What a Local Campaign Website Really Costs

Most local candidates ask what a campaign website costs and get a number that leaves out half the bill. The domain and hosting are the cheap part. The expensive parts are your hours, a site that looks unfinished, and tools that quietly take ownership of your supporter list.

Quick answer: The cash cost of a basic local campaign site can be small. The real costs are your time, tool subscriptions that pile up, and a supporter list stuck inside someone else's system. Compare options on what is included and who owns what, not on the headline price.

The line items

Whatever route you take, a campaign site needs these pieces, and someone pays for each:

• A domain name that matches the candidate and office.
• Hosting, backups and security.
• A design that looks finished on a phone.
• Forms for volunteers, yard signs and questions.
• A place to keep the supporter list, and a way to email it.
• A donation link through a processor that fits your reporting rules.
• The required disclaimer text, kept correct.
• Photos, a short bio and written positions.
• Updates for the length of the race.

The costs people forget

Your time is the largest one. Every hour spent fixing a plugin or rewording a page is an hour not spent in front of voters. Tools are the second. A form tool, a list tool and an email tool each look cheap alone, and together they can add up to more than the site itself. The third is lock-in: if your supporter list lives inside a tool you stop paying for, you may lose the one asset the campaign built. We cover that in Own Your Voter Data.

Three ways to pay

• Do it yourself. The lowest cash cost and the highest time cost. It works if you have the hours and keep the site current.
• A one-time build. Someone sets it up and hands it over. Ask who updates it afterward.
• Managed. Someone builds and runs it for the whole race. It costs more in cash and much less in time.

How to compare quotes

Ask each provider the same four questions: what is included, what renews and when, who owns the domain and the list, and what it costs to change something in week eight. Prices for managed work depend on the race, so tell us about yours and we will tell you plainly what it needs.