Seattle has more people who will run an audit on your site than almost anywhere, and more who will notice if it fails one.
Web design in Seattle costs $4,000 to $35,000. Two things distinguish this market: an unusually high concentration of technical readers who verify claims rather than accepting them, and a genuine expectation that accessibility is built in from the start rather than sold as an add-on.
Contrast, keyboard navigation, real form labels, focus states and sensible heading order. Retrofitting these costs several times what building them in does, and in this market the omission gets noticed and mentioned.
Someone will run Lighthouse on your homepage and read your documentation. Publish numbers, name customers, state limitations. A claim that fails a check costs more credibility than making no claim would have.
The concentration of large technology employers means even small vendors get sent security and accessibility questionnaires early. Having answers published shortens a cycle that otherwise adds weeks.
Half the year the question is whether you are open, whether the road is passable and whether the appointment still stands. A site your team can update the same morning beats a better-designed one that cannot.
Maritime, aerospace supply chain, construction, healthcare and outdoor brands. The technical-buyer habits carry across all of them, because the people working there are the same people.
Code, design files, domain and hosting in your name. Leaving us should cost nothing but a conversation, and any other arrangement is a commercial choice rather than a technical one.
| Project | Range (USD) | Timeline | What you get |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small business | $4,000 to $9,000 | 3 to 6 weeks | Home, services, about, contact, accessible build, editable by your team |
| Established business | $9,000 to $20,000 | 5 to 10 weeks | Above plus service pages, deeper content, integrations, testing |
| Company or product site | $20,000 to $35,000 | 10 to 18 weeks | Component system, multi-audience paths, documentation, migration |
| Ecommerce | $8,000 to $28,000 | 5 to 12 weeks | Platform build, product and collection templates, payments, shipping |
| Accessibility remediation | $2,500 to $12,000 | 2 to 6 weeks | Audit, fixes, keyboard and screen reader testing, documented result |
| Care plan | $200 to $1,500 per month | Ongoing | Updates, monitoring, accessibility checks, support |
Accessibility built into a new build costs a fraction of remediating an existing one. If you are rebuilding anyway, this is the cheapest it will ever be.
| Ask them | A good answer sounds like | Walk away if |
|---|---|---|
| How do you test accessibility? | Keyboard, screen reader, contrast, on real pages | We follow best practices |
| Can I see Core Web Vitals on three live sites? | URLs, and an honest word about the slowest | They show you portfolio shots |
| What does this cost? | A range, and what moves it, before a call | You must book a call to hear a number |
| Who owns the code and design files? | You do, unconditionally, in the contract | Ownership ends when the retainer does |
Ask how they test rather than whether they care. An agency that has never opened a page with a keyboard will tell you accessibility matters and mean nothing by it.
| What people search | What it usually means | Whether it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Web design company | Designs and builds sites end to end | This, for the whole thing |
| Web design agency | Often the same, sometimes with marketing | Ask what is actually included |
| Web design services | Individual pieces bought separately | Yes, for accessibility or performance alone |
| Website design company | Identical, phrased differently | No |
| Website design agency | Identical again | No |
| Website developers | Individual engineers rather than a firm | Yes, for scoped work |
| Web developer | One engineer, usually freelance | Fine for a fix, not a whole site |
The labels are used interchangeably and no firm is consistent about them. In this market the questions worth asking are how they test, whether they publish numbers and whether you own the code.
A small business runs $4,000 to $9,000. An established business runs $9,000 to $20,000. Company and product sites run $20,000 to $35,000, and accessibility remediation on an existing site runs $2,500 to $12,000.
Included. Contrast, keyboard navigation, real form labels and sensible heading order are part of building a page properly, not an upgrade tier. Retrofitting them later costs several times as much.
By using the page with a keyboard and a screen reader, checking contrast on real content rather than on swatches, and testing forms and error states. Automated tools catch perhaps a third of real problems.
Considerably. Publishing your security posture, data handling and accessibility conformance answers a large share of the questionnaire before it arrives, which removes weeks from an enterprise cycle.
Because this market checks. Someone will run their own audit and read your documentation. A claim that fails verification costs more than making no claim, so specific and honest beats impressive and vague.
It should be a requirement. Hours, availability and weather-related changes need to go up the same morning, which no agency turnaround can match.
Unconditionally. Code, design files, domain and hosting in your name. Leaving should cost nothing but a conversation.
No. We work with Seattle companies remotely on Pacific hours and would rather say that than imply otherwise. Not carrying local overheads is part of why our published numbers differ.
Send us your URL and we will tell you what a keyboard user cannot reach.