Are you confused about hiring an agency or One Smart Sheep?I understand you have thousands of options to choose from, but why us?A great saying goes: show, don’t tell.Likewise, I’ll show you how One Smart Sheep is different from other design agencies and development companies.But before let me give a brief introduction about me without boring you. ?I’m Zee Ahmed, and I live in Fulton, Maryland, a suburb outside of Washington, DC.I have been in the web design industry for more than a decade and worked with a dozen web design agencies.I started One Smart Sheep to help small businesses and startups grow their business with agency quality custom websites and packaged it with essential services such as domain names, hosting, analytics and maintenance, all for a budget-friendly monthly fee.Setting aside $24,000-$40,000 for a professionally built website on WordPress, with search engine optimization, hosted on super-fast servers, and conversion-optimized is challenging for a small business.Furthermore, maintenance could run a business $150+ per hour if their website gets hacked or requires security upgrades.With expenses such as payroll, healthcare, and rent, budgeting a professional website is simply out of the question.Business owners end up settling for DIY tools like WIX or outsource to so-called "experts" that devalue their brand's credibility online.I took the web development process a design agency would follow and streamlined it to reduce costs resulting in massive savings passed on to our customers.
Enough talk!Let me explain how One Smart Sheep is different from agencies in terms of:
- Cost
- Designing approach
- Monthly vs one-time fee
- Freelancing built
- Portfolio
- ADA complaint
1. Cost - One Smart Sheep vs Agency
Did I tell you that hiring a web design agency is a pain in the neck, especially for a small business owner?The average cost of a custom website is $24,000 to $40,000! That’s huge.Have a look at the pricing table of one of the major web design agencies in the USA.
Moreover, we calculated the cost of USA web agencies listed on Clutch, and the average goes up to $20,000. Most agencies don't accept a project below $1000. Insane!
You might be thinking why agencies are expensive, but we’re not?To be crystal clear, agencies have a lot of overhead like office space, employee salaries, and their process requires a lot more manpower to get to the end goal.For example, they have account executives, project managers, developers, designers, and all of those salaries add up to high costs to customers.On the other hand, One Smart Sheep costs less as we don’t need an account executive, and we have eliminated unnecessary steps to make the process extremely fast and affordable.
Not only that, thanks to the advancement in technology, we have automated most of the process. We are using tools like real-time visual feedback and modern web design framework to deliver the project with perfection.
2. Real-time designing
Agencies spend significant time on concept phase and wire-framing, making the process sluggish and expensive.Instead of using the concept phase, One Smart Sheep has brought about real-time web designing — where you can submit feedback instantly without any technical knowledge.This feature is really a time saver.You don’t need to use Zoom, make countless phone calls or send lengthy emails anymore. It cuts the web design time in half.
Besides, it doesn’t only save time for busy clients, but also all the team members working on the project.
3. Monthly Pricing Vs Agency’s One Time
I understand what you’re thinking at the moment.Why pay a monthly fee to One Smart Sheep instead of a one-time payment to an agency?That's a great question!While it may seem more convenient just to move on, there's a bunch of great reasons why paying a monthly fee for your website is more beneficial for your small business.Here are a few:1. Save website-hacked-repair cost. The average price of website hacked repair goes from $1000 to $5,000 per year.
Hacking is on the rise amid COVID-19, costing businesses more than 10 trillion dollars annually by 2025.One Smart Sheep offers free of cost hacked website repair, saving you thousands of dollars in the long term.2. Save maintenance cost and time. One Smart Sheep provides free of cost maintenance to keep your website up to date as per the latest standards and technologies. We offer:
- Speed optimizations
- Security fully managed
- 24/7 monitoring & emergency support
- Regular backups
- Edits at your requests
Otherwise, you’ll end up hiring an expensive developer costing you thousands in the long run.
3. Save money on ultra-fast web hosting. You get a free ultra-fast hosting server for your website which could run you around $100 a month. The below screenshot is from a web hosting company providing ultra-fast hosting services.
We understand the importance of it to make your website loads faster for users and Google bots for exceptional user experience.
Besides, speed is a ranking factor, and your website should perform better for Google Search and Google Ads.
4. Save money on dedicated support. Imagine your website goes down, you head over to your laptop, write an email explaining the situation, you get a reply after 24 hours costing hundreds or even thousands of dollars to your business.One Smart Sheep monitors customer websites for downtime and provides support to resolve issues immediately.Want to get instant support from a freelancing platform? It costs money.
Our monthly website packages depend on your long-term success, so we’re with your business as a partner for the long run.
4. One Smart Sheep Portfolio vs Agency portfolio
As you already know, a portfolio helps to show uniqueness, build trust and is an opportunity to stand out from the crowd.One Smart Sheep has developed agency-level websites for their clients, don’t you believe us?Take a look at our portfolio:Moreover, we redesigned their dashboard as well.
Curious to see more? Visit our portfolio.
5. Freelancer Built vs One Smart Sheep
Small business owners head over to freelancing platforms like Fiverr to let them build a website for cheap.
The site might look like a professional website claimed to be built from scratch, but the secret is that they use pre-made themes purchased from Themeforest or any third party.I understand it shouldn’t be an issue, but it’s a big issue in the long term.How? They use a regular license on unlimited client websites.
It means you get a WordPress theme without a key which doesn’t regularly update, hence vulnerable to hacking in the long term.
And the worst part? They use plenty of WordPress plugins to achieve the desired functionality — making your website slow.
Did you know? Plugins are responsible for WordPress getting compromised.
Furthermore:
- Low-quality web design repels customers from making a purchase on your website or filling out a lead form.
- Cheap designs lack the latest standards of User Experience (UX), User Interface (UI), Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO).
- Build websites from pre-made templates — your competitor might be using the same. It creates a bad first impression of your business.
- You’re responsible for your own server, maintenance, and repairs.
On the other hand, One Smart Sheep builds world-class website designs from scratch, using technology that 80% of the websites don’t use, utilizing the latest standards of UX and UI making your website a sales machine.In a nutshell, we proudly offer you a value of $10,000 for $49/month, which is 0.49% of the cost.
6. Flexibility and Scalability
One Smart Sheep offers greater flexibility and scalability than a typical agency. With One Smart Sheep, you can easily scale your project up or down as needed without worrying about being locked into a long-term contract or paying for unnecessary services.
This allows you to manage your budget and resources better and adapt to changing business needs. In contrast, an agency often has a set package of services that may not align with your specific needs and may not be able to provide the level of flexibility and scalability that you require.
7. We Design ADA Compliant Websites
One Smart Sheep builds Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliant websites for your business to save an estimated cost of $75,000.
Wondering what ADA is?The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires companies to make websites with disabilities.
It merely means web content should be accessible to users that are blind, deaf and people who have to navigate by voice, screen readers or other assistive technologies like JAWS, NVDA, Apple VoiceOver and ChromeVox.Please don’t take it for granted; it might cost you thousands of dollars in the long term.
Most agencies have no idea about it, even if they do, they demand tens of thousands of additional dollars.Conversely, One Smart Sheep designs ADA compliance websites for your business.
8. So-Called Custom Built Website vs One Smart Sheep Custom Approach
A lot of companies use Elementor and similar WordPress plugins to build websites. These sites are not genuine custom websites; instead, they’re more like drag and drop.On the other hand, One Smart Sheep literally builds custom websites from scratch with a clean WordPress install.One of our clients claimed to have a custom website, but the agency they originally hired was using a website builder.The worst part?Twenty-nine plugins were installed on the site — making the site extremely slow and vulnerable to hacks.
Guess how many plugins our client websites have?
On average, it’s precisely 3 :)
Comparisons Between One Smart Sheep and a Design Agency
One Smart SheepAgencyBudget-friendlyExpensiveFaster project completion as unnecessary steps have been eliminated.Project completion takes time.Real-time web designingNo real-time designing visual feedback.Free monthly maintenanceNo monthly maintenance until you pay extraFree ultra-fast hostingAgencies charge extra for better hosting.Build websites with WCAG 2.1, ADA, s508 Compliant.Most agencies don’t build websites with ADA in mind or charge extra.Email, phone, and live chat available.Most agencies don’t provide phone and live chat support.Monthly pricing ensures you focus on your business, and we focus on maintenance, support, and turning your website into a marketing machine.A one-time payment. You work your own when your project is completed.We’re US-Made. You’re welcome to visit our office.Most agencies belong to third-world countries and have no physical presence.We build custom websites.Cheap agencies use pre-made templates and show as if it’s custom-made.Free Google Map Listing with On-Page Optimization so your business ranks higher on Google.Agencies charge an additional fee for this service.
Still not convinced?
We offer a 14-day money-back guarantee, and we can offer you the first month for 99¢. This will allow you to test-drive our services without any risk. Let us turn your dream website design into reality.Schedule a free phone consultation and learn how we can help grow your business online with a professionally built website.
