How much is DIY costing your business? (Time-cost calculator)
Add up the hours you spend fiddling with your website, social and SEO — then see what that time is really costing you each month. Free, no sign-up.
Plenty of small business owners run their own website, social media and SEO because it feels cheaper than paying someone. And on paper, it is — your time is 'free', right? Except your time isn't free. Every hour you spend fiddling with a plugin is an hour you didn't quote, didn't serve a customer, or didn't take a break.
DIY time-cost calculator
You might be doing your own website, social and SEO to save money — but your time isn't free. Drag the sliders to see what your DIY habit is really costing you each month.
What an hour of your time is worth
Tweaking pages, fixing broken bits
Posts, captions, Canva, ideas
Rankings, plugins, speed, backups
Hours / week
6.5
Real monthly cost
$1,689
Real annual cost
$20,264
You're spending about $1,689 a month of your own time. A Found plan starts at $285/mo — you could save roughly $1,404/mo and get your time back.
A rough guide based on your own numbers. The real cost of DIY isn't just money — it's the jobs you didn't quote for while you were fiddling with your website.
Want that time back?
Found handles your website, social, SEO and updates from $285/mo — one simple plan, no big upfront cost, and the tech stops being your job.
This calculator puts a number on it. Drag the sliders to match your reality — your hourly rate and how many hours a week you actually sink into website updates, social content and SEO tinkering — and watch what your DIY habit is really costing you.
The number most owners miss
Even a couple of hours a day adds up fast. At $60 an hour, five hours a week of DIY is over $1,300 a month of your time — quietly disappearing into tasks that aren't the reason you started your business. A managed plan that handles all of it often costs a fraction of that.
If you're not sure whether a managed site is worth it, this pairs well with our honest cost breakdown.
How much does a website actually cost in NZ?What to do with the number
If your monthly DIY cost is higher than a Found plan, you're not saving money doing it yourself — you're just paying yourself in stress and lost evenings instead. Handing the tech to someone who does it every day frees you up to do the work that actually grows your business.
It's the same thinking that kills the Sunday-night dread of catching up on admin.
"Our ads were burning money. Found restructured them and we're getting three times the leads for less spend."
Anna L.
Boutique owner, Dunedin
And if you've already got a site, pair this with the ROI calculator to see both sides — what it costs you and what it brings in.
Rather just have us do this?
This is exactly what our monthly plans cover — one simple fee, no big upfront cost, and a team that gets it done.
Run your numbers, and if DIY is costing you more than it's saving — that's exactly the problem we solve. One simple monthly plan and the tech stops being your job.
Serving these areas
We help businesses right across New Zealand. See what we do in your area:
Rather someone just sorted it?
That's literally what we're here for. One call, and the tech bits stop being your problem.