Straight answers, no fog.

We're a web design and development agency founded in 2006 and based in Duluth, Minnesota. We build websites, custom web and mobile apps, and digital marketing, plus security, and AI integration and automation. It's all under one roof, from strategy through launch and ongoing care.

We're based in Duluth, Minnesota, on the shore of Lake Superior, and we work with clients everywhere. Since 2006 we've shipped work for Fortune 500 companies, national associations and broadcasters, non-profits, startups, and local businesses across the country. If you're local, here's more on web design in Duluth.

Since 2006, with 174+ projects shipped. That's two decades of building through every era of the web, which means we've seen what lasts and what doesn't.

No. A few businesses share the "Set Sail" name, and we're separate from all of them. We're Set Sail Media (setsailmedia.com), the Duluth, Minnesota web design and development agency founded in 2006. The others are unaffiliated, with no connection to us: Set Sail Marketing Agency, a social media agency on the Crystal Coast of North Carolina; Set Sail Studio, a design studio in Washington, D.C.; and Set Sail Studios, a brush-font foundry in the Cotswolds, England.

Websites are quoted as a flat fee based on scope, with a deposit to start and the balance as milestones are met. To set expectations, a starter business website with minimal advanced features might start in the $1,500 ballpark, though the final number depends on what you need. Custom development is scoped feature by feature.

Tell us what you're building on our pricing page or the project form, and we'll quote it straight, usually within two business days.

Two models. For most business websites we quote a single flat fee, agreed before we start, with no surprises. For custom apps and complex builds we scope the entire project and budget each feature, major and minor, so you can see exactly what drives the cost and decide what makes the first launch.

Barebones hosting, which covers hosting space and your domain name, runs $15 per month. Maintenance and support care contracts start at $50 per month and cover updates, backups, monitoring, security, and someone to call. Both are kept deliberately simple, and care contracts scale with how much you want handled.

For custom development we can phase the build to your budget, prioritizing what you need first and adding features in later rounds. Talk to us about your situation and we'll structure the work in a way that fits.

It depends on scope. A focused marketing site typically moves in a few weeks; a custom application is a longer voyage. Once we scope your project you get a realistic schedule up front, with honest checkpoints along the way and no drifting deadlines.

Five steps: chart the course (discovery, strategy, fixed scope and quote), design and build (drafts, revisions, and a private staging site you can watch grow), test and refine (usability testing, performance, and accessibility on every device), launch (final polish, deployment, analytics, and training), and grow (ongoing support and improvements). The full map is on our process page.

Yes. We build sites that are painless to maintain and update, and we train your team to run it. We can build on a content management system like WordPress or a headless CMS so non-technical staff can make edits confidently.

A conversation. Tell us your goals, your customers, and roughly what you have in mind, even if it's vague; some of our favorite projects started that way. From there we map the route, agree on scope, and give you a straight quote before any work begins.

Yes. We build e-commerce on Shopify, WooCommerce, or fully custom carts with Stripe, including product catalogs, checkout, and payment integration. We've been building online stores since the early days of online checkout.

Yes. Our digital marketing covers SEO, content strategy, email and campaigns, paid media, analytics, and local search. A great site nobody sees is just an expensive place to sit, so we drive the right traffic and prove it with numbers.

Yes. When off-the-shelf software falls short we build custom web applications, dashboards, client portals, and mobile apps, plus the integrations that tie them together. We've shipped our own products since 2009, including the CRM that ran our company.

Yes. We build practical AI integration and automation: custom assistants like the First Mate on our own site, workflow automation, AI-powered site features, and GEO so you get found in AI search. Hand-built, clearly labeled, and always with a human in the loop.

Yes. We offer security audits, hardening, updates, monitoring, backups and recovery, and database care, all managed by our own crew. Care contracts start at $50 per month so problems get caught small and fixed by someone you know.

Absolutely. We keep what works, fix what doesn't, and migrate carefully so no one loses their bookmarks. A redesign is like a home remodel: we improve the parts that matter without tearing down everything that already works.

The modern stack: Next.js, React, TypeScript, and Node.js for custom work; WordPress and headless CMS for content sites; Shopify and WooCommerce for commerce; Laravel, PostgreSQL, and MySQL on the back end; hosted on AWS or Vercel. We were hand-coding standards-compliant sites before it was cool and have re-tooled for every era since. See our full technology stack.

Yes. You own your website, your domain, and your content. We build it for you, hand over the keys, and are happy to keep helping through a care contract, but you're never locked in.

Yes. Every site we build is responsive across phones, tablets, and desktops, and we build accessibility in from the start, including contrast, keyboard navigation, and screen reader support. Design that works for everyone is the baseline, not extra credit.

Tell us what you want to build using the project form, email [email protected], or chat with First Mate on the site. We reply, typically within two business days, usually with a few questions to scope your project and give you a straight quote.