Promise 01
Every build starts blank
No template, no theme, no page builder. If two Northcraft sites ever look alike, we have broken our own rule and you can hold us to it.
Web design studio · Ottawa
No templates, no themes, no page builders. Every Northcraft site is written by hand for one business, quoted at one flat number, and owned outright by you the day it launches.
What we do
Most small businesses get handed two bad options: a template thousands of others already use, or an agency bill that keeps growing after the invoice. We built the third option. Every site starts from a blank file, gets written by hand, loads fast without plugin bloat, and belongs entirely to the business it was made for. One flat number, agreed in writing before any code exists.
Services
Five things, done properly
Written down, not implied
We started in 2025, so we have not been around long enough to ask anyone to take our word for it. Instead, here is what we commit to before you spend anything. Every one of these is in the agreement, not just on the website.
Promise 01
No template, no theme, no page builder. If two Northcraft sites ever look alike, we have broken our own rule and you can hold us to it.
Promise 02
The quote is agreed in writing before work starts and it does not move. Asking questions never costs extra, and no line item appears after launch.
Promise 03
Domain, hosting, files and logins are in your name from the start. If we never speak again after launch, nothing breaks and nothing gets held back.
Promise 04
A real homepage designed for your business, free, before an invoice exists. If it misses, you walk away and it cost you nothing but the form.
Measured live · this page · your visit
We can't show you a decade of clients yet. We can show you that this page, hand-written with no plugins, loads faster than almost anything you opened today. These numbers are read from your own browser right now. Reload and they measure again.
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Load time
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Page weight
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Requests
Read from the browser Performance API on this visit. No cached benchmark, no screenshot of a score from a good day.
The process
You find out whether we are any good before money changes hands. That is the whole reason the process is built this way.
Step 01
A short form, about two minutes. No payment details, no call required, no sales sequence afterwards.
Step 02
A real design for your business, researched properly, not your logo dropped onto a stock layout. If it misses, you owe nothing.
Step 03
Design, copy structure, mobile layouts and SEO fundamentals, hand-written. One flat quote and a timeline agreed before it starts.
Step 04
Live on your own domain. Every file, login and account documented and transferred into your name.
The awkward questions
Fair question, and the honest answers are more useful than a wall of testimonials we haven't earned yet.
Then your website keeps running, because it was never dependent on us. Your domain, hosting and files sit in accounts registered in your name from day one, and the site is plain hand-written code rather than something locked to a platform or a proprietary editor. Any competent developer can pick it up. That is deliberate, and it is the single biggest reason a new studio is a low-risk choice rather than a high-risk one.
You see a finished homepage designed for your actual business first, at no cost and with no obligation. That is a far better signal than a portfolio, because a portfolio shows what somebody else got. The concept shows what you would get.
It is different rather than riskier. You get one person who knows the whole project, which means nothing gets lost between a designer, an account manager and a developer. What you do not get is a large team available at short notice, so if you need round-the-clock support or a build across several countries, we will tell you plainly that we are the wrong fit.
Revisions are part of the quoted price, not billed extra. If it still is not right and we cannot fix it, you keep everything produced and we part on good terms. We would rather lose a project than have a bad build carrying our name on the internet.
Ottawa, Ontario, and the studio file on the about page lists it plainly. Everything runs remotely, so businesses across Canada work with us the same way, but there is a real person in a real city on the other end of the email.
How we work
No templates. No hourly billing. No lock-in. No blind buying. You see a real homepage designed for your business before you pay a dollar, and if it misses, you owe nothing and you walk.
About the studioNever hourly
New website
$1,500
CAD · One flat price
For a business with nothing online yet, or something old enough that starting clean is faster.
Website rebuild
$950
CAD · Most common
For a site already live that looks dated, loads slowly, or falls apart on a phone.
Care plan
$45
CAD · Per month · Optional
Edits, updates, hosting and monitoring handled. Cancel anytime, keep everything.
Stack audit
$250
CAD · Standalone
Every subscription you pay for, inventoried and ranked by what it costs you.
No "starting at." No discovery call just to find out the price. Half to start, half at launch.
Services
A small studio that does five things well beats a large one claiming twenty. Everything below is priced on the page, quoted flat, and delivered by the same person who designed it.
What we build
Service 01
$1,500
CAD · flatFor a business with nothing online yet, or something old enough that starting clean beats repairing. We research your trade and your competitors, write the page structure, design from a blank file and hand-code the result. Typically three to five pages, live in two to three weeks.
Service 02
$950
CAD · flatFor a site already live that looks dated, loads slowly or falls apart on a phone. We keep what works, including your content and any ranking you have earned, and rebuild the rest. Most redesigns cut page weight by more than ninety per cent, because most of what slows a site down is software nobody asked for.
Service 03
Included
With any buildA foundation, set up once and set up right, rather than a monthly retainer with no end date. For an Ottawa trade or service business, a properly configured Google Business Profile usually does more than the SEO fee they already pay. We will not promise you first place on Google. Nobody can honestly promise that.
Service 04
$45
CAD · per monthOptional, and genuinely optional. Your site works without it and you keep everything if you cancel. It exists because most owners would rather send an email than log into a dashboard, and because somebody should be watching whether the site is up.
Service 05
$250
CAD · standaloneMost small businesses run four to nine paid tools that overlap. Each was sold separately, in a different year, by a different salesperson, and nobody has ever looked at them together. We inventory every subscription, price the waste and hand you a plan ordered by savings. If we find under $250 a year, the fee comes back.
The next step
Describe the business in two minutes and we will tell you honestly, including when the answer is that you do not need us yet.
Guarantees
A studio with ten years behind it can point at a client list. We started in 2025, so we do this instead: four commitments made before you spend anything, each written into the agreement you sign, each with a stated cost to us if we fail it.
The problem with promises
It costs nothing to say and it binds nobody. A promise only means something when it names a specific behaviour and breaking it has a consequence you can point at. That is the bar we tried to clear below. If a line on this page is not also a line in the agreement you sign, it should not be here, and we would want to hear about it.
Four promises
Promise 01
No template, no purchased theme, no page builder. Your layout, type scale and components are drawn for your business and used nowhere else.
Promise 02
The quote is fixed in writing and does not move. Asking questions never costs extra. Revisions inside the agreed scope are included, not billed.
Promise 03
Domain, hosting, analytics, search console and source files are registered in your name and handed over documented. If we disappeared tomorrow, your site keeps running.
Promise 04
A real homepage, designed for your business and researched properly, arrives before an invoice exists. Not a template with your logo dropped in.
Money, stage by stage
Most studios ask for a deposit to start designing. We do the first two stages before any money moves, which is why the free concept is the business model rather than a promotion.
Stage 01
The enquiry
A short form about the business. No call required, no payment details.
$0
At risk
Stage 02
The concept
A real homepage designed for you. Say no and nothing further happens.
$0
At risk
Stage 03
The build
You have approved a design you can see. Half the quote starts the build.
50%
Deposit
Stage 04
Launch
Live on your domain, accounts transferred, files handed over.
100%
Paid in full
Two of four stages are complete before you are asked for anything. That is deliberate, and it is the part of this page we would most like you to check us on.
Not just marketing
Extracted from the standard Northcraft project agreement. Plain wording, because a clause you cannot read is a clause you cannot hold us to.
All design and code supplied under this agreement is produced originally for the Client and is not derived from a commercial template, purchased theme or visual page builder.
The fee stated in the quotation is fixed for the agreed scope. No additional amount becomes payable unless the Client has approved a variation in writing beforehand.
Domain, hosting, analytics and search accounts are registered in the Client’s name. On launch the Studio provides written handover of all credentials and source files.
The initial homepage concept is provided at no cost and with no obligation. No invoice is issued and no payment information is collected before the Client approves that concept in writing.
Should the Studio be unable to deliver work the Client accepts, the Client retains all material produced to date and no further sum becomes payable.
Pricing
No “starting at.” No discovery call just to find out what it costs. No hourly rate that makes asking a question expensive. One flat quote per project, agreed in writing before any work begins.
Four ways to work with us
New website
$1,500
CAD · one flat price
Website rebuild
$950
CAD · most common
Care plan
$45
CAD · per month · optional
Stack audit
$250
CAD · standalone
How payment works
You see a finished homepage concept before either one. Nothing is invoiced until you have approved something real.
Before
The enquiry and the concept are free. No deposit to be designed for, no payment details collected, no obligation of any kind.
To begin
Once you have approved a design you can actually see, half the agreed quote starts the build. The other half is not due until launch.
At launch
Due when the site is live on your domain and every account has been transferred into your name. Not before.
Ongoing
Domain renewal is roughly $20 a year. Hosting is free at your traffic level. The care plan is optional and cancellable anytime.
Pricing questions
Because the hardest part is already done. You know what your business says, which pages it needs and who it is talking to. A new build has to work that out from scratch, which is research time rather than design time.
Then we quote it properly, still flat and still in writing before anything starts. E-commerce, booking systems and multi-language sites sit outside these numbers. Ask and we will tell you a real figure rather than a range.
Domain renewal, roughly $20 a year, and hosting, which is free at your traffic level on the setup we use. That is genuinely it. There is no licence, no platform fee and nothing that expires.
Not inside the agreed scope. Adding something that was never quoted is a separate piece of work with its own number, agreed before it starts.
The standard split is already half and half. If that does not work, say so at quoting stage and we will find something reasonable. We would rather do that than lose a good project over cash flow.
About
Northcraft exists because the two options most small businesses are offered are both bad, and because a website should belong to the business whose name is on it.
The studio
Northcraft started in Ottawa in 2025. The idea was narrow on purpose: build websites by hand, for one business at a time, at a price written on the page.
Most small businesses get pushed toward a template platform, where they pay a subscription forever for something thousands of others already use, or toward an agency, where the invoice keeps growing after the work stops. Neither leaves the business owning much. Templates lock you to a platform. Agencies often keep the accounts.
So the model here is deliberately old-fashioned. Fixed quote, agreed before anything starts. Work you can see before you pay for it. Every account registered in your name from day one, so the relationship continues because it is working rather than because leaving is difficult.
It also means we say no fairly often. If a business needs an enterprise platform, a team on standby, or something we have not built before, we will say so rather than learn on your budget.
What we believe
01
Faster on day one and slower every day after. You inherit code written for everyone, carry features you will never use, and pay a subscription to keep renting it. Hand-built is more work once and less work forever.
02
Most slow sites are slow because of what was added to make building them easy. Writing the code yourself is how a page ends up at 70 KB instead of 2.4 MB, and weight is the difference between a visitor and a bounce.
03
Hiding it behind a discovery call is a negotiating tactic, not a service. If a number is fair, it survives being published. Ours are published.
04
Accounts in your name, plain code, no proprietary editor. If you can walk away at any moment and lose nothing, every month you stay is a choice rather than a trap.
Where we work
The studio is in Ottawa and most clients are here, which matters more than it sounds: local search, bilingual expectations and Ontario accessibility rules are things we deal with constantly rather than look up. Everything runs remotely, so businesses elsewhere in Canada work with us exactly the same way. There is a real person in a real city on the other end of the email, and the reply comes within one business day.
Contact
Tell us about the business and we will design a homepage for it, free, before any invoice exists. No call required, no payment details, and no sales sequence afterwards.
The form
Services Custom websites
Service 01
New builds, designed from a blank file
$1,500
CAD · one flat priceFor a business with nothing online yet, or something old enough that starting clean beats repairing it. We research your trade and your competitors, write the page structure before any design happens, then draw and hand-code the result. Three to five pages is typical, live in two to three weeks.
What is included
Fit
A good fit if
Probably not if
How it runs
Step 01
A short form about the business. No call required and no payment details.
Step 02
A finished homepage designed for you, free. Approve it or walk away.
Step 03
Remaining pages, mobile layouts, search setup. Half the quote starts this.
Step 04
Live on your domain, every account transferred, balance due.
Questions
Three to five, which for most trades and service businesses is home, services, about and contact. If you need more, we quote the extra pages before starting rather than after.
No. We structure every page and draft it. You correct the voice and the facts, which is far easier than starting from a blank document.
Then we build to them. If you do not, we work from what your industry expects and what your competitors are not doing.
Two to three weeks from concept approval, and most of that is waiting on content and feedback rather than on us.
Services Redesigns
Service 02
Modernise the site you already have
$950
CAD · one flat priceFor a site already live that looks dated, loads slowly, or falls apart on a phone. We keep what works, including your content and any search ranking you have earned, and rebuild everything underneath it. Most redesigns cut page weight by more than ninety per cent, because most of what slows a site down is software nobody asked for.
What is included
Fit
A good fit if
Probably not if
How it runs
Step 01
We go through the current site, its speed, its structure and what it ranks for.
Step 02
A redesigned homepage using your real content, free, before anything is agreed.
Step 03
Pages rebuilt by hand, redirects mapped, accessibility corrected.
Step 04
Switched over on your domain with rankings intact, balance due.
Questions
Not if the redirects are done properly, which is why they are a line item rather than an afterthought. Every old URL points to its new equivalent before the switch happens.
Because the hardest part is already done. You know what your business says, which pages it needs and who it is talking to. That is research time we do not have to spend.
No, and that is deliberate. Staying on a page builder means keeping the thing making the site slow. We move you to hosting you own outright.
Nothing. Email runs separately from the website and we do not touch it, though we will check the DNS records so it keeps working after the move.
Services Local SEO setup
Service 03
A search foundation, set up once and set up right
Included
With any buildA foundation, set up once, rather than a monthly retainer with no end date. For an Ottawa trade or service business, a properly configured Google Business Profile usually does more work than the SEO fee they are already paying. We will not promise you first place on Google. Nobody can honestly promise that, and anyone who does is selling something.
What is included
Fit
A good fit if
Probably not if
How it runs
Step 01
What you currently rank for, what your competitors rank for, and the gap.
Step 02
Business Profile rebuilt: categories, areas, photos, services, questions.
Step 03
Titles, schema, sitemap and internal structure written into the build.
Step 04
Console and Profile in your name, with a short guide on keeping it current.
Questions
Yes, with any new build or redesign. It is a few hours of work that changes the outcome of the whole project, so charging separately for it would be strange.
No. We set the foundation and tell you honestly what ongoing work would and would not be worth it. If you need a specialist, we will say so.
Business Profile changes can surface within days. Anything involving the site itself is usually weeks, and anyone quoting you a precise date is guessing.
Then that is the highest-value thing you can fix, and the review flow is the part of this to use first. Reviews move local ranking more than almost anything on the site.
Services Care plans
Service 04
Hosting, updates and monitoring after launch
$45
CAD · per month · optionalOptional, and genuinely optional. Your site works without it, and you keep everything if you cancel. It exists because most owners would rather send an email than log into a dashboard, and because somebody should be watching whether the site is up before a customer tells you it is not.
What is included
Fit
A good fit if
Probably not if
How it runs
Step 01
The plan starts the day the site goes live, or any time after.
Step 02
Any change, any time. Text, photos, prices, a new service.
Step 03
Turnaround for standard edits, usually the same day in practice.
Step 04
One email. Hosting moves to you and nothing breaks.
Questions
Text, images, prices, hours, adding a service, swapping a photo. Building an entirely new page or feature is a separate quote, agreed before it starts.
You keep the site, the domain and the files, all of which were already in your name. We help you point hosting wherever you want, at no charge.
Yes. At the traffic level a small business site sees, hosting costs are negligible on the setup we use, so bundling it is simpler than billing it.
No. That is the point of calling it optional. Plenty of clients launch, never take a plan, and their site runs fine for years.
Services Stack audits
Service 05
Every subscription you pay for, priced and ranked
$250
CAD · standaloneMost small businesses run four to nine paid tools that overlap. Each was sold separately, in a different year, by a different salesperson, and nobody has ever looked at them together. We inventory every subscription, price the waste and hand you a plan ordered by savings. If we find under $250 a year, the fee comes back.
What is included
Fit
A good fit if
Probably not if
How it runs
Step 01
What you pay for, or read-only access to billing. About twenty minutes.
Step 02
Real annual costs, renewal dates and who inside the business owns each one.
Step 03
Overlap map and a consolidation plan ordered by savings, in five business days.
Step 04
Thirty minutes to walk through it. No obligation to do anything after.
Questions
Partly, and we would rather say so. If the report finds your site is the problem, we build sites. But the most common first action out of an audit is cancelling something, not buying anything.
Then the report says so and the fee comes back. We would rather refund $250 than invent savings that are not there.
No. No affiliate links and no referral fees anywhere in the report. If that ever changed it would be written on this page.
Yes. Book a build within ninety days and the $250 comes off the quote in full.
Northcraft · Ottawa · Since 2025