2025: The Unfiltered, Uncompromising, No-Excuses Breakdown by FunkPd.

Preface: Read This or Get Eaten

If you’re shopping for a website in Winnipeg, most “pricing guides” will tell you what you want to hear: “Affordable! Flexible! Transparent!” None of them will tell you the truth. They won’t show you where the bodies are buried, or why so many businesses end up with bloated bills, unusable sites, or the privilege of paying ransom for their own email. This isn’t a guide. It’s a warning shot. If you don’t finish this page, you deserve whatever happens next.

; Most clients become prey. Agencies are the predators. Read on if you plan to survive; or avoid ever being hunted.

The Winnipeg Web Price Machine: Designed for Extraction

The local agency ecosystem is built for churn. You are not their client, you are their annuity. The $900 “starting” price? It’s bait. Once you’re in the net, you get hit with the upcharges: hosting, maintenance, support, admin access, SSL, email, “training.” Every lowball quote is a spreadsheet designed to bleed you. Every “consultation” is a script to sniff your ignorance and maximize extraction. Try to leave? You find out your domain is in their name, your site is on their server, and you own nothing but regret.

Agency sales teams are trained to escalate; page count, gallery, blog, integrations, compliance, branding, “strategy.” They use jargon to justify the unjustifiable. They’ll sell you a content plan you’ll never follow, a logo you didn’t want, and an “SEO package” that won’t rank you for your own name. When your site crashes, you’ll get an “emergency support” bill. When your email fails, you’ll pay by the hour to fix what they broke at launch.

Every dollar above zero is a test: How much can you tolerate before you revolt?

Actual Pricing: The Market Isn’t a Secret; It’s a Swindle

The numbers don’t lie, but agencies do. Here’s what you actually pay:

But that’s just the sticker price. The real cost is the bleeding that never ends: domain, hosting, support, “monthly maintenance.” Most agencies’ profit is in the recurring. If you’re paying a monthly fee for basics, you’re the product, not the client.

If you see “contact for quote,” get ready to fund their staff retreat.

Where Your Money Actually Goes: Anatomy of a Racket

• Domain Registration: $20/year. Agencies often “manage” this so you can’t leave.
• Hosting: $20–$50/month. Most agencies resell cheap shared hosting at 5x markup. They own the panel, not you.
• Plugins & Themes: $100–$500/year. Paid plugins “bundled” then you get the renewal bomb 12 months later.
• Support/Maintenance: $60–$200/month. Covers routine WP/plugin updates they should have automated. You pay for them to click “update.”
• Email/DNS: Missed or mishandled, you pay $200+/incident for fixes when leads vanish into the void.
• SSL Certificate: Let’s Encrypt is free. If billed, you’re paying a stupidity tax.

None of this is “value.” It’s just rent-seeking in disguise. You pay, they cash out, nothing improves.

Every invoice you don’t control is another lock on your own cage.

The Freelancer & Marketplace Mirage: “Affordable” Until It Isn’t

Want to “save money” with a freelancer or gig site? Here’s the usual story: You post your job, lowest bidder wins, you get a build that passes a screenshot test, then ghosted support forever. You own a half-finished WordPress or a zip file and a login you can’t recover. Updates? You’re on your own. Upwork, Fiverr, and their clones run on churn; your $1K job is one of hundreds, never touched again. Their goal is volume, not result. The site works the day it’s delivered, not the week after.

• Freelancer rates: $20–$100/hr. Typical project $1K–$3K. Every dollar above $1K is for revisions, not quality.
• Fiverr/Upwork: $200–$500 for “5 pages”; no support, no admin, no ownership. Payment buys output, not partnership.
• Ownership: Rarely included. DNS, email, and SSL are afterthoughts, not deliverables.

The “affordable” web market is the scrapyard of the digital world: you buy a used part, hope it fits, and pray you don’t have to return it.

If you’re not paying to own, you’re paying to rebuild. Soon.

Red Flags: If You See These, Run

1. “Custom Quote Required” ; They’re stalling to extract maximum value. Lack of tiers is a sign they want your wallet, not your business.
2. “Contact for Details” ; If the website hides prices, expect a shakedown in the proposal meeting.
3. Paid Training ; If they charge to explain their build, you’ve bought a locked box. Real professionals document, not monetize handover.
4. “Free Support” ; Fine print: “30 days only.” After that? $150/hr. You pay for bugs they created.
5. No Deliverables List ; Vaporware special. No checklist, no boundaries, no recourse when they “forget” a feature.
6. Brand Discovery Workshops ; Filler, not product. Used to pad hours and justify vapor invoices.
7. “No Hidden Fees” Claims ; If they shout it, it’s there. Inspect line-by-line, always.
8. Ownership Vague or Denied ; If you don’t control the panel, the domain, or the backups, you are a tenant; one missed payment from eviction.

; One red flag means more are buried deeper. If you spot any, pause and ask questions; most traps are avoidable if you catch them early.

Deliverables: What Actually Matters (And What They Never Give)

• Full admin access. No shared logins. If you can’t reset every password, you own nothing.
• Complete DNS and email setup. Not “later.” Not “ask your IT guy.” At launch, or it’s failed.
• SSL included, not upcharged. Anything less is a security breach and an SEO anchor.
• SEO basics done right. Metadata, sitemap, clean slugs, robots.txt; without this, you don’t exist.
• Page speed under 2 seconds. No excuses. If it’s slow, it’s dead on arrival.
• Automatic backups, tested forms. If either fails, you lose everything. That’s not dramatic; it’s arithmetic.

Most agencies skip these, bury them in “future phases,” or deliver only when you threaten to walk. The fewer checkboxes you tick, the more they bill.

Demand proof for every line. Trust nothing.

Pricing Breakdown by Sector: Every Industry Gets Rinsed

Every industry gets the same pitch: “Your business is unique, you need a custom build.” Truth: 90% of sites in each sector run on the same plugins, same themes, same playbook. You pay extra for their marketing, not your outcomes.

You are not special. You are a mark until you prove otherwise.

ROI: Thinking Through the Math

Contractor Web Design: The Breakeven Model

Consider the cost of a typical contractor web design package. If one new job covers the initial investment, every subsequent lead the site generates is pure ROI. A website built for local SEO in Winnipeg isn’t just an expense; it’s a lead-generation asset designed to pay for itself.

Retail & E-Commerce: Conversion Rate is Everything

An e-commerce site’s value is measured by its conversion rate. A slow, confusing site might convert at less than 1%. A high-performance rebuild focusing on speed, mobile experience, and a streamlined checkout can push that rate significantly higher. That small percentage increase doesn’t just bump sales; it can fundamentally change your business’s profitability.

Local SEO vs. Paid Ads: Asset vs. Expense

Spending thousands a year on ads is a recurring expense. Investing in a one-time website build with strong local SEO creates a long-term asset. While ads stop when you stop paying, a well-ranked site can generate organic traffic for years. It’s the difference between renting visibility and owning it.

A website should be an asset built to generate value. If it wasn’t designed for that, you paid for the wrong thing.

Ownership: The Only Thing That Matters

Control is everything. If you don’t own the domain, you don’t own your brand. If you don’t own hosting, you’re a guest in someone else’s house. If you can’t see the billing panel, you have zero leverage. Agencies will invent reasons why “it’s easier if we manage it for you”; translation: you’re in the cage.

Demand full domain control, full cPanel or WP admin, direct billing on all software, and backups you can access without asking. Anything less, you are funding your own captivity.

If you’re not holding the keys, you’re being held hostage.

Support & Maintenance: The Professional Hostage Situation

The “support plan” is the biggest post-launch trap in web. $60–$200/month for what? Updates you could automate. “Content changes” you could DIY. Every ticket is another reminder that they built a system you can’t control.

The only valid reason for a support plan is real uptime SLAs, security monitoring, or technical integrations. If you’re paying for plugin updates, you’re subsidizing their laziness.

If support is the only way your site runs, it was broken at handoff.

Tech Debt: What They Don’t Tell You About “Easy” Sites

Every shortcut at launch is a bill you’ll pay later. Most agencies deliver speed by skipping security, skipping testing, skipping proper setup. Cheap sites are unsecured, unpatched, unindexed, and impossible to migrate. The average WordPress install is a year behind on updates before you finish paying the invoice.

If you ever migrate, you’ll discover hardcoded emails, orphaned DNS, broken themes, and zero documentation.

The cheaper the site, the sooner you’ll pay to rebuild.

Seasonality: The Great Myth

There is no “off season” in real web work. Anyone offering a discount is desperate, slow, or about to ghost you after launch. Professionals charge the same price, year round, because skilled work is always in demand. “Winter deals” mean their pipeline dried up. Their next invoice is you funding their last failed project.

If you’re being offered a bargain, ask: who just fired them?

The Quote Autopsy: How to Dissect Any Offer

• Under $1K: Site-builder prison. No admin, no SEO, no support. You are renting, not owning.
• Over $10K: Demand an itemized, bulletproof breakdown. If a single $1K chunk is unexplained, that’s fluff, not function.
• SSL/DNS/Admin as Extras: That’s fraud. Walk away.
• Monthly Fees: Always ask what, exactly, is being updated or monitored. If they can’t show you, you’re being milked.
• No Control Panel: You don’t own it. You’re funding their next lease, not your growth.

Dissect every quote like it’s hiding a tumor. Most are.

What Makes FunkPd Different (And Why Everyone Else Hates Us)

• One build. One invoice. One revision. No leash, no lock-in.
• You own the domain, the hosting, the backend, the assets.
• No subscriptions, no junk fees, no forced maintenance plans.
• We don’t bill to fix our work. Done right, done once. Call us only when you want to grow, not repair.

; Most agencies hate this model. It exposes every weakness in theirs. They need you to keep paying for the privilege of not owning your own site. We only get paid once because we do it right the first time. If you just want “cheap,” call them. If you want control, call us. You don’t need to get burned to demand better.

; Buy once. Own everything. Never rent your revenue. No fear, just leverage.

After-Action Debrief: Why So Many Fail (and How Not to Be One)

; If you’ve ever paid for a “new site” only to rebuild it a year later, you’re not alone. 80% of small business owners surveyed hate their site within 18 months of launch. Most can’t migrate, can’t edit, and can’t escape. If you’re not there yet, consider this page your vaccination, not your diagnosis.

Here’s what actually works:

• Demand admin, DNS, backups, and all content at launch.
• Document everything; if it’s not in writing, it’s a promise that won’t be kept.
• Test every form, every email, every update; before paying the final invoice.
• Refuse “support” that isn’t real uptime, real security, or real analytics.
• Fire anyone who says “we’ll handle that for you later.”

; No one will fight for your business but you. If this page hits hard, good; better a bruise now than a bankruptcy later.

Sources & Further Reading

• How much does it cost to build a website in Canada? (GoDaddy)
• Canadian Website Cost Guide (2025)
• Key Small Business Statistics 2023 (ISED Canada)
• Shopify Website Cost Guide
• Web Designer Hourly Rates (Upwork)

; If you read this and still overpay, you’re not a victim; you’re choosing it. But if you use this, you’ll never get trapped again.