What will I pay beyond the website plan?

We bill a new .com at registry cost, about $11 per year. Workflow tools come with your website plan. An extra edit request is $10 after your five each month. Email and payment-provider fees depend on the services you choose.If you add the front desk to answer missed calls, you also pay Twilio for its phone line: about $1.15 a month plus call usage. You add $20 to open your own Twilio account; that balance pays for the service.

When will my site be ready?

Within 48 hours of us receiving your completed questionnaire and payment. Allow 10 to 30 minutes for the questions and another 10 to 30 to review the site. Launch waits for your approval and completed domain setup. There’s no approval deadline, but the 14-day refund window starts when we send the finished site.

Your domain, words, photos and logo belong to you whether you stay or leave. Plainsmith owns the design and code while you subscribe. A buyout makes those yours too; your account shows the price before you pay. Cancel without buying and the site comes down, but your records stay available in the free, read-only Console at plainsmith.co/console.

Is there Plainsmith branding on my site?

There’s a small “Site by Plainsmith” link in the footer. If you’d prefer to leave it off, tell us and we’ll remove it at no charge.

How is this different from hiring a freelancer?

A freelancer’s offer depends on the seller and scope. Our plan covers the writing and build, then hosting and ongoing updates. Each edit request can contain a list of changes. Compare what happens after launch as well as the initial build price.

Can I use the domain I already own?

Yes. You can keep your domain and registrar. Keep your current hosting until the new site is live at that address. If the same bill pays for email, don’t cancel the whole package: ask the provider to keep email running on its own, or arrange a working replacement first.

What happens to my email?

Already have email at your domain? You can keep that provider and inbox. Tell us who bills you for it. If email is bundled with your old website, that bill may need to continue after our site launches. Before canceling it, ask the provider to separate the email service, or arrange a replacement mailbox. We read your domain’s mail records when you send the questionnaire, before the build starts, and raise anything that needs fixing then — so by the time you approve the site, approving is the last step.For a new mailbox, create the account in your own name. Connection at launch is included: we use the setup codes from your checklist, and you finish verification. You pay any subscription directly to the provider. Zoho’s free plan covers up to five users in selected regions, through its own web and phone apps. Gmail or Outlook access needs a paid plan; Zoho Mail Lite starts at about $1 per user per month, billed annually.

Can the site take payments?

Yes. We can add buttons that link to your Stripe, Square, PayPal or Venmo account. Payments go directly to you; your processor charges its own fees and Plainsmith takes no cut. Payment buttons are included. Deposit requests use the booking tool, which comes with your website plan; a recorded payment confirms the booking.

Can customers book appointments or buy products?

For appointments, your site can book straight into the calendar in your Console, built from your working hours, or link the booking service you already use. The workflow tools that come with your plan add reminders, waitlists and rebooking; see the tool catalog. A store with a cart, inventory and shipping needs a separate written quote.

Plainsmith

Websites

Your website, finished in 48 hours and live when you approve it

How are you starting? Starting fresh Already have a site?

Start with a few questions about your business. We write the copy, design the pages and build your website on your own domain.We can start your questionnaire with details from your site, including services, hours, contact information, review links and license numbers. Reading is free and leaves it untouched.

Start my site Read my site details See the demo sites

$40/mo · no setup fee · hosting and SSL included. Cancel any time. The site goes offline when your paid plan ends unless you buy it.

Sample website · Redtail Tree Co.

redtailtree.example

Explore this website ↗

About this sample

An example, not a template. Redtail Tree Co. is not a real company. The name, the reviews and the prices are invented. The photographs are open-licence images, credited under the sample websites below; the three-panel guides showing what to photograph are illustrations we generated, and each one says so beneath it. Yours is built from your questionnaire: your words, your photos, your prices.

What comes with your website

Up to five pages, hosting, SSL and monitoring for $40 a month. Five edit requests are included each month; send one change or a list in each message. You send the updates from your account, and we make them.

How we build your website

From your answers to your finished website.

48 hoursto your first preview

Once we have your questionnaire and payment.

01You · 10–30 min

Tell us about your business

Plainsmith.

The Site Questionnaire

What do you do?Your services, in your own words.

Where do you work?Your service area.

What do you charge?Your prices.

A tree worker with a chainsaw beside fallen trunks in woodland. — Tree service sample photo

Your services, prices, area and photos go into the questionnaire. You don’t have to write the website copy.

02Plainsmith

We write and build your site

redtailtree.example

Redtail Tree Co. finished sample website on a desktop

The same Redtail sample website on a phone

Open this sample site

We check the finished pages on phone and desktop. Tadar reads every page before we send you the preview.

03You + Plainsmith

Review it before it goes live

Your preview

Ready for you
to review.

Read your pages
Check your facts and photos
Tell us what needs changing

Live on your approval.

Read your preview and send changes from your account. When you approve it, we prepare the site for launch on your domain.

What you’ll need before launch

Your photos, if you have them

Send the photos you want on the site with your questionnaire. If you don’t have any yet, we can start with stock images and replace them later.

The launch checklist

Your account shows the setup tasks that need your input, such as connecting your Google listing or supplying your payment link.

Time to review

Set aside 10–30 minutes for the preview. Check your business details and send any corrections before approving the launch.

Start the questionnaire Browse sample websites

Take a look at what we build

These are complete sample websites for different trades. Open one to explore the pages and see how it works. The businesses are invented.

Sample website ↗

Walt’s Home Repair

The small jobs go on one list, and Walt works through it in a half day.

Sample website ↗

Redtail Tree Co.

Insurance certificate offered before anyone asks.

Sample website ↗

Ninth Street Painting

$0 deposit. You pay when the work starts.

Sample website ↗

Table Mountain Washing

The halfway line in the driveway does the selling.

Find your trade ›

Demo photographs include work by Ken Dyck (CC BY 2.0), wbaiv (CC BY 4.0), Lasting Spring (CC BY 2.0), MassDOT (Public Domain Mark 1.0) and Decorative Concrete Kingdom (CC BY 2.0), via Flickr.

Your website, built and maintained for you

Website

$40/mo

Up to five pages, with your Console included. In its Forms tab, you can prepare estimates and change orders at no extra charge. No setup fee.

Or $400 a year — two months’ saving, for the same website, Console and workflow tools. Nothing is charged per tool on either plan.

Start the questionnaire

Website

Console Forms

Written and built for you

Your preview in 48 hours, once we have your questionnaire and payment. Live when you approve.
Every page written from your questionnaire
Checked on phone and desktop

Your own domain

Your domain, registered in your name. Registration costs extra: about $11 a year for a .com, with no markup.

Hosting and visitor counts

Hosting, SSL and monitoring included
Visitor counts without cookies or a tracking banner

Your customer inquiries

Contact inquiries emailed to you and saved in your account

Changes when you need them

Five edit requests a month. Each message can include a list of changes. Unlimited free edits before launch.

14 days to change your mind

Full website refund within 14 days from the day we send you your finished site, and we don’t ask why. Domain registration is nonrefundable.

Optional buyout

$499 once

Monthly plan: $459 after a $40 credit.

Buy any time.

Ask about a buyout

Take your site with you.

The buyout transfers the site’s design and code to you. We hand over the files and hosting setup within 7 days.

Your credit is what you have paid toward this month and any months ahead, which is why the two plans differ.

Monthly plan: Only the current month’s $40 counts. Previous monthly payments do not reduce the price.
Annual plan: We deduct the part of your $400 payment covering this month and the months ahead.

After a buyout, your plan ends at the end of your current billing month. You take over hosting and updates; your workflow tools stop.

Your contact form and records

Your contact form keeps emailing inquiries to you. Your Console stays free and read-only, with records you can download.

Website changes

Send the changes. We’ll update your site.

Send a note from your account whenever your website needs an update.

edit requests each month

Included from launch.

Same business day

Usually within the hour.

After your five edit requests

Wait until next month, or pay $10 for another edit request.

Choose an example

Plainsmith.Example exchange

Your message

Please change Saturday’s hours to 8am–noon, use this job photo and remove storm-damage repairs from the services page.

A tree worker beside fallen trunks; the example job photo. — Example job photo

PlainsmithUpdated

Done. Saturday’s hours, the job photo and the services page are updated.

Your message

Please remove the old price list from the services page. Put “Ask for a quote” under each service instead.

PlainsmithUpdated

The old price list is removed. Each service now says “Ask for a quote.”

Your message

Please add a page for our second location: 24 Oak Street, Wheat Ridge. It’s open Monday–Friday, 8am–5pm.

PlainsmithUpdated

The location page is added, with its hours and map. Your site now has five pages.

Your message

Please put a notice on the site: we’re closed today because the van is in the shop. Normal hours again tomorrow.

PlainsmithUpdated

The closure notice is up, with a note that normal hours resume tomorrow.

1 edit request

One message counts as one edit request.

Send a single change or put a whole list in one message.

Before launch

Edits are unlimited and free while we get your site ready.

What counts

A new page counts if your site stays within five pages. For a redesign or online store, we give you a separate written quote.

The marketing behind your website

Give people a reason to choose your business.

Your site needs to explain why someone should call you. We work on how the page reads and looks, then give you reports so you can see which pages people visit and how they found you.

Included with your website plan

Explore what goes into your website Layout & design Search & AI Visitor insights

Make it easy to ask about the job.

Someone with a leaking faucet should be able to find that service and see how to get a price without searching the whole page.

Explore this sample

Walt’s Home Repair sample homepage, with a worker measuring a board beside the headline and two contact buttons. — Walt’s Home Repair · sample website

Give search engines the right facts.

We make your services, area, hours and prices readable on the page and in its structured data. A public business fact sheet gives AI assistants another way to read the details you’ve confirmed.

Your launch checklist also walks you through connecting your Google Business Profile.

Where you rank is not something we control.

Google and AI services decide what to show. Our job is to give them clear, accurate information about your business.

Your business facts

From your answers

Services: The work you take on
Service area: The towns you serve
Hours & prices: The details you confirm

Your pagesSearch dataAI fact sheet

The same business details, available in more than one format. Your AI fact sheet lives at /llms.txt.

See where the visits come from.

Your account shows page views, popular pages, visitor locations and the leading sites that referred people. That includes AI referrals when the visit identifies its source.

See which pages get attention and whether visitors come from the places you serve. Identified bots are kept out of those totals.

Referral traffic shows visits to your site. It doesn’t tell us every time an AI mentions your business.

Visitors came from

Last 30 days

Page views by referring site

google.com42

facebook.com18

chatgpt.com6

Illustrative report, not customer results.

Keep track of every inquiry.

When someone fills out your contact form, you get an email and a saved copy in your account.

You can also download a contact list of people who’ve agreed to hear from you.

Follow up while you’re on the job.

Optional tools can reply to new inquiries or ask customers for a Google review after the work is done.

The workflow tools come with your website plan, on monthly or annual billing, and we help you set up the ones you switch on. There is no per-tool charge and no tool subscription.

Explore workflow tools

The owner’s side

The console, with the engine running.

Your website plan includes the Console shown here. See who’s waiting for a reply and what’s booked, with each customer’s messages and job details kept together.

Explore the Console ↗

Opening your Console

Owners open this by signing in at yourdomain.com/console with the console key from your welcome email. The same key opens it at plainsmith.co/console, which does not depend on your site being up. The Console tab then appears in your site’s own menu, on that phone or laptop. It shows for you and nobody else: a customer on the same page sees your site and nothing more.

The businesses in our 21 trade demos are invented. Each has a site you can explore, so you can see how the writing and layout fit different kinds of work.

waltshomerepair.example/console

Try the tabs. This is the sample Console, with sample data.

Email and getting paid

Email at your domain

Keep your business email.

info@yourdomain.com

Already have email?

Your email stays with your current provider. We check its setup before your website moves.

Need a new mailbox?

Create your own account with Zoho and put the setup codes in your launch checklist. At launch, we use those codes to connect the mailbox. You finish by verifying it with Zoho.

Email checks and mailbox setup at launch are included.

Email options and costs

Payments on your site

Get paid directly.

Plainsmith’s cut

Your provider’s processing fees still apply.

Payment buttons included

Send us your payment link. We add it to your site so customers pay into your own account.

Stripe · Square · PayPal · Venmo

Payment and booking options

Questions and answers

What will I pay beyond the website plan?: We bill a new .com at registry cost, about $11 per year. Workflow tools come with your website plan. An extra edit request is $10 after your five each month. Email and payment-provider fees depend on the services you choose.

If you add the front desk to answer missed calls, you also pay Twilio for its phone line: about $1.15 a month plus call usage. You add $20 to open your own Twilio account; that balance pays for the service.
When will my site be ready?: Within 48 hours of us receiving your completed questionnaire and payment. Allow 10 to 30 minutes for the questions and another 10 to 30 to review the site. Launch waits for your approval and completed domain setup. There’s no approval deadline, but the 14-day refund window starts when we send the finished site.
What do I own?: Your domain, words, photos and logo belong to you whether you stay or leave. Plainsmith owns the design and code while you subscribe. A buyout makes those yours too; your account shows the price before you pay. Cancel without buying and the site comes down, but your records stay available in the free, read-only Console at plainsmith.co/console.
Is there Plainsmith branding on my site?: There’s a small “Site by Plainsmith” link in the footer. If you’d prefer to leave it off, tell us and we’ll remove it at no charge.
How is this different from hiring a freelancer?: A freelancer’s offer depends on the seller and scope. Our plan covers the writing and build, then hosting and ongoing updates. Each edit request can contain a list of changes. Compare what happens after launch as well as the initial build price.
Can I use the domain I already own?: Yes. You can keep your domain and registrar. Keep your current hosting until the new site is live at that address. If the same bill pays for email, don’t cancel the whole package: ask the provider to keep email running on its own, or arrange a working replacement first.
What happens to my email?: Already have email at your domain? You can keep that provider and inbox. Tell us who bills you for it. If email is bundled with your old website, that bill may need to continue after our site launches. Before canceling it, ask the provider to separate the email service, or arrange a replacement mailbox. We read your domain’s mail records when you send the questionnaire, before the build starts, and raise anything that needs fixing then — so by the time you approve the site, approving is the last step.

For a new mailbox, create the account in your own name. Connection at launch is included: we use the setup codes from your checklist, and you finish verification. You pay any subscription directly to the provider. Zoho’s free plan covers up to five users in selected regions, through its own web and phone apps. Gmail or Outlook access needs a paid plan; Zoho Mail Lite starts at about $1 per user per month, billed annually.
Can the site take payments?: Yes. We can add buttons that link to your Stripe, Square, PayPal or Venmo account. Payments go directly to you; your processor charges its own fees and Plainsmith takes no cut. Payment buttons are included. Deposit requests use the booking tool, which comes with your website plan; a recorded payment confirms the booking.
Can customers book appointments or buy products?: For appointments, your site can book straight into the calendar in your Console, built from your working hours, or link the booking service you already use. The workflow tools that come with your plan add reminders, waitlists and rebooking; see the tool catalog. A store with a cart, inventory and shipping needs a separate written quote.

Start your site

Quickest path is the full questionnaire — ten to thirty minutes, depending on how thoroughly you fill it in, and the 48 hours start once we have it and your payment. Don’t have even the ten right now? Leave two sentences here instead and we will pick it up by email.