TL;DR: $2,000 is the floor for a studio website. It buys a one-page bespoke site, our design, your content, live in 7–10 days. One long page with 5–7 sections (hero, value props, social proof, services or pricing, FAQ, CTA). One round of design revisions. Mobile and desktop. One simple hero treatment with considered typography. No CMS, no blog, one contact form, SEO basics. Below $2k the math does not work for anyone shipping with a process. This tier is wrong if you need multi-page custom design, a CMS, real motion, or content support. For a founder who has copy ready and needs a credible site this week, $2k is the right call.
$2,000 is the floor for a studio website. Below that, the math doesn't work for anyone shipping with a process. Above $2,000 and you start getting into multi-page custom design, real motion, and a CMS.
Here is the honest line-item breakdown of what $2,000 buys, where the money goes, and when this tier is the wrong answer.
The one-line version
A one-page bespoke site, our design, your content, live in 7 to 10 days. No CMS. No blog. One contact form. SEO basics done right.
What is in scope
Design
- One long-page layout with 5–7 sections. Hero, value props, social proof or work, services or pricing, FAQ, CTA.
- One round of design revisions. Enough to fix the obvious, not enough to relitigate direction.
- Mobile and desktop. Both designed, tablet derived.
- One simple hero treatment. Considered typography, a clean asset, and intentional motion. Not a 3D scene.
Development
- Next.js or Astro, TypeScript, Tailwind. Modern, fast, deployable to Vercel.
- The page coded to match the design at the stated breakpoints.
- A working contact form routing to your inbox via Resend or FormSubmit.
- Accessibility foundation. Keyboard navigation, color contrast, semantic HTML.
- Performance budget. Lighthouse 95+ on desktop, 90+ on mobile.
- Responsive down to 320px.
SEO and analytics
- Meta tags, OG image, favicon set.
- Sitemap and robots configured.
- Organization schema and basic structured data.
- Vercel Analytics or Plausible wired up. Your choice.
- Event tracking on the primary CTA.
Launch
- Domain pointed, SSL active.
- Launch checklist run. 30 items, you get the document.
- One post-launch tuning week. Small fixes.
Handoff
- Source code in a GitHub repo you own.
- A README explaining how to edit content and deploy.
- A 5-minute Loom showing how to change copy.
What is explicitly out of scope at $2k
These sound like they should be included and aren't. If a studio implies them in a $2k quote, it's overpromising or about to cut corners.
- A CMS. Content lives in code files. To edit, you (or someone with Git access) opens a file, edits, redeploys.
- A blog. Add $1,500 for blog infrastructure plus the first three posts.
- Multiple page types. This is a one-pager. A second page (about, services detail) is +$500–$1,000.
- E-commerce. Stripe checkout starts at +$1,500.
- Custom illustration or 3D. Licensed imagery and tasteful motion only.
- Copywriting from scratch. We polish what you bring. We don't write your positioning from zero.
- Custom motion or scroll-driven animation. Tasteful fades, hover states, the standard stuff. No bespoke effects.
- Two rounds of design revisions. One round at this tier.
- Full SEO content strategy. SEO basics are in. A keyword strategy and editorial calendar are not.
- Any retainer or ongoing maintenance. Post-launch tuning week, then you own it.
Where the $2,000 actually goes
Roughly, by hours:
- Discovery and brief (2 hours, $200): intake call, written brief, sign-off.
- Design (10 hours, $1,000): one long-page layout, one revision round, motion direction.
- Development (8 hours, $640): the page, the form, the integrations.
- QA and launch (2 hours, $160): cross-device test, Lighthouse tuning, deploy checklist.
A studio quoting $2k and spending 50 hours is losing money. A studio quoting $2k and spending 8 hours is phoning it in. The 22–26 hour range is the honest fit.
This is the tier where the unit economics are tightest. We ship $2k projects when scope is genuinely contained and the founder is decisive on the brief. If discovery turns up that the project actually wants two more page types or a CMS, we say so before we start, not at week three.
Hidden costs you pay outside the $2k
Same recurring stack as any website project, but worth restating because at this scale they're a noticeable percentage of total spend.
- Domain: $12–$40/yr.
- Vercel hosting: $0 on Hobby (covers most $2k sites).
- Email forwarding or inbox: $0 on Cloudflare Email Routing, $6/mo on Google Workspace.
- Form backend: $0 on Resend free tier or FormSubmit.
- Analytics: $0 on Vercel Analytics.
- Stock imagery: $0 if you have your own.
Typical annual run cost: $20–$200, almost all optional.
Who this tier is right for
Three specific buyers.
1. Consultants and solo operators launching an offer. You need a real-looking site for one offer. The site exists to support a sales conversation, not to do all of it.
2. Founders replacing a bad site fast before a launch, fundraise, or hire. A weekend WordPress install isn't going to cut it for the people about to look you up. A $2k bespoke one-pager will.
3. Teams testing a new business line. You want to see if there's pull before investing more. A one-pager is enough to validate.
Who this tier is wrong for
Honest cases.
- You need a blog or CMS. Move up to $4–6k.
- You have multiple distinct services that each need their own page. Move up to $4–6k.
- You need ecommerce. This isn't your tier.
- You want motion or a custom hero scene. Move up to $6k+.
- The site is going to be your primary acquisition channel. Don't undersize it. Move up to $5k+.
If any of those describe your case, $2k is the wrong number. Don't try to compress. The result is a worse site, not a cheaper one.
How we price a $2k project
We send a written scope before signing. The scope is one page, in plain language, listing the items above. If a studio quotes you $2k without putting these in writing, that's a red flag. The scope protects both directions: we deliver what's promised, you don't ask for things outside it.
If you want a $2k site for a clear single-page brief, send us what it needs to do, when you want it live, and any references for the visual direction. We send a written scope back within a day.