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What kind of custom software do you build?
We build focused web-based software for a defined workflow: client portals, internal dashboards, staff tools, intake and approval flows, reporting views, and practical tool connections. It's the Software add-on on top of the Website Plan, quoted monthly per project from $99 a month, with the software's hosting, database, and upkeep included. We do not offer native mobile apps or open-ended consumer software products as a general service.
What are add-ons, and what do they cost?
Add-ons are monthly extras on top of the Website Plan. Ordered with the plan when you sign, each costs about half, and stays that price for as long as you keep it: an extra page ($5), a blog ($8), menu setup ($8), copywriting ($13), online booking ($13), review requests ($13), quote intake ($18), text and email follow-up ($18), an AI chatbot ($25), a customer list or email marketing ($13), a starter shop ($40), and a full online store ($65). The lead-system bundle (booking, review requests, follow-up, and the chatbot) is $60 when you sign. Service add-ons, like faster replies or a monthly content update, are about half price on your first order too. Added later, an add-on is the full price: an extra page $10, a blog $15, menu setup $15, copywriting $25, online booking $25, review requests $25, quote intake $35, text and email follow-up $35, an AI chatbot $49, a customer list or email marketing $25, a starter shop $79, a full online store $129, and the bundle $119 instead of $134. Software and Custom design are quoted per project. An add-on you order later joins your next monthly charge: a build add-on runs at least three months, and a service add-on stops at the end of any month.
How long does a project take?
A Website Plan site is typically live within 2 weeks. Month 1 starts the day it launches. If you need it sooner than that, a rush launch is a one-time fee of 25% of the build value on your order form, when our schedule allows it.
Why do I pay three months up front?
It covers the design and build, so you don't pay a large bill before you have a site. The first three months ($297 for the Website Plan) are paid when you sign, before we start; those are months 1 to 3 of your plan, not an extra charge. If you started with a Google Business Profile Quick Start, an AI-Built App Check, or a Spreadsheet-to-Tool Check, up to $60 of its fee is credited toward those three months if you sign within 60 days.
Can I cancel?
Yes. After your first three months, stop at the end of any month, with no exit fee. A build add-on you order later runs three months from the day it goes live; stop it sooner and the rest of its three months is due. A service add-on stops at the end of any month. Your price can't go up during your first 12 months.
Is the free check-up really free? What's the catch?
It's free, and there's no catch. You enter your business details and website, get an automated first-pass audit right away, then can book a free 15-minute call if you want to talk it through. Sometimes the recommendation is to keep things simple and not hire us yet. If a plan makes sense, we'll name it plainly and you can decide from there.
Do I own my website?
Your domain, words, photos, and data are yours from day one, and the domain transfers to you whenever you ask. The website or software we built becomes yours after 24 paid months. Want it sooner? A buyout is the build value left, which shrinks every month you pay and is on your order form, available once your first three months are paid. After 24 months the plan carries on at the same price for hosting and care, or you cancel and take the files, free. NorthHead keeps its reusable tools, templates, and code libraries.
Can I buy my website outright instead?
Yes, through the buyout. Pay the first three months ($297), then buy out the build value left; for the Website Plan on its own that's about $953 in all, and the site is yours. Afterwards, keep hosting and care on the plan at the same monthly price, or take the files and host it anywhere. With add-ons, your buyout is on your order form. Or stay on the plan: the site becomes yours after 24 paid months anyway.
Is hosting included? Where does my site live?
Yes. Hosting on our server is part of the Website Plan, with nightly off-site backups we check restore, uptime monitoring, and security updates, so there's no separate hosting bill. Your domain is included too, registered in your name. If you leave after buying the site out or after 24 paid months, you take the files and can host them anywhere.
Can I add things or upgrade later?
Any time. An add-on you order later is its full price and joins your next monthly charge: more pages, booking, review requests, a store, or a Software add-on for a custom tool. A build add-on runs at least three months; a service add-on, like faster replies or Google Business Profile upkeep, stops at the end of any month. Add-ons on your first order cost about half, so it's worth telling us what you might want before you sign.
Do I get basic SEO, or do I need a separate SEO service?
Every Website Plan includes basic on-page SEO: page titles and descriptions, a sitemap, clean headings, fast mobile pages, and your Google Business Profile hours and contact details kept matching the site. Ongoing local SEO, regular work to climb in local results, is separate: Google Business Profile upkeep, a monthly SEO & speed report, and content updates are monthly add-ons from $18 a month on your first order, and you can stop any of them at the end of any month.
Are you local? Can we meet in person?
Yes. NorthHead is owned and run on the Long Beach Peninsula by Riley Aschoff, who builds every site. Riley works with businesses across Pacific County and in Astoria and Warrenton, and is happy to meet at your shop, job site, or over coffee. You can also call or text, or book a free 15-minute call.
What if I don't like the design?
You see a finished preview before your site goes live and get to give feedback and request changes. Your month 1 starts at launch, once you've approved the preview (or after 30 days if we haven't heard back). The exact revision terms are written into your order before work starts, so there are no surprises on either side.
Do your prices include sales tax?
No. Every price on this page and in your order is before sales tax. Washington taxes website, software, and search-marketing work as retail sales, so Washington sales tax is added to each invoice as its own line, at the rate for where you receive the service. Outside Washington (Astoria, for example), there's no Washington sales tax.
How do I pay: monthly or yearly?
Monthly by autopay (a card or bank account on file, through Stripe), or one invoice a year for the price of 10 months, so two months free. You can pay a year at a time from the start, instead of the first three months, or at any renewal. Stop partway through a year you've paid and we refund the rest, less the discount on the months you used.
Can I edit my website myself?
There's no editor to learn. Send us the change — new hours, prices, text, or a photo — and it's made within three business days. We don't count small edits; fair use is about an hour of edits a month in total. Bigger changes are quoted first at $75/hour, or covered by the Extra time add-on ($65 a month for an hour). Faster replies are an add-on: two business days ($25) or next business day ($49).
What happens if my site gets hacked?
If a site we host is hacked, we clean it up and restore it from the latest clean backup at no extra charge. If the break-in came through an account you control, like a shared password, the clean-up is quoted first.
Will you take over a website someone else built?
We rebuild it on the Website Plan rather than look after the old one, so you get a site we can keep secure, fast, and current. Your words, photos, and domain come across.
What if you're unavailable?
Your domain and accounts are yours, and every site we host is backed up nightly off-site. A written continuity plan names an emergency contact who tells you what's happening and keeps your site running.
What does it cost to leave?
After your first three months, nothing: stop at the end of any month with no exit fee, and take your domain, content, and data with you. A build add-on you order later runs three months from the day it goes live; a service add-on stops at the end of any month. To keep the site itself before the 24-month mark, you buy it out for the build value left; if you cancel without a buyout, the site comes down at the end of your last paid month. After 24 paid months, the site is yours and you can take the files, free.
Are AI API or software costs included?
When AI is part of an add-on, its setup, configuration, testing, training, and upkeep are in the add-on's monthly price. Ongoing vendor usage (AI, texting, the booking tool, the store platform) is separate and stays in your own accounts by default. If you want NorthHead to hold and pay those accounts for you, that is the Managed operations add-on ($5 a month, or 5% of the bills we carry if that's more, when it's on your first order; $10 or 10% if you add it later), and your order states the exact monthly allowance, spend cap or alert threshold, and overage treatment. The allowance is billed on top, so it never eats into the time your plan pays for.
What does “practical AI” actually mean? Will a robot talk to my customers?
It means small, owner-controlled tools: an assistant that answers common questions using only information you approve, drafts for review responses, and tidy organization of quotes and inquiries. Every project is assessed for where automation would genuinely help — and AI is included only where it solves a real problem for your business, never as a gimmick. You stay in control, with real people handling anything complex or sensitive. The chat bubble on this site is exactly this kind of tool — try it.
We're not very technical. Is that a problem?
Not at all — most of our clients aren't. We explain everything in plain language, build systems around how your business already works, and include training so you're comfortable with anything you need to touch. You'll never be handed something you don't understand.