Free tool
When does a website pay for itself?
Four sliders, no signup, no month-one miracles: the model gives a new site three months of nothing before customers arrive, because that's the honest shape of the curve. See your breakeven month and whether the investment clears at all.
$3,000
$400
$500
2
Breaks even in
month 10
within the typical 8–14 month window
Year-1 net
$1,200
on $7,800 invested
3-year net
$15,600
the build cost never repeats
Methodology
The Assumptions, in the Open
Costs are the build (one-time) plus ongoing monthly spend — hosting, maintenance, SEO or ads. Market-rate ranges for both are in our guides to website design costs and maintenance costs, with a detailing-specific version in what a detailing website costs.
The ramp: months 1–3 contribute zero customers, steady state after. Real SEO curves keep climbing past month twelve, and the model also ignores customer value beyond the first year and referrals — three conservative choices on purpose, so a positive result here is a result you can trust.
Our interest, disclosed: we design and build websites for a living, with fixed written quotes within 48 hours of scoping. The calculator will happily tell you not to hire anyone — including us.
FAQ
Calculator Questions
Because that's how it goes. A new site takes weeks to build, then Google takes months to trust it — anyone modeling customers from month one is selling you something. The calculator assumes zero attributable customers in months 1–3 and steady state after, which is still optimistic for a brand-new domain and about right for a redesign with existing traffic.
For a local service business with a properly built site and ongoing SEO, 1–4 attributable new customers a month within the first year is a defensible range; a business in a bigger market with a budget behind the site can do multiples of that. If you have to assume 10+ from day one to make the math work, the math doesn't work.
First-year revenue from a typical new customer, including repeat visits — a $200 detail customer who returns quarterly is worth $800, not $200. The calculator deliberately ignores value beyond year one and referrals, so its output understates the true return.
At those inputs, yes — really. Fix the inputs first: either the offer is too low-value, the market too small, or the spend too high. We tell people this on sales calls too; a website that can't pay for itself is our least favorite thing to build.
Yes — no signup, no email gate. Link it, screenshot it, use it to argue with your business partner. We build websites for a living (that's the disclosed interest), and this math is the honest version of the pitch.
Collaboration
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We're a team of creatives who are excited about unique ideas and help companies to create amazing identity by crafting top-notch UI/UX.