The pricing question for a custom builder website is harder than it sounds because the answer depends on how many model lines you carry, how many communities or enclaves you build in, and whether you want a content pipeline or just a brochure site. We've quoted custom builders anywhere from $2,500 to $15,000+ on the build and $60 to $2,000+/mo on the retainer. The right number is whichever tier covers the model-page count you actually need without forcing you into a pipeline you won't use. Here's the full menu, with builder-specific notes on each line.
The four build tiers, scoped for custom builders
Site, $2,500 (one-time)
Up to 8 pages. Homepage, about, three to four model overviews on a single page (not yet per-model), one community or service-area page, contact, FAQ. Foundational HomeBuilder schema, llms.txt, AI-bot allowlist, Cite-met monitoring. This is the starter for a builder doing 6 to 10 homes a year who isn't ready for the full per-model rollout. It buys you out of the Wix or Squarespace bloat without committing to the programmatic depth yet.
Story, $5,000 (one-time)
Up to 15 pages plus the programmatic layer. This is the Starlit shape: 17 core routes, 12+ per-model detail pages from one TypeScript data file, nine seed blog articles on building-science topics, six schema types layered (HomeBuilder, Product, HowTo, CollectionPage, FAQPage, BreadcrumbList), multi-step Supabase contact form. The default for an Ontario custom builder doing 10 to 20 builds a year with three to six model lines. See the full Starlit case study for the page-by-page breakdown.
Engine, $9,000 (one-time)
Up to 200+ programmatic pages with structured-data automation. Every model with floor-plan variations gets its own URL. Every community or enclave gets a Place schema page. Every service area (or municipal township) gets a localized landing. The right tier for a regional builder running 20 to 50 builds a year or rolling out a new community across multiple lot configurations.
Studio, $15,000+ (one-time)
For multi-brand operations: a parent builder with custom plus production sub-brands, or a developer running custom plus rental plus condominium. Multi-domain rollouts, embedded calculator apps (financing during construction, square-footage-to-price-band), conversational layers wired into Cite-met for lead qualification. Quoted per scope.
The four retainer tiers
Care, $60/mo
Cite-met hosting, llms.txt and schema maintenance, monthly AI-traffic tracking across six AI engines. The floor. Strictly less than what you'd pay for a basic WordPress hosting plus a Yoast subscription, and ships actual AEO infrastructure.
Local, $300/mo
Care plus one SEO post per month, local schema upkeep, and Google Business Profile sync. This is what Starlit ships on. Replaces the roughly $400/mo Wix or Squarespace line item with structured marketing return.
Growth, $700/mo
Local plus four posts per month, brand-mention tracking across the AI engines, and light link building. The right line for a builder who wants the building-science content engine running at quarterly cadence (which is the Starlit shape: nine articles per quarter, roughly three a month with light extras).
Authority, $2,000+/mo
Growth plus AEO citation-building, Reddit and Wikipedia seeding, digital PR, original research. For builders running active brand campaigns, opening a new community, or competing with a well-funded production-builder marketing team in a tight market.
The math against what you're probably paying now
Most custom builders we talk to are paying roughly $400/mo for Wix or Squarespace plus another $1,200 to $2,500/mo to a local SEO agency that ships generic dream-home copy and no schema. That's somewhere north of $19,000/yr for a site that doesn't rank, doesn't get cited by AI engines, and doesn't have per-model pages. Story tier at $5,000 plus Growth at $700/mo is $13,400 in year one and $8,400 in year two, and it ships the programmatic depth and the AEO infrastructure that justifies the marketing line on a custom-build P&L.
What about the agency quoting us $1,200/mo?
The $1,200/mo band is mostly stock-photo WordPress builds with no structured data and no AEO setup. They rarely ship per-model pages because the per-page authoring tax is too high without a programmatic data-file approach. They don't monitor AI citations because most don't know what llms.txt is. We quote below what you're paying and ship more, which is the rule of the house. See the full solutions menu for the breakdown.
What's not in the price
Photography is not in the price. If you don't have professional model photography we'll recommend a local builder photographer (most regional markets have two or three good ones) and budget $1,500 to $4,000 depending on model count. Floor plan PDFs and spec sheets we assume you already have from your architect or in-house CAD. Tarion documentation we structure but don't generate.
The rule of the house
The audit is free. We print the gap on one page (Lighthouse, isitagentready.com, AI citation count from cite-met.com) and quote below what you're currently paying. If the math doesn't work, you keep the audit and we shake hands. Get the free audit here.