Frequently Asked Questions

Me, I build your site. There is no team behind a curtain and no account manager translating your notes to someone offshore. The same person who answers the first message designs the site and writes the code, which is the whole point of hiring one experienced builder instead of an agency.

Yes, I work with clients across the USA. chadworks is based in Greater Philadelphia, PA, but has worked with clients in many states, and every US mainland timezone.

It depends on the scope of the project. A brochure site with limited content and functionality can take as little as a week. A complex build with custom features, lots of pages and other bells and whistles can take a month, sometimes a few.

First thing is a conversation to set the scope. Then I'll provide a list of what is needed, ranging from hosting/domain access to content like text and images. You will also need to make a deposit, typically 50% of the total cost, for work to commence.

No, you don't have to have the scope figured out when you come to me, but part of the first stage of our working relationship will be developing a detailed scope. This way, my proposal-agreement will be robust in a way that prevents scope-creep, which isn't fun for either party.

Yes, securing your domain is part of getting set up. If the name you want is already taken, buying it from whoever holds it is sometimes possible, though the price for that swings widely and is never guaranteed.

Your domain name lives in your own account that I am given access to. It doesn't live in my account, so you never have to worry about it being out of reach.

Yes, and I recommend it for anyone who wants to be taken seriously. A branded address at your own domain conveys a professionalism in a way that a free Gmail or Yahoo address never will.

Most clients I set up on Google Workspace, which is Gmail with your domain plus Docs, Drive, and the rest, and runs about $7 to $8 a month per account.

If your work calls for Microsoft 365 instead, I can handle that too, though I only find it necessary for corporate or enterprise setups.

Yes, but as a tool that allows me to deliver complex and agency-level work at a fraction of the cost and faster than ever before, not as a replacement for the craft. There is a clear line between using AI to do the heavy lifting and handing the actual creative work to a machine.

This comes down to one thing: editability.

Over the last decade, 90% of clients that say "editing the website is a requirement" never edit the website, the content or the layout, so I've stopped selling WordPress as a frontrunner and am being honest with clients about whether WordPress is overkill for their needs.

If you don't already have a plan to update the site's content, whether that be a blog, photo gallery or product catalog, you almost certainly don't need WordPress. We'll discuss this on our first consultation call.

Yes, once you make the final payment, you own everything completely. The site lives on my private server, but the content: the code, the images, the copy, everything that was developed for the project is legally yours. If you ever decide you need to move hosts, you get a package with all of that in it, no hoops to jump through and no tech jargon to decipher.

Yes, all websites chadworks develops are fast by design. Speed is not an add-on, and any vendor selling it as such is trying to get one over on you. If your site is not fast, it may as well not exist in 2026. For the fastest sites, go with custom coded/staticComing soon, as they don't have the same bloat and oftentimes server crowding that WordPress, Shopify and pagebuilders come with.

Yes, chadworks does lots of redesigning or platform-migration projects. I'll listen to your situation to see if we need to redesign, switch platform but keep the design, or both redesign and switch platforms while we're at it.

Yes, I can build your site to be editable, but these days I press my clients to determine if they really need that feature, given the pros and cons involved.

A WordPress site comes with a dashboard, and most builds include a 30-minute tutorial so you can update text and images with confidence. A custom-coded static site has no dashboard by design, which is part of what makes it fast and secure, so content changes come back through me at my minutely rate.

However, I can also build micro-admin functions to edit specific parts of your site, like a micro blog editor or a photo gallery manager, either as part of the initial project or an additional fee down the road.

Yes, every site is secured with an SSL certificate and form spam prevention. For sites with login forms, additional security is available on a case by case basis, depending on the level of traffic anticipated, exposure surface and sensitivity of information held behind the login.

Still, it's true that no site anywhere is completely hacker-proof, since even Visa and the Social Security system have been breached. What I can promise is that your site is built to remove the easy targets.

Yes, data privacy assets like Privacy Policy, Terms of Service and cookie consent controls are built into every new chadworks website. Some sites may require more complex controls, which may require an additional fee. Your site will be covered for relevant US-based laws like CCPA and GDPR and can be tweaked to cover specifics you may need.

Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer and my proposal-agreement waives my liability for such exposure your site may face, so a business with serious compliance exposure should have counsel review the language, but you won't launch missing the standard protections.

Yes. All sites include one subscribe form if desired, wired directly into your email platform of choice. Connecting and configuring the email platform behind it is usually an add-on service, since the tool and its pricing depend on how you plan to use it.

Yes. Every site launches with Google Analytics wired in, so from day one you can see who is visiting and which pages actually hold their attention. It is the free, industry-standard tracking the big sites run on, and I confirm it is reading correctly before the site goes live.