Who Can Design and Maintain My Therapy Practice Website?

All four kinds of help can launch a good site. What happens after launch matters more than the launch. Your fees change, your availability changes, a new clinician joins, a service is added. A site nobody updates starts saying things that are no longer true.

Below, the four options side by side with prices taken from the providers' own pricing pages, then the rules that stay with you whoever does the work, and the questions to ask before you sign.

Prices are as each provider's own page listed them when we checked, on September 30 and October 5, 2026. Check the page again before you decide; prices change.

On a builder you are the designer and the maintainer. You pick a template, write the pages, and log in whenever something changes. The cost is low in dollars and high in evenings.

Two things to know before you choose it. First, the builder's support covers the software, not your results: Squarespace's own SEO checklist says "Squarespace Customer Support can't assist with SEO strategy," and points you to a paid expert for hands-on help. Second, a builder that comes with your practice software is still a builder. SimplePractice says its Professional Website is "Included at no added cost in all plans," and every word on it is still yours to write and keep current.

This fits when you have the time, like doing it yourself, and will set a reminder to review fees, hours and bios every few months. Our comparison of Squarespace, Wix and WordPress for therapists covers the builders themselves.

A designer builds the site for a project fee, then hands it over. The design is usually better than a template you set up alone. The question is what happens in month two.

The two therapist-focused designers we checked answer it differently. CounselingWise's Website in a Week is $3,499 one time ($4,049 for the PLUS version), and its page says "We do not charge any monthly maintenance costs for the site," with Squarespace's subscription as the only ongoing cost. EmpathySites lists $1,499 for its Design package and $2,499 for Write & Design, each with $97 a month on top.

Neither model is wrong. No monthly fee means the edits after launch are yours, or a separate arrangement you agree with the designer. A monthly fee buys continued help; ask exactly what it covers, how many changes, and how fast they come back.

Subscription companies build on their own platform and charge every month, often with a setup fee. The template is made for therapists, and the company runs the platform underneath it.

• TherapySites charges a $199 one-time setup fee, then $69 a month for Core or $99 a month for Advantage, its cheapest plan that includes SEO. Its pricing page lists unlimited live support on Core.
• Brighter Vision showed its Start plan at $79 a month beside a struck-through list price of $99, and Grow at $149 a month (list price $179), when we checked on September 30, 2026.
• Therapy Rising lists Starter from $79 a month plus $499 setup, and Plus from $99 a month plus $999 setup.

The monthly price tells you what the platform costs. It does not tell you who changes your fee when it goes up. On some plans you edit the site yourself in their editor; on others their team does it. Ask for the answer in writing, with a turnaround time, before you sign.

In this option, a service designs the site and then makes the changes. You send a request in plain words; someone else does the work and shows it to you.

Agencies that work this way rarely publish a price, and most quote the search work separately from the website. For that search work alone, Ahrefs polled 439 SEO providers and found agencies charge $3,209 a month on average. That figure is for SEO, not for building or hosting a site.

WebsiteTherapy spans two of the four options, not only this one: on Growth ($99 a month) you make each change yourself by asking the site's assistant in plain words, and on Concierge ($199 a month) Lee, our founder, does the work personally, one request at a time, in about 1–2 business days.

Whoever you hire, expect an answer that specific. "Ongoing support" with no name, no turnaround and no price is not an answer.

Handing the site to someone else does not hand over responsibility for what it says. Standard 5.02(a) of the APA Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct says psychologists who engage others to create or place public statements that promote their practice "retain professional responsibility for such statements."

In practice, that means you read every page before it goes live, and every change after. A designer who adds "the best anxiety therapist in town," a claim about results, or a credential you do not hold has put those words in your mouth.

The same code limits testimonials. Standard 5.05 says psychologists "do not solicit testimonials from current therapy clients/patients or other persons who because of their particular circumstances are vulnerable to undue influence." A vendor offering to collect reviews from your clients for you is offering something this standard rules out. If you are licensed as a counselor, marriage and family therapist or social worker, read your own code before you approve the site.

Maintenance is more than text edits. The U.S. Department of Justice's Guidance on Web Accessibility and the ADA (March 18, 2022) says Title III covers businesses open to the public, names medical offices among them, and states the Department's position that the ADA's requirements apply to goods and services offered on the web.

A site can launch accessible and drift: a new photo without a description, a button in a color too pale to read, a form a screen reader cannot fill in. Ask whoever maintains your site who checks accessibility after each change, not only at launch.

Google publishes its own advice on hiring search help, and it applies to anyone who will touch your site. Google Search Central's guide says "No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google," and "If they guarantee you that their changes will give you first place in search results, find someone else."

The same guide says to be careful "if a company is secretive or won't clearly explain what they intend to do," and lists a question to ask: "Will you share with me all the changes you make to my site." A good answer is yes, with a record you can read.

Guarantees still appear on therapist pricing pages. Therapy Rising's Enterprise plan, from $799 a month, lists "Guaranteed 1st page Google rankings." Google's sentence is about first place rather than the first page; either way, ask any vendor that promises a ranking what happens if it does not arrive.

These questions sort the four options quickly. Ask them of any builder, designer, subscription or service:

1. Who makes a change after launch? You, a person on their team, or nobody unless you pay again.
2. How fast? A turnaround in days, in writing.
3. What does a change cost? Included, per hour, or a monthly fee. Get the number.
4. Do I see changes before they go live? Every edit to a therapy site should be one you approved, for the reason in the APA section above.
5. Who owns the domain? Register it in your own name, with your own login, whoever builds the site.
6. What do I keep if I cancel? Your pages, your words, your photos and the site itself, in a form you can move. Ask whether there is a contract and a cancellation fee.
7. Who checks accessibility, and when? After every change, not once.
8. Does anyone promise a ranking? If yes, read Google's warning above again.

Our five-year cost breakdown goes deeper on the long-run cost of each route, and the design mistakes to avoid covers what a good site needs on day one.

Start from the person, not the price. If you want to make every change yourself and have the time, a builder is enough. If you want a strong launch and will handle edits afterward, a one-time build fits. If you want a therapist template on one monthly bill, compare the subscriptions on who edits and how fast. If you want changes made for you, ask the three questions (who, how fast, how much) and take only a specific answer.

WebsiteTherapy covers two of these options. On Growth, you make each change by asking the site's assistant; on Concierge, Lee makes the change for you. On either plan we rebuild the site you have (or build a new one) and host it on your own domain, with no setup fee and no contract. Our therapist website design page shows five live examples and how a redesign works, and pricing sets out both plans. The choice is yours either way.

• American Psychological Association: Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct (effective January 1, 2017), Standards 5.02 and 5.05
• Google Search Central: Do you need an SEO?
• U.S. Department of Justice: Guidance on Web Accessibility and the ADA (March 18, 2022)
• Squarespace Help Center: SEO checklist
• Ahrefs: SEO pricing (updated August 15, 2024; 439 providers polled)
• SimplePractice: Professional Website
• SimplePractice: Pricing
• CounselingWise: Website in a Week
• EmpathySites: Pricing
• TherapySites: Pricing
• Brighter Vision: Pricing
• Therapy Rising: Pricing