What a website and SEO actually cost.
Most agencies won't show you a price without a call. We publish ours, because every tier is just an hour budget at a senior rate, and we quote below whatever you're paying now. Here's the whole picture, against what the market charges.
Every tier is an hour budget at a senior rate.
We bill against a $150/hr senior rate. Price divided by $150 is the hours of senior work in your tier. Revisions and feedback rounds draw down that budget instead of being billed per round, so the question isn't "how many revisions." It's the hour cap, and that's fixed and stated up front.
You see the hours
A $5,000 Story build is ~33 hours of senior work. A $9,000 Engine is ~60. No mystery package.
Iterate freely
Rounds draw from the budget, not your wallet. We flag it before any work goes over, never after.
Always under your bill
Whatever the number works out to, we quote it below what you're paying your current SEO people.
The build, against the market.
Site
$2,500You need to look credible and get found, without an agency retainer.
Typical market: $5,000-$15,000
Story
$5,000You have content (videos, podcasts, talks) that should be working for you.
Typical market: $8,000-$18,000
Engine
$9,000You cover many services or locations and need a page for every one.
Typical market: $20,000-$40,000
Studio
$15,000+You need software, not just a website: booking, ecommerce, a portal, a dashboard, an agent.
Typical market: $15,000-$50,000
The retainer, against the market.
Care
$60/moA site that's live and healthy, not yet chasing growth.
Typical market: $50-$300/mo
Local
$300/moLocal and service-area businesses winning "near me" and the map pack.
Typical market: $500-$2,000/mo
Growth
$700/moBusinesses competing on content and authority, not just the map pack.
Typical market: $1,500-$2,500/mo
Authority
$2,000+/moBrands going for category authority: the name AI recommends.
Typical market: $3,000-$8,000/mo
AEO is in every tier, not a 30% surcharge.
Most agencies sell answer engine optimization as a 20-30% tax on top of an existing retainer, or a standalone $3,000-$8,000/mo program. We build from it instead. The schema, llms.txt, and answer-shaped copy that get you cited by ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews are in every build, and the monthly AI-traffic report is in every plan from $60/mo up.
What AEO costs elsewhereWhat the market bills separately.
The sticker is rarely the real price. These are the add-ons that show up later on someone else's invoice, and don't on ours.
The rule of the house
We always quote below what you're paying your current SEO people. Floor is $60/mo on hosting and maintenance. Tell us your current spend, we'll send back our quote. The math always works in your favour.
Pricing questions, answered.
How is Space & Story cheaper than an agency without cutting corners?
Three reasons. We built our own delivery tools (an SEO writer, a voice auditor, and a slop detector, all open-source on GitHub), so work that takes a 2019 agency weeks takes us a fraction of that, and the saving goes to you instead of a strategist's salary. We bundle the things competitors bill separately: copy, AEO, hosting, and AI-traffic tracking. And we run by a rule: we quote below whatever you're paying now.
Why do you publish your prices when most agencies hide them?
Because hiding the price is the thing buyers are afraid of. Every tier is an hour budget at a senior $150/hr rate, so you can see exactly what your money buys. If we quoted by "discovery call" you'd have no way to check whether the number was fair. Publishing it is the honest version.
What does the $150/hr rate actually mean for me?
Price divided by $150 is the hours of senior work in your tier. A $5,000 Story build is about 33 hours. Revisions and feedback rounds draw down that budget instead of being billed per round, so the question isn't "how many revisions." It's the hour cap, and that's fixed and stated up front.
Is there a setup fee or a contract?
No setup fee, and the monthly plan is month-to-month with no annual lock-in. The build is half up front and half on launch. You can step down to the $60 Care plan or leave any time, and you keep the code, the content, and the domain.
Do I have to take a monthly plan?
You need at least the floor plan for your build (Care under a Site, Local under a Story or Engine, Authority under a Studio) because a bigger site needs more upkeep. You can run on the floor and step up whenever you want, never down below it.
What if I'm not paying anyone for SEO right now?
Then the math is simpler: the Care plan is $60/mo, prepaid a year is $720, and one extra customer usually covers it. The free audit will show you what you're missing before you spend anything.
website.
Lower invoice.
Get a free 24-page AEO audit. No card. No call. Just the report.
We rebuild small business websites for AI search and keep them ranked monthly. The audit is free, the proposal comes in below your current spend, and the work is verifiable on four live case studies.