Northwest Indiana
Websites for local businesses, built properly.
One price, paid once, with no monthly fee. Everything is in your name from day one. I build new websites and fix old ones.
Valparaiso, Chesterton, Portage, Crown Point, Merrillville, Michigan City and La Porte.
Example Plumbing Co., one of five demo builds. Open it →
Based in Porter County, working across Northwest Indiana.
The work
Five example builds you can open right now.
Each one is a complete, working site, with photos, a contact form that works, and pages that load fast and read well on a phone. Open them and try the forms. This is the standard I build to, not a mockup.
Lawn care
Example Lawn Care
Open the site →
Plumbing and heating
Example Plumbing Co.
Open the site →
Restaurant and bakery
Example Kitchen & Bakery
Open the site →
Hair salon
Example Hair Studio
Open the site →
Remodeling
Example Remodeling Co.
Open the site →
Your trade isn't here?
These five cover what most local businesses need. Tell me what you do, and I'll show you the closest thing I've built.
These are demonstrations, not clients. Every business shown above is invented, and each site says so at the top. I'm new to this, and I'd rather show you honest examples than pretend to have clients I don't have yet.
Pricing
Paid once. No monthly fee.
I quote before anything starts. You pay half up front and the rest when the site goes live. You pay for your domain and hosting directly, at their prices, so no monthly fee comes to me.
Opening offer, and then it stops
My first five clients pay $349 instead of $499. In return, I'll ask for a short testimonial if you're happy, and permission to show your site here as an example. That's the whole deal, and the site is yours either way.
I'm asking for those two things because they're what I'm short of, not because the work is worth less. After five clients, the price goes back to $499.
Not sure which one you need? Watch the same customer use both.
Already decided? Order online: pick a package, pay the deposit, no call needed.
Digital Starter
$499
- A single page covering everything a customer needs
- Works properly on a phone
- Tap to call and a contact form
- Secure connection set up
- Two rounds of changes included
No monthly fee paid to me
Smart Business
$899
- Everything in Digital Starter
- Several pages, including services and a gallery
- Your photographs edited, cropped and sized so pages stay fast
- Set up so AI assistants can find and quote you, not just Google
- Set up so you appear correctly in local search
- Three rounds of changes included
No monthly fee paid to me
Growth Support
Custom quoted per job
- Larger builds and anything unusual
- Ongoing edits, so you don't have to touch the code
- Seasonal updates to hours, prices and photos
- Optional, and cancelable whenever you like
Only if you actually want it
What a domain and hosting cost you. A .com is about $11 a year, paid to the registrar. For most small business sites, the hosting is free. Both are in your name, on your card, so you can move everything elsewhere any day without asking me.
Your options
Three ways to get a website.
All three are fair choices. The right one depends on what your time is worth and how much you want to own.
| Build it yourself | Hire an agency | Dunes Web | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Up front | $0 to $200 a year | $2,500 to $10,000 | $499 to $899, once |
| Ongoing | $15 to $30 a month, forever | Often a monthly retainer | About $11 a year for the domain. Nothing to me. |
| Your time | Twenty to forty hours, and it shows if you rush it | Meetings, briefs, approvals | One conversation and a checklist |
| Upkeep | On WordPress, plugin and theme updates that can break things. | Usually a monthly retainer, whether you needed anything or not. | Nothing to update, so nothing breaks on its own. Changes are $45 when you want one. |
| Who owns it | You, but locked to that builder's platform | Varies. Read the contract carefully. | You, outright, from day one |
| If you leave | The site stops existing | Sometimes a fight over the domain | Take the files and go. No conversation needed. |
| Who you talk to | A help center article | An account manager | Me, the person who built it |
If a website builder works for you, use it. I'd rather tell you that than sell you something you don't need. I'm worth the money when you don't have twenty spare hours, or when you've tried and it still looks like you tried.
Already have a website?
Keep the reputation. Replace the website.
If your site was built years ago and hasn't been touched since, you don't need to start over. You just need the site to catch up with the work you already do.
- Your email keeps working. Mail records are preserved when the hosting moves, so nothing goes dark during the switch.
- Your old page addresses still work. Every one is redirected, so existing Google results and customer bookmarks keep landing in the right place.
- The "not secure" warning goes away. A proper HTTPS certificate, set up and renewing itself.
- It works on a phone, which is where most people will find you.
A two-minute check you can do right now
Open your own site on your phone and ask three questions:
- Can you read it without pinching to zoom?
- Does the browser show it as secure, not "not secure"?
- Are your hours and prices still right?
If any answer is no, a refresh fixes it.
How it works
How a build works.
We talk about your business
What you do, who calls you, and what you want visitors to do. It usually takes about twenty minutes.
You get a fixed quote
Before any work starts, I put it in writing: what's included, and what would count as extra. You pay half up front and half when the site goes live. The full scope and terms are published, so you can read them first.
I build it
You see it on a private link and tell me what to change. Changes are included, up to the rounds in your package.
It goes live in your name
I set up the domain and hosting on your accounts, with your logins. You get everything, including how to reach me if something goes wrong.
You own all of it, from day one
The domain, the hosting account and the files are all yours. I don't hold anything hostage, and no contract keeps you here.
If you ever want to move to someone else, or run it yourself, you can do it without asking me. That's the point.
Original research
I opened 538 local business websites on a phone.
Before I built any of this, I checked the market. I opened every independent business website OpenStreetMap lists in Lake, Porter and LaPorte county, all 538 of them, and ran sixteen checks on each.
Of those, 85 were down. Of the 427 that were up, 112 passed every check. The method and the numbers are published, including what I got wrong the first time.
Read the 2026 audit Check your own site, free
What I found in each town:
Questions
The things people actually ask.
Is $499 really the whole price?
Yes, for what the Digital Starter package lists. The only other cost is about $11 a year for your domain, paid by you, straight to the registrar. Hosting for a site this size is free.
If you ask for something outside the package, I tell you the price first and you decide. Nothing shows up on an invoice as a surprise.
What happens if I want to stop working with you?
You take everything and go. The domain is registered in your name, the hosting account is yours, and the files are yours once the final invoice is paid. You don't need my permission, my cooperation, or a phone call. That is deliberate, and it's written into the scope and terms.
Can you get me to the top of Google?
No, and be careful with anyone who says they can. What I can do is make your site fast and easy to use on a phone. I also make sure it describes your business clearly, so Google understands what you do and where.
That's the part anyone can control. Ranking also depends on your competition, your reviews, and how long you've been established.
I don't have any photos of my work.
Most people don't, and photos are the biggest difference between a site that looks worth the money and one that doesn't. Send me whatever you have, phone photos included. I'll crop, correct and size them, which is most of the battle.
Where you have nothing, I'll find and license proper stock photos rather than leave a gap, and I'll tell you which ones I used. If your work needs photographing on site, tell me and I'll quote that separately.
How long does it actually take?
Two to ten days from when I have your deposit and your content, depending on the size of the build. The content usually decides it. I send one checklist of everything I need, and the faster it comes back, the faster you're live.
I already have a website. Is it worth redoing?
Open it on your phone right now. If you have to pinch to zoom, or the browser says "not secure", your customers are hitting the same walls.
You don't lose anything by replacing it. Your email keeps working, and every old page address is redirected, so existing Google results and bookmarks still land in the right place.
Will it break? I wouldn't know how to fix it.
It won't break on its own. That's the main reason I build sites this way.
WordPress sites need looking after because they're made of moving parts. Plugins update and stop working with each other, and security holes have to be patched. Things go wrong because of the updates, and if nobody maintains the site, one day it can stop working. Wix and Squarespace look after their own software, but you pay them every month for as long as the site exists.
Yours has none of that: no plugins, no database and no software running behind it to fall out of date. There's nothing to update, so nothing in the site breaks on its own. That's also why there's no monthly fee coming to me. There's nothing I need to keep doing to stop it falling over.
What does change is your business: new prices, new hours, a service you dropped. Those changes are $45 each, listed on the scope and terms page so you know before you buy.
What if I forget to renew my domain?
I'll remind you. Every year, for as long as I'm doing this, whether or not you're still a customer.
This is the most common way a small business loses its website, and it's undramatic. The registration lapses, nobody notices, and one day a customer mentions the link is dead.
When I researched local businesses for this site, I found 34 whose domain registration had run out, so their web address stopped working. Their sites didn't break. Their renewal did.
So I record your renewal date when I build the site, and you go on the reminder list. You stay on it even if we never work together again, and you can tell me to stop whenever you like.
Why are all your examples fake businesses?
Because I'm new to this, and I'm not going to pretend otherwise. Those five are complete, working sites, just for invented companies. Open them and submit a form, because what you see is what you'd get.
As soon as I have real clients who are happy to be shown, they'll be here instead.
Who actually does the work?
Me. There's no team and no account manager, and nothing is sent offshore. You talk to the person building your site, which is the main reason I can charge $499 instead of $4,999.
Get in touch
Tell me what you do.
There's no obligation and no sales call. Tell me about the business, and I'll tell you what I'd build, what it would cost, and whether you need it at all.
Rather talk? Call or text 219-386-3737.