How to hire a web designer without getting burned.

For a professional small-business website in 2026, here's the honest range:

$0-$500: DIY platforms. Wix, Squarespace, GoDaddy. You'll get a site. It will look like every other site on the platform. You'll fight templates instead of editing freely. SEO will be capped by the platform.

$500-$2,500: One-person freelancer or productized agency. This is where Nexora's Starter and Growth tiers live. Expect a real custom design, mobile optimization, basic SEO, a working contact form. Delivery in 1-3 weeks.

$2,500-$10,000: Boutique agency or senior freelancer. Custom design + content strategy + on-page SEO + analytics setup. 4-8 weeks delivery. Most local businesses don't need to spend this much, but the ceiling on quality is higher.

$10,000-$50,000+: Full-service agency. Strategy, design, development, content, SEO, paid media all under one roof. Usually overkill for a single-location service business. Right for multi-location, e-commerce, or VC-backed companies.

If someone quotes you $99/mo "forever" — that's the platform fee, not a website. You'll never own it.

They won't show you live sites they built. Not mockups. Not "case studies." Actual production URLs you can click. If a portfolio is screenshots only, walk.

They can't explain who owns the site after you pay. You should own the code, the content, the domain, and the hosting account. If "we host it for you" means you'd lose the site if you leave them, that's a leash, not a service.

Monthly retainer with no clear deliverables. Some agencies charge $300-$500/mo "maintenance" and do almost nothing. Either retainer covers specific work (SEO content, paid ads management, etc.) or it shouldn't exist.

They start with the design before discovery. A real designer asks about your customers, your competitors, your sales cycle, and your conversion goals first. If the first thing you see is a color palette, you're getting a template with your logo on it.

Vague timelines. "Should be done in a few weeks" is not a timeline. A real proposal has a kickoff date, milestone dates, and a launch date. With a clause for what happens if either side is late.

1. "Who owns the code and content when this is done?" Correct answer: You do. They should give you a written ownership clause.

2. "How do you measure success after launch?" Correct answer involves specific metrics (Core Web Vitals, organic traffic, conversion rate) and a follow-up review at 30/60/90 days. "We hand it off and you're set" is not enough.

3. "Can I see the last 3 sites you built in production?" Active URLs. Recent — last 6 months. If everything in the portfolio is 2+ years old, the work might be stale or staged.

4. "What's in the contract about scope changes?" Pricing per round of revisions vs. unlimited revisions. Hourly vs. flat fee for additions. This is where most projects go sideways — get it nailed down before signing.

5. "Who's actually doing the work?" At small agencies, the person you talk to is the person who designs. At larger agencies, the salesperson is not the designer. Either is fine — but know which one you're getting.

A strong web design portfolio shows three things:

Range across industries. If every site looks the same, the designer is templating. Real designers adapt visual language to the business — a luxury kitchen renovator's site should not look like a plumber's.

Performance data. "We built this and they 3x'd their leads" is a portfolio claim. Anyone can say it. Look for ones that include the actual numbers, the before/after timeframe, and ideally a quote from the client.

Recent work. Web design moves fast. A 2018 portfolio piece is fine to include, but you want to see at least 4-6 sites from the last 12 months — those reflect the designer's current taste and current toolset.

If the portfolio is one page deep and every project description is generic, you're looking at a sales site, not a real practitioner.

Solo freelancer ($500-$3,000): You get one person's full attention. They're cheap because they have no overhead. Downside: they have one set of skills (usually design OR development OR SEO, rarely all three), they take vacation, they get sick, and if they vanish, your site has no support.

Traditional agency ($5,000-$50,000+): You get a team — designer, developer, project manager, SEO specialist. Built for bigger budgets. Downside: layers of overhead, slower decisions, salespeople insulated from the work, you pay for the conference room.

Productized agency ($499-$2,500 — Nexora's model): Fixed scope, fixed price, fixed timeline. You get team-level expertise at freelancer-tier prices because the work is systematized. Downside: less flexibility than a custom-quoted project. If your needs are weird (multi-location franchise, custom integrations, e-commerce), this isn't the right fit.

For most local service businesses, productized wins. The work is similar enough across clients that systematizing it makes 80% of the project predictable, and the remaining 20% is the part that actually matters.

Before you sign:

1. Scope in writing. Page count, feature list, integrations, content origination (you write it vs. they write it). If it's not in the doc, it's not in the project.

2. Payment schedule. 50% to start, 50% on launch is industry standard for small projects. Avoid "all up front." Avoid "all at the end" — that's the freelancer's risk, not yours.

3. Revision rounds. Specify the number. Two rounds of revisions per page is normal. Anything past that is hourly or quoted separately. This prevents the project from dragging.

4. Ownership clause. "All code, content, designs, and assets become the property of [your business] upon final payment." This sentence should appear in the contract verbatim.

5. Timeline with milestones. Kickoff, mockups, build, launch — each with a target date. Plus a "what if I'm late providing content" clause and a "what if they're late delivering" clause.

6. Cancellation terms. What if you walk away after the discovery phase? After the design phase? Most agencies will refund prorated minus their time-to-date. Get the number in writing.

If a contract is two pages long with no specifics, that's not protecting either of you.