General
How is this different from Wix or Squarespace?
Wix and Squarespace are tools you operate yourself. Templates, drag-and-drop, a learning curve, and a monthly bill forever. We're a small team that builds you a real custom website. You get the result without doing the work, and on the one-time plan, you actually own it.
Who is this for, really?
Owner-operators making roughly $100K–$1M a year: plumbers, bakers, florists, salons, contractors, solo lawyers, accountants, vets, dentists, gyms, small restaurants, photographers, mechanics. People who'd rather get back to running their shop than learn what a CMS is.
Who isn't this for?
Enterprises with stakeholder approval matrices and compliance review boards. Stores with 1,000+ products or complex inventory. People who want to be involved in every pixel decision and would be happier with a tool they operate themselves. We'd rather refer you to a better fit than take a project we can't ship.
Are you actually a small team, or is "small team" marketing?
Genuinely small. A handful of people, all of whom have built and shipped sites with their own hands in the last week. No account managers, no offshore sub-sub-contractors. When you email us, you talk to someone who can edit the code.
Pricing
What's the difference between one-time and monthly?
One-time means we build, hand you the files, and walk away. You host (~$10–30/mo paid to the host directly), you own everything, future changes are billed at a fair hourly rate.
Monthly means we host, maintain, and make ongoing edits. Cancel anytime. When you leave, we send you the code.
Can I pay one-time in installments?
Two installments, yes. 50% to kick off, 50% at launch. Three installments by request. We don't run a formal financing program.
What add-ons can I get, and what do they cost?
Two optional packages, both one-time fees on top of any plan. Brand Identity ($450) is a logo, colour palette and type system, so your business looks like a real brand. Visuals & Media ($350) is a cohesive, art-directed set of on-brand imagery, sourced or created and optimised for your site. Add either, or both for $700 and save $100. Each adds about two days. See the add-ons on the pricing page.
Is the monthly price locked in?
For the first year, yes. After that we may adjust. But we'll give you 90 days' notice and the option to switch to one-time at the price you'd have paid when you started.
What if I switch from monthly to one-time later?
Yes, anytime. Your accumulated monthly payments don't credit toward the one-time price, but the work transfers. You pay the one-time fee and we hand over everything. Mostly people stay monthly because they like it that way.
What costs aren't included?
Your domain (~$10–15/year). Hosting if you go one-time (~$10–30/mo direct to the host). Payment processing fees (Stripe's cut on Plus e-commerce). Any premium third-party tool you specifically want (Mailchimp, Calendly, etc.).
Refund policy?
One-time: full refund if you don't like the first preview (48 hours in). Partial refund based on work done after that, up to launch day.
Monthly: cancel any month, no refund on the current month. We send you the code on the way out.
Are prices in CAD or USD?
All prices on this site are CAD. We can invoice US clients in USD on request — ask in your first reply.
Do you work with US clients?
Yes. Most of our work is Canadian, but we ship the same site to a US-based bakery just as happily.
Are you Canadian?
Yes — Canadian-owned, working with small businesses from Edmonton and Chilliwack to Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Halifax, and everywhere between. We operate under CASL for all outreach.
Process
How fast is "fast" actually?
Essential: 5 days. Plus: 7–10 days. Real timelines from kickoff to launch, assuming you reply within a business day. We've shipped sites in 72 hours when a client had a launch event. We move when you move.
What do you need from me to start?
Your logo (if you have one), 5–10 photos of your business / products / space (phone photos are fine if well-lit), a few sentences about what you do and who your customers are. We'll guide on anything missing.
What if I don't like the first design?
You see a working preview within 48 hours and we iterate together until you love it. Two rounds of revisions are included on every plan. If we're three weeks in and you still hate it, we'll refund you. We'd rather walk away than ship a site you're embarrassed of.
What if I don't have logos, photos, or copy?
We help. Basic copy direction and photo guidance are included on every plan. Want it done properly? The Brand Identity and Visuals & Media add-ons cover a real logo, palette and type system, plus a full set of on-brand imagery. Either way, you won't ship a site with "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet."
What if I want to add a feature mid-build?
Small things (a new section, a different form field). We just do it. Big things (a full e-commerce store you didn't mention). We'll talk about scope and either fold it in or note it as a phase-2 add. We'd rather flex than say no.
Technical
What's the site built with?
We pick the right tool for each build. Most Essential sites are plain HTML, CSS, and a touch of vanilla JavaScript — no build step, portable to any host, and small enough that most pages load under 100KB. Plus builds with e-commerce, bookings, or dynamic content sometimes need more — typically Astro or Next.js, with Shopify or Stripe behind the cart. Either way the result is the same: clean markup, fast pages, accessible by default, and code we'd hand off to a future developer without embarrassment.
Is it mobile-friendly?
Mobile-first, not "mobile-friendly." We design and test on phones first, then expand for desktop. Every page is responsive at every size from 320px up.
Will it work on Internet Explorer?
No. IE has been retired by Microsoft since 2022. We support the last two major versions of Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and Edge. If you have a customer base that depends on something older, tell us. We'll find a solution.
Do you do SEO?
We do the technical SEO setup (clean markup, semantic HTML, fast pages, schema.org structured data, sitemap, robots.txt, OG tags, page metadata). That's the foundation Google needs. Ongoing content SEO. Writing blog posts to rank for keywords. Isn't something we sell as a recurring service.
Is the site accessible?
Yes. WCAG 2.2 AA is the floor. Every page passes contrast, has visible focus indicators, supports keyboard navigation, has semantic landmarks, and respects reduced-motion preferences. We won't ship anything that fails this.
Do you build e-commerce?
Yes, on Plus. We use Shopify or Stripe under the hood depending on what you need. For more than ~100 products or complex inventory, we'll be honest about whether we're the right fit.
Alternatives
How is pebblesites different from Wix or Squarespace?
We build it for you. Wix and Squarespace are tools you operate yourself; we deliver a finished custom site you can either own outright or have us host.
How is pebblesites different from Webflow?
Webflow is a design tool you learn; we use tools like it to build sites and hand you the result. You never have to open a CMS unless you want to.
How is pebblesites different from Shopify alone?
Shopify is great if you only need a storefront. If you want a real homepage, an about page, content sections, and a store, we build all of it together and put Shopify behind the cart.
How is pebblesites different from hiring a freelancer on Fiverr or Upwork?
Same custom output, but fixed price, fixed timeline, written agreement, CASL-compliant, and you can reach us at one address. We're a small Canadian business ourselves.
How is pebblesites different from a $10K agency?
Same custom-built outcome, 5–10 days instead of 2–4 months, no stakeholder meetings, no change-order theatre. We're built for small businesses, not enterprise procurement.
Ownership & cancellation
If I go one-time, do I really own the code?
Yes. Full source code, every file, no hidden licensing, no usage restrictions. You can move it to any host, give it to another developer, edit it yourself, sell your business and pass it along. It is yours.
If I go monthly and cancel, what happens?
We send you the code, walk you through where to host it, and unbind the site from our hosting. You owe nothing further. We'd genuinely rather lose a customer than lock one in.
Can I take my custom design with me?
Yes. Everything we built for you is yours. The design, the code, the content. We don't retain rights to client work.
Do you use my site as a portfolio example?
Only if you agree. We'll ask, and we'll be specific about how (full case study with photos, just a thumbnail, anonymous reference, etc.). If you'd rather not, say so. No hard feelings.
Support & revisions
What counts as an "unlimited small edit"?
Plain English: anything under ~30 minutes of work. New phone number, swap a photo, change a price, fix a typo, add a paragraph, update business hours. Bigger things. A whole new page, a new feature, a redesign. We'll quote separately. We've never had to be clever about this.
What if I need help with my one-time site months later?
Email us. Small fixes. Under 30 minutes. We usually do for free if it's the first ask. Bigger changes we charge a fair hourly rate ($95/hr) with no minimum. We don't sell retainers.
What's your response time on monthly?
Same-day on weekdays for most things. Within 48 hours guaranteed. If we're slammed, you'll hear that too. We don't ghost.
What if my site goes down?
On monthly, we monitor uptime ourselves and usually see it before you do. We'll fix or roll back, and write up what happened. On one-time, your host handles uptime; if it's a code issue, email us and we'll triage.
Didn't see your question?
Just ask.
A few sentences, a quick reply. We'll add the answer here so the next person can find it.