Terms
Last updated 8 September 2026. These cover the $500 website build and the $100/month care plan offered by websitesfor500.com.
The short version
$500 buys you the website. You own it. $100 a month, if you want it, buys you five minor changes and one major change each month, and you can stop any time. Nothing here is designed to trap you.
Demo sites
We sometimes build a redesigned version of a business's website unpaid, on our own initiative, and then offer to show it to them. If that's how you found us:
- It cost you nothing and it obliges you to nothing.
- The preview link is temporary — roughly 24 hours — and then comes down.
- We don't own your business name, your logo or your photographs, and building a demo doesn't give us any claim to them. We used them only to show you what a rebuild would look like.
- Until you've paid, the demo build itself remains ours.
- Ask us to delete it and we will.
The $500 website
$500 is the base price for every website we build. It covers the site as presented to you: the pages, the layout, the written copy, the prepared photography, the contact form, and getting it live on your domain.
What it doesn't cover: your domain registration, your hosting, any third-party service that charges its own fee, paid photography licences beyond what we've prepared, and any work you ask for beyond the site as shown. Additional work is priced from the pricing page, and you get the number in writing before we start it.
Ownership
Once you've paid, the website is yours — the files, the design as built for you, and the content. We don't hold it hostage, we don't require you to host with us to keep using it, and if you want to move it somewhere else you're free to at any time.
We reserve only the right to show the work we did in our own portfolio. If you'd rather we didn't, tell us and we won't.
Your material
Anything you give us — logo, photographs, text, reviews — stays yours, and you're confirming you have the right to use it. We ask because we can't verify it, and because a photograph someone else owns becomes your problem rather than ours.
The $100/month care plan
Optional, and available whether or not you take it on day one.
- 5 minor updates per month. A text edit, a simple adjustment — moving or removing a section, updating a form, creating a new email address, adding a testimonial.
- 1 major update per month. A new section, a new form, redesigning a component, or a new feature such as booking.
- Unused updates don't carry over into the following month.
- Work beyond that allowance is quoted separately before it's started.
- Cancel in any month, with no notice period and no fee. Your site stays yours and stays online.
Where a request sits on the line between minor and major, we'll treat it as minor.
Bigger projects
Integrations with systems you already run, business automation, and anything larger than a major update are quoted individually. Every quote still starts from the $500 base. We'll put the scope and the price in writing before any of it begins.
Payment
We'll agree the payment method and timing with you directly before the site goes live, and we'll confirm it in writing. We don't take card details over the phone, ever — if someone calls you claiming to be us and asks for a card number, it isn't us.
What we don't promise
We build websites. We can't and don't promise a position in Google's results, a particular number of enquiries, or a particular amount of revenue. Anyone in this trade who promises you those things is guessing, and we'd rather say so plainly than let you infer it.
We do stand behind the site working. If something on it is broken — a form that doesn't send, a link that doesn't resolve, a layout that fails on a phone — tell us and we'll fix it, at no charge, whether or not you're on the monthly plan.
Liability
We'll do our work carefully and to a professional standard. That said, our total liability in connection with the work is limited to the amount you've actually paid us, and we're not liable for indirect or consequential losses such as lost profits. Nothing here limits any liability that can't lawfully be limited.
Ending things
You can stop the monthly plan any time. If the working relationship isn't right for either of us, we'd both rather know early — say so, and we'll hand over what's yours without a fuss.
Governing law
These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Illinois.
Changes
If we update these terms we'll change the date at the top. The terms that apply to your project are the ones in force when you agreed to it.
Contact
websitesfor500.com
Chicago area, Illinois
hello@websitesfor500.com
(630) 931-2237