By Bianca Frank, Creative Director · Bianca Frank Design, Anchorage Originally published July 2019. Fully rewritten and updated October 2026.
Most people who call me have already been through something. A site a nephew built in 2017 that nobody can log into. A national agency that sent a beautiful proposal and then handed the project to a rotating cast of account managers. An out-of-state company that cold-emailed every clinic in Anchorage and delivered a template with the wrong phone number on it. Or just a business that has grown, and a website that hasn’t.
So the question isn’t really “who does good web design?” There are plenty of people who can make a nice-looking page. The question is who you can trust with your business’s front door, who will still answer the phone in eight months, and who understands what it means to run a clinic in Wasilla or a housing authority in Fairbanks.
I’ve run a small design studio in Anchorage since 2007. This is the advice I’d give a friend, including the parts where the answer isn’t “hire me.”
In short:
- Your real choices are a freelancer, a small local agency, or a larger out-of-state firm. Each is right for a different kind of business.
- “Local” is worth paying for when you need a long-term partner, not a one-time build. It matters less for a simple brochure site.
- The things to check before you sign: who actually does the work, how often you’ll hear from them, who owns the site when it’s done, and what happens after launch.
- Expect a real Alaska agency project to take 8–14 weeks and to start with a conversation, not a quote.
- Best fit for a small local agency: established businesses, practices and organizations that want someone they can call, and that plan to keep investing in the site after launch.
What are your actual options for web design in Alaska?
There are three, and the right one depends on your business more than on the designer.
A freelancer. Often the best value for a straightforward site with a handful of pages, if you find a good one. The risk is continuity: when they take a full-time job or move to the Lower 48, you’re starting over, and you may not have the logins. Ask how long they’ve been doing this and what happens if they’re unavailable.
A small local agency. A team of two to five people who do strategy, design and development in-house, with one person you deal with throughout. This is what we are. You get the continuity a freelancer can’t promise and the attention a big firm can’t, at a cost in between. You also get someone who knows which Alaska vendors are reliable, which local organizations matter, and understands that your customers in Bethel are on a slow connection.
A larger agency, usually out of state. Right for a complex platform, a large organization, or a brand launch with a six-figure budget. The trade-offs are predictable: the people who pitch you are not the people who build it, Alaska is a line item to them, and small changes after launch go into a ticket queue. Many of the calls I get are from businesses who went this route first.
If your site is a simple brochure and you have no plans to touch it for years, a freelancer or even a Squarespace template is fine, and I’ll tell you so. If the site is how patients, clients or tribal members find and judge you, and you expect to grow, the choice is usually between the second and third options.
What does “local” actually get you?
Four things, and none of them is a prettier design.
Someone you can actually reach. Not a ticket queue, not an account manager who relays your question to someone you’ve never spoken to. When a project hits a hard decision, a call with the person doing the work settles it in twenty minutes. The same decision over email with a team three time zones away takes a week. You’ll have my direct line and I’ll use yours.
Context you don’t have to explain. We know that a medical practice in Alaska has to think about patients flying in from the villages, that a tribal organization’s site may need to serve members, funders and the public at once, and that a contractor’s busy season runs opposite to a lodge’s. We’ve built sites for Solstice Psychiatry, the Native Village of Barrow, Alaska Geographic and the Interior Regional Housing Authority, and for electricians, land surveyors, home builders, a state board and a coffee shop. That range is the point: Alaska businesses don’t fit national templates, and we stopped trying to make them a long time ago.
A reputation that’s checkable. In a town this size, you can ask around. Call a client of ours. Look at our Google reviews and read the ones from people whose businesses you recognize. A national firm’s reviews are from people you’ll never meet; ours are from people you might run into at Costco. That changes how we behave.
Accountability after launch. The site breaks at 4 pm on a Friday, or a plugin update takes the booking form down, or you need the new hours up before Monday. A local partner who handles your website hosting and management deals with that. We answer our own phone. It’s not a slogan; it’s just a small enough team that there’s nobody else to answer it.
What should working with a web designer look like, week to week?
This is the part nobody puts in the proposal, and it’s where most bad experiences come from. Here’s what a project with us actually looks like, so you have something to compare against.
- A conversation before a quote. We won’t price a project from a contact-form message. The first call is 30–45 minutes about your business, who the site is for, what’s wrong with the current one, and what “working” would mean in a year. If we’re not the right fit, we say so on that call.
- A written scope with a timeline. Pages, features, who writes the words, who provides photos, what the site runs on, and what’s not included. Vague scopes are how projects double in price.
- One point of contact, the whole way through. You deal with me. The developer and designer you meet at kickoff are the ones who do the work.
- A weekly update, even when there’s nothing to show. A short email every week on what happened, what’s next and what we need from you. Silence is what makes clients nervous, and it’s avoidable.
- Design review before development. You see and approve how the site will look and move before a line of code is written. Changing a design is cheap; changing a built site is not.
- Training and the keys. Before launch you get a walkthrough of how to change text, photos, hours and staff. You get every login. The site, the domain and the content are yours.
- A plan for after. Hosting, updates, backups and security are either in our care or clearly handed to you. We’d rather manage it, because we know how the site was built, but it’s your call.
If a designer you’re talking to can’t describe their version of this in the same level of detail, that’s your answer.
What questions should you ask before you sign?
Ask any designer or agency these, and listen for specifics:
- Who exactly will design and build my site, and can I talk to them directly?
- How often will I hear from you, and how?
- What’s the timeline, and what has made past projects run late?
- Who writes the content and takes the photos? (If the answer is “you,” budget time for it.)
- Will I own the domain, the hosting account and the site files? Can I log in on day one?
- What happens if I need a change six months after launch, and what does it cost?
- Can I talk to two clients from the last year?
- What do you do if we disagree about a design?
The last one tells you the most. Good partners have an answer because it has happened.
What are the red flags?
A few patterns worth walking away from:
- Cold outreach promising page-one rankings. Alaska businesses get a steady stream of these. Nobody can promise rankings, and the ones who do usually deliver thin templates. We’ve written up the common web design scams targeting Alaska businesses because so many clients have shown us the emails.
- A quote within an hour, before anyone has asked about your business.
- “We’ll handle the hosting” with no mention of what you own. Some firms keep the domain and site in their name; leaving them means starting over.
- A portfolio of sites that all look the same. Templates aren’t bad; being sold one as custom work is.
- No one local to verify. If you can’t find a single Alaska client who’ll vouch for them, treat the Google reviews with caution.
What does a website cost in Alaska, and how long does it take?
For an established business or organization working with a small Alaska agency, a custom WordPress site with professional design, written content guidance and on-page SEO typically runs from the mid four figures into the low five figures, and takes 8–14 weeks from the first call to launch. Branding or a logo refresh alongside it adds time and cost. A more detailed breakdown is in our post on how much a website costs.
| What you’re buying | Typical range | Timeline |
|---|---|---|
| Template or DIY (Squarespace, Wix) | Low hundreds to low thousands, plus your time | Days to weeks |
| Freelancer, custom WordPress | Low to mid four figures | 4–8 weeks |
| Small local agency, custom WordPress + SEO | Mid four figures to low five figures | 8–14 weeks |
| Agency redesign + brand refresh | Low to mid five figures | 10–16 weeks |
| National agency, custom platform | Mid five figures and up | 3–6 months |
The honest comparison isn’t price; it’s price against how long the site will serve you and what it costs when something goes wrong. A site that lasts six years with a partner who picks up the phone is cheaper than two cheap sites and a year of frustration.
Who is a small local agency not right for?
I’d rather say this here than discover it on a call. We’re not the right fit if you need the site in two weeks, if you want the cheapest possible option and don’t plan to update it, or if the project is a large custom web application. We’re also not the fit if you want to hand off the project and never think about it; the sites that do best are the ones where the client stays involved for the first few weeks.
We are the fit for businesses, practices and organizations across Alaska that have outgrown their site, want to work with people they can reach and check on, and plan to keep improving it after launch. That describes most of the clients we’ve kept for years.
Frequently asked questions
Should I hire a local web designer or an online agency? If you need a long-term partner, ongoing updates and someone accountable, local usually wins. If you need a one-time simple site at the lowest price, a reputable online option can be fine. Decide based on how much the site matters to your revenue.
How do I check a web designer’s reputation in Alaska? Read their Google reviews and note whether you recognize the businesses. Ask for two recent clients you can call. Look up their business license and how long they’ve operated. Ask around; Alaska is small.
Who owns my website after it’s built? You should own the domain, the hosting account, the content and the site files, with your own logins from day one. Get that in writing before you pay a deposit.
How long does a website project take in Alaska? A custom site with a small agency typically takes 8–14 weeks. The most common delay is content and photos from the client’s side, so plan for that early.
Do I need an agency in Anchorage if my business is in Fairbanks or Juneau? No. Most of our work with clients outside Anchorage is done by video, phone and email. What matters is Alaska context and reachable people, not which city.
If you’re deciding now
If you’re weighing options for a new site or a rebuild, the fastest way to find out whether we’re the right partner is a conversation. Tell us about your business and what’s not working, and we’ll give you a straight read on what it needs and whether that’s us, including when it isn’t.
Bianca Frank is the founder and Creative Director of Bianca Frank Design, an Anchorage agency that has designed brands and websites for Alaska businesses since 2007. She holds a BFA in Graphic Design and leads a small in-house team covering branding, web design, SEO and content strategy, with recent work for clients including Nalaquq LLC, the Native Village of Barrow, Solstice Psychiatry and Alaska Geographic. BFD was named one of Anchorage’s best web designers by Three Best Rated (2025) and received UpCity’s Local Excellence and Best of Alaska awards (2022, 2023).
