promise to follow up.

Who this approach suits

Our clients are mostly professionals who run their own practices: lawyers and paralegals first, then dentists, doctors, chiropractors, accountants and veterinarians. Many of them quote block fees or fixed fees for their own work and hold to them. A supplier who prices the same way lets the conversation move from price to the work much sooner.

If your main goal is the lowest possible number, we are probably not the right fit, and that's fine. There are capable developers who compete on price, and some of them do good work. If your goal is a website you own, built to a standard you won't have to apologise for, at a price you know before you start, we would like to talk.

Frequently asked questions

Do you negotiate your website prices?

No. Exhibit A Media publishes its website pricing, and asking for a discount doesn't change the quote for a given scope. If your budget is lower, we reduce the scope rather than the standard, for example by launching with fewer pages or starting on a Ready-Built site, so you still get a fixed price you can rely on.

What if my budget is lower than your price?

Tell us the number in the first meeting. We will build a plan that fits it, usually by phasing the work, choosing a Ready-Built site at $1,800, or picking individual services instead of a monthly plan. Security patching, a mobile layout, search basics and ownership of your code and domain on full payment (subject to third-party licences) stay in every plan. Current plan prices are on our pricing page.

Will I be charged extra during the project?

Only if you ask for something new and approve the price first. Your service agreement confirms the deliverables before work begins. If you want an extra page or feature partway through, we quote it in writing and you decide. There are no unexplained hourly charges added at the end.

Why don't you bill websites by the hour?

Hourly billing puts the risk of a slow week on the client and rewards the developer for taking longer. We quote a fixed fee for an agreed scope instead, so you know the total before work starts and we both stay focused on finishing the job well.

How much does a website from Exhibit A Media cost?

As of November 2026, builds start at $1,800 for a Ready-Built site, $2,500 for an Escape Plan rebuild, $3,500 for a Local Business site and $6,500 for a Practice Website, plus HST. Hosting is $25 a month. Prices can change over time, so check our pricing page for the current figures.

What should I bring to a first consultation about my website?

Bring a budget range, a clear goal for the website, the names of the companies that hold your domain, hosting and social accounts, your logo and brand files, and a few websites you like. If someone else approves spending, bring them too. Our first-meeting guide has the full checklist.

When you are ready, book a consult and bring your number. We will tell you what it buys.