Auckland based · Works anywhere in NZ · One bloke, no agency

Text me the change.
It's live this week. The domain stays in your name.

One website, built properly, for NZ$49 + GST a month. Unlimited changes by text or voicenote — no portal, no ticket, no charge per change. Your domain is registered to you, not to me, and you can check that yourself in about a minute.

Set-up, one-off NZ$990 +GST

First ten clients: NZ$490. You're the pilot. When ten are signed it goes to $990 and this line comes off the page.

Every month after NZ$49 +GST

One tier. That's the whole rate card. No term, no exit fee, no per-change fee.

Why there's a set-up fee when others say $0: because at the end of it you own the site, the code and the domain. The $0-set-up mob keep the asset and rent it back to you. Nothing here is waived in exchange for signing 12 months — there is no 12 months.

Your domain is registered to you, not to me, and you can check that yourself in about a minute.

Text me — 022 075 8081 Call me

I answer 7am – 7pm, Monday to Saturday. If I'm up a ladder I'll come back to you the same day. No call centre, no "digital strategist."
Not ready to talk? Run the eight-point check on your own site →
Rather put it in writing? There's a form at the bottom, and it goes to the same phone →

▪ Every site I run gets checked every six hours. See what happens when nobody checks →

Read this first

Got an email from me out of the blue?

Then I've looked at your website and found something. I'd rather you didn't take my word for any of it — everything I send you is something you can check yourself, on your own phone, in under a minute.

Before you reply to me, do these three:

1
Open your own website on your phone with wi-fi turned off. That's what your customers get.
2
Tap your own phone number on it. If nothing happens, that's the finding.
3
Go to dnc.org.nz/whois and type your domain in. Look at who the registrant is. If it isn't your business, your web address isn't yours.

That third one is free advice whether you ever talk to me or not. If the registrant isn't you, ring whoever built your site and ask them to change it to your name. They should do it for nothing. If they won't, you've learned something important.

The eight-point check

This is the sheet I run. Print it, run it on your own site, and take it to whoever looks after it now. It costs you nothing and it works just as well without me.

Website warrant of fitness Issued by Scrunchee · Auckland

Domain — whose name is it in?

If your web company is listed as the owner rather than you, your address is legally theirs. Moving means asking permission instead of giving notice.

Do this yourself: Go to dnc.org.nz/whois and type your domain. Look at the registrant name. If it is not your business, that is the finding.

Does it load on a phone, on mobile data?

Most people looking for a tradesman are on a phone, often with one bar. Wi-fi at home hides a lot of problems.

Do this yourself: Turn wi-fi off. Open your own website. Count how long you wait before you can read anything.

Can you tap your own phone number?

A number printed as text does nothing when tapped. The phone call is how you get the job.

Do this yourself: Open your site on your phone and tap your number. If it does not start a call, that is the finding.

Does the form ask for a phone number?

A form that only takes an email costs you a round trip on every single enquiry, and some people never reply to the second one.

Do this yourself: Look at your own contact form. Count the boxes.

Delivery — does the form actually send?

NOT TESTED

A form can look like it works, say thanks, and send nothing. This is the failure that cost the electrician on this page 28 months and around 220 enquiries.

Nobody can check this from outside your business, including me. It is the one thing on this sheet the free check cannot do, and it is the main thing the $49 buys.

Do this yourself: Fill in your own form and send it. Then check your spam folder, not your inbox.

Is your email set up so notifications are not treated as spam?

Without the right records, Gmail and Outlook can quietly file enquiry notifications as spam. You would never know a customer had written.

Do this yourself: Send yourself an enquiry through your own form, then look in spam.

Does the site say it is still trading?

A copyright year two or three years old is the first thing someone comparing two tradesmen notices.

Do this yourself: Scroll to the bottom of your homepage and read the year.

When does the domain expire?

When a domain expires the website and the email both stop, usually without warning, and somebody else can register the name.

Do this yourself: The expiry date is public. Look it up on dnc.org.nz/whois.

What a pass looks like

Not every site is broken. Here's a worked sheet for one that's fine.

a-tidy-example.co.nz 7 pass · 0 fail · 1 not tested

Pass

01 PASS Registrant is the business.
02 PASS Loads in under a second on mobile data.
03 PASS Number is a tap-to-call link.
04 PASS Form asks for a phone number.
05 NOT TESTED Cannot be checked from outside.
06 PASS SPF and DMARC both present.
07 PASS Footer year is current.
08 PASS Domain paid until 2028.

That is what a pass looks like. If your sheet comes back like this one and the price you are paying is fair, stay exactly where you are. I would rather tell you that than sell you something you do not need.

The job that started this

JOB 001 · RED DRAGON ELECTRIX · ELECTRICAL · AUCKLAND

between the auto-update and the last enquiry it ever received

months dead before anyone noticed

~220

enquiries that never reached him

months his form ran with no phone field

An Auckland electrician. His site was built on WordPress by an agency, and it updated itself unattended at eleven o'clock at night. Three seconds after that update, the last enquiry it would ever receive arrived. Then nothing, for twenty-eight months.

The reason nobody noticed is the part worth understanding. The address that receives the "your website is broken" emails was set to the agency's mailbox, not his. Every failure notice for two years went somewhere nobody was reading.

He didn't know his website was down. He'd been giving people the link.

Before it died the form was averaging seven or eight enquiries a month and climbing. It also had no phone field — for fourteen months, in a business where the phone call is the job. All of those numbers came out of his own database, and I'll show you the queries if you want them.

What $49 a month actually buys

Hosting and SSL

The domain, registered in your name, renewed at cost

Unlimited changes by text or voicenote

A real enquiry posted through your form every six hours

Enquiry triage — urgency, a summary, a drafted reply

A public status page with no login

A quarterly export of the lot, to your own email

Your site stays up if you leave

The whole rate card

Rate card · all figures +GST

Set-up — one-off NZ$990

Build, copy, the lot. Domain registered in your name and the first year paid.

Founding ten — set-up NZ$490

You're the pilot, and I'll be asking you what's wrong with it. You'll tell me straight. That's the deal. There's no timer on this and no counter ticking down — it's a number I change by hand. Text me and ask what number you'd be; I'll tell you the real one.

Monthly NZ$49

Hosting, SSL, unlimited changes, the six-hourly check, enquiry triage, status page, quarterly export.

Domain renewal ~NZ$30 /yr

At cost, in your name. Passed through at whatever the registry charges, on your invoice at that number — not $95.

Included, no extra charge

Hosting and SSL
The domain, registered in your name, renewed at cost
Unlimited changes by text or voicenote
A real enquiry posted through your form every six hours
Enquiry triage — urgency, a summary, a drafted reply
A public status page with no login
A quarterly export of the lot, to your own email
Your site stays up if you leave

Not included — so you're not surprised

Online shops, carts or payments
Booking systems
Member logins
More than about eight pages
Bespoke design — you get a good template, done properly
Social media, ads or content writing beyond the build

No term. No exit fee. No per-change fee. Cancel by text and I'll hand you the lot the same week.

Every number on this page is +GST. If you're registered, the ones that matter to you are $990 and $49. If you're not, they're $1,138.50 and $56.35.

Three years, all in

Every figure below is a price the company publishes on its own website. Where a company doesn't publish one, I've left it out rather than guess.

Who	3 years	What you own at the end
Scrunchee	$2,754	You own the domain, the code and the content throughout.
Rent a Website	$3,564	Their published terms say nothing about you owning the site, and nothing about taking it with you.
TradieWeb (done for you)	$8,563	Site is yours to keep. $4,999 once, then $99 a month.
Kiwi Web Design	$7,164	Plus GST. Overage billed at $120/hr.
A typical agency build + retainer	$9,390	$3,990 build, $150/month. Ask who the domain is registered to.

◂ swipe the table ▸

Being straight about the year-one comparison: at $990 set-up I'm more expensive than the no-set-up rentals for the first year and cheaper from about month fifteen. At the founding $490 I'm cheaper from the start. That's the actual reason the founding price exists.

Where this falls over, in my own words

Every one of these is a real reason not to hire me. They're on the page rather than in the small print because you'd find them out anyway, and finding them out later is worse for both of us.

What happens when your real job gets busy?

An agency owner asked me that and it is the fair question. Three answers, and none of them is me promising to be available. One — the promise is small enough to keep in a bad week: changes go live in a published weekly batch, a fixed day and time you know in advance, not within the hour. That is a slower promise than "same day" and it is the one I can still keep in March. Two — the things that cost you money if they break are watched by a machine every six hours, not by me remembering. Three — you own the domain, the code and the content, so if I stop being any good you take it somewhere else the same week. No exit fee, no permission needed.

I am one person

There is no team, no account manager and no call centre. If you want somebody in an office at 10am on a Tuesday, an agency is genuinely a better fit and I would say so.

Changes are weekly, not instant

Straight up: changes go live in a published weekly batch — a fixed day and time you will know in advance — not within the hour. The exceptions are the three that cost you money: a wrong phone number, a wrong address, or you have moved. Those get done when you send them.

I have one case study

One. An electrician in West Auckland, and he is a mate. Everything on this page about that job came out of his old website's database and I will show you the queries. But one is one, and you should weigh it as one.

The free check cannot test the important thing

Item 05 on the sheet says NOT TESTED and it will say that forever, for everyone. Nobody can tell from outside your business whether your form actually delivers. That is not modesty, it is the limit of the method.

I do not do the profitable half of this market

No shops, no bookings, no logins, no bespoke design. If you need those, you need somebody else, and the honest thing is to say so before you pay me rather than after.

I am new at this

You would be an early client of a business that has existed for a very short time. The setup fee and the fact that you own everything are there so that being early costs you as little as possible if I turn out to be wrong.

Send me your website address and I'll tell you what I find.

No charge, no obligation, and if it comes back clean I'll tell you that too.