Freehold

Websites for small NZ organisations and businesses

Develop your site free. Keep it only if you love it.

Tell us what you do and what you want. We build you a real, working website and host it while you shape it with us, free, for a week. Keep it for a flat $800 and you own it outright. Your website, freehold.

No forms, no calls, no account. One email starts it, and no is always fine.

Two ways in

Wherever you are starting from, you end up owning it

How it works

A website built by email, then run by email

You never log into anything. You email us what you want, we build it and host it, and you shape it with us over a free week. The only decision that costs you anything is the last one.

You tell us about you

Email us who you are, what you do, your own words, any documents, and links to sites you like. More is better. A thin email just gets a friendly question or two back.

You do this

We build your site

Within a few days you get a real, multi-page website at a private link, built from what you sent. Not a mock-up, the actual site, live and hosted.

We do this

You shape it, free, for a week

Reply with changes, as many as you like. We rebuild and send the same link back, and we say what changed and why. Genuinely free, the whole week.

Together

You keep it, or you walk away

Keep it for a flat $800 and it goes live in your name. Or walk away and it comes down the same day, no charge, no hard feelings.

Your call

The full walk-through

What it costs

Free to build. A flat $800 to keep. Nothing monthly, ever.

The building is genuinely free. You only pay if you decide to keep the finished site, and that price is the same for everyone. After that, the running cost is nothing.

The build window Unlimited edits, live and hosted, for a week. You owe nothing to try it.
Free
To keep it, one-off Flat, the same for everyone. Includes as many pages as your story needs, site search, mobile, accessibility built in, and your real content.
$800
Hosting, forever Held for you, with nothing monthly, ever.
$0
Edits after go-live Email your changes, unlimited within a batch, done in two to three days. Or $35 to jump the queue and have it done the same day.
$20 a batch
To leave, any time Take the whole site and your domain to any host. Nothing held back, no charge.
Free

There is no deposit, no subscription, and no lock-in. You pay once, you own it outright, and you can walk away with everything any day.

How we compare

Freehold, next to a typical web agency

Same finished website. A very different deal underneath it.

  Freehold A typical web agency
Pages FreeholdAs many as your story needs, up to about 100 AgencyPriced per page
Getting started FreeholdBuilt free first, pay only if you keep it AgencyDeposit up front
Hosting FreeholdFree, forever AgencyMonthly fees
Ownership FreeholdYours outright, free export any time AgencyLocked to their platform
Edits Freehold$20 a batch, you just email us AgencyHourly rates
Contract FreeholdNone AgencyAnnual terms

Optional extras

Flagship

An assistant on your site

A helper on your website that answers your visitors' questions from your own content, day and night. The chat in the corner of this page is one of these, answering from everything we have written about Freehold. Yours would be trained on your words, and you can try it live during your build window before you decide.

$100 to $200 one-off, by size

Online booking

We set up and style your own Cal.com or Calendly, on your own free account.

Donations or payments

Your own Givealittle or Stripe link, in your name. We never touch the money.

Email newsletter

Your own sender, your own list. We design each issue and you press send.

Every extra is a one-off, prepaid, on your own account in your own name. Nothing monthly, ever.

The idea

A website you run from your inbox

Freehold is not a website builder, and it is the opposite of one.

No dashboard to learn

The do-it-yourself tools sell you a login and a monthly bill, then leave the work to you. We sell you freedom from managing a website at all.

You never log in

There is nothing to sign into, nothing to update, nothing to break. When you want a change, you email us, and it gets made.

Built by email, run by email

The same easy loop that builds your site keeps it current for good. Plain words in, a finished change out.

And it is yours

Owned outright, in your name, free to take anywhere. You get the ease of someone else running it, without giving up a thing.

Plenty of small organisations and businesses do great work behind a website that undersells them. Good design costs thousands, so the ones with the least to spend end up looking like they matter least.

That is the gap Freehold exists to close.

Ready to start?

Tell us what you do and what you want

That email is the whole application. No forms to fill in, no call to book. Send us who you are, what you do, and anything you have, and we get building. Saying no later is always fine.

Email us any time: studio@freehold.org.nz. Every message comes straight to us, and we reply to all of them.

Had an email from us about your existing site? Everything here is what that offer becomes.

Freehold assistant Instant answers, any time
Ask us anything about Freehold…