Why I work this way
I kept meeting the same person: someone who had just started a business, was good at the thing they actually do, and had been quoted thousands for a website — or handed a drag-and-drop builder and told to figure it out on a Sunday evening.
Neither of those is a good deal. The agency price is mostly overhead: an office, a project manager, a salesperson, an account handler. The builder is cheap up front but you never really own what you make, and the monthly fee never stops.
So I built a third option. I'm one person who does the design and the code, which means no overhead to pay for and no game of telephone between you and whoever is actually building your site. That's what agency quality at a solo developer price means in practice — you get the work, not the org chart.
What you can expect
- A fixed price, up front. Agreed before I start, and I stick to it.
- Plain English. I won't explain your website in jargon or make you feel silly for asking.
- Straight answers. If a cheaper option would serve you better, I'll say so.
- You keep the source code. If we ever part ways, you can hand your site to any developer instead of starting again.
- You talk to me. The person who replies to your email is the person building your site.
Based in Minnesota, working anywhere
I'm a Minnesota-based web developer and I particularly enjoy working with local businesses — there's something satisfying about driving past a shop whose website you built. That said, the whole process works over email and video calls, and I work with clients right across the United States.
How I build things
No secrets about the toolkit: I write custom code rather than using a page builder, host on Vercel, and use Supabase when a site needs a real database behind it — bookings, accounts, orders, that sort of thing. They're professional, widely-used tools rather than anything homemade, and you get the source code, so your site is never something only I can work on.
I mention it because plenty of web people keep this deliberately vague. Knowing what your site is made of means you can always get a second opinion or hand it to someone else, and I'd rather you stayed because you want to.
Beyond websites
SwansonX started as a broader creative studio and that hasn't gone away. Alongside websites I take on brand identity work, custom-coded tools, Minecraft plugin development and other bespoke projects. If you've got something unusual in mind, it's worth asking.
Writing
I write everything on the SwansonX blog myself — no ghostwriters and no filler. It's where I put the honest advice about websites, pricing and small business online, including the advice that costs me money.