01 · Speed
It loads in under a second.
Lighthouse performance scores of 99 to 100 on the sites we've measured. Rattlesnakes By Mail puts its main content on screen in 0.4 seconds on desktop and 0.9 on a phone.
Websites rebuilt to run themselves
A website that loads instantly, runs itself, and gets found by Google and AI.
Atomic Wax moves business websites onto modern infrastructure (Astro, EmDash and Cloudflare's edge network) so they load instantly, need no plugin upkeep, and are built to be found by Google and AI assistants.
Free · no call required · a written plan either way
Building business websites since 2000 · Shopify Select Partner · Prince Edward County, Ontario
110boutiques listed
65cities · 10 provinces
EN·FRfully bilingual
0plugins to update
Not a mock-up: visit it and feel the speed. On a brand-new domain it earned 45,600 Google impressions and 481 clicks in three months (Google Search Console, Jul 1 to Sep 29 2026).
Proof
Live sites, measured.
thelingerieshoppe.ca45.6KGoogle impressions and 481 clicks in 90 days, on a brand-new domainSearch Console, Jul 1–Sep 29 2026
aibubblequestion.com100Lighthouse on desktop for performance, accessibility, best practices and SEOLighthouse, Oct 3 2026
wysiwygco.com3½ daysFrom a dead WordPress site on Sep 30 to a live rebuild on Oct 3, with Lighthouse 100/100/100 (client site)Build record + Lighthouse, Oct 3 2026Figures from Google Search Console and Lighthouse, measured October 3, 2026.
What changes
Same site. New physics.
Same content, same brand. Here is what is different afterwards.
02 · Upkeep
It runs itself.
Nothing to patch, and nobody waiting for you to notice a problem. Stay on our systems for $199 a month and the site checks itself every day, applies updates and SEO fixes, and tells you what changed. Or take the keys.
03 · Ownership
It stays yours.
Your domain, your hosting account, your code, your content in a database you own. Built on open technology any developer can pick up.
04 · Visibility
It gets found.
Open to Google and to AI crawlers like GPTBot and ClaudeBot, with structured data on every page and an llms.txt file that tells AI assistants what the site is.
The math
What "maintenance" actually costs.
Typical published market rates for keeping a small-business WordPress site alive, next to what the same site costs on Run. Run costs less than the low end of the WordPress range, and it includes monitoring and fixes that care plans don't.
Today · A typical WordPress setup
Managed WordPress hosting$30–$60 /mo
Care plan or maintenance retainer$85–$199 /mo
Plugin and theme licences$20–$50 /mo
Developer hours when things break$100–$200 /mo
Three-year cost$8,500–$18,000+
After · Run, on our systems · $199/mo
Edge hosting, SSL, backups and your editing loginIncluded
Self-monitoring: 32 automated checks on the live site, every dayIncluded
Automatic platform and security updates, applied and loggedIncluded
SEO and AI-search fixes applied as the checks find them, with a monthly change logIncluded
Uptime and deploy-drift watch (we read the live site, not a status page)Included
A person when the system can't fix it: Peter reviews every escalationIncluded
Three-year cost$7,164
Prefer to own it outright? Take the keys: $0/month, hosting $0–$5 on your own account, full export and handover.
Ranges reflect published care-plan and managed-hosting rates as of mid-2026. Run is 36 × $199 = $7,164; taking the keys comes to under $200 over the same three years. Your assessment report calculates this table for your actual site, from your actual invoices.
How it works
Three steps. No agency circus.
01
The assessment
Send your website address. No call required. You get a short written report: how fast the site really is, what it's built on, what it costs to run, what a rebuild must protect, and a fixed quote.
Free02
The rebuild
We build the new site alongside the live one. Every old address is mapped to its new home before anything moves. Weeks, not months.
Fixed quote03
The upkeep: Run, or take the keys
Most clients stay on Run at $199 a month: daily self-checks, automatic updates and SEO fixes, a person when it matters. Cancel any time. Or take the keys and host it yourself for next to nothing.
$199/mo · optionalThe deal
Seven promises, in writing.
- A free written assessment. No call required.
- A fixed quote before any deposit. Most rebuilds land between $2,500 and $7,500.
- Your site stays live the whole time.
- Every old URL is redirect-mapped to its new home.
- No lock-in: stay on Run at $199/month or take the keys, your choice at any time.
- Domain, code and content in your name from day one. Hosting too, the moment you take the keys.
- Rankings watched for 90 days after launch.
Field Notes
What we're learning, in public.
Can AI grow a brand-new local travel site? The Crank experiment, five weeks in
AI plans, a local approves, budget near zero. 3,470 impressions and 53 clicks since August 26, which pages earned them, and what we can't tell yet.
Every claim gets a primary source: building reference sites AI assistants can trust
Two reference sites, 997 quote-bound claims and 212 dark-sky places, one rule: no source, no sentence. Why we think sourcing is the search strategy.
Rebuilt from the archive in three and a half days
A coaching practice's site went offline with no source and no backups. We rebuilt it from the Wayback Machine, kept every URL, and had it live in 3.5 days.
Who you deal with
Est. 2000. Rebuilt 2026.
Atomic Wax is Peter Benes: designer first, builder second, a Shopify Select Partner who has built hundreds of business websites since 2000. The person who quotes the work does the work. No account managers, no junior team. He also runs Benes the Menace, a retail ecommerce consultancy for independent shop owners.
Fair questions
Asked and answered.
What does a rebuild cost?
Most rebuilds of 10 to 30 page business sites land between $2,500 and $7,500. The free assessment gives you the exact number as a fixed quote, set before any deposit and based on what your site contains, not on how long we take. After launch, hosting typically costs less per year than an older setup costs per month.
Will I lose my Google rankings?
Every address on your old site gets a redirect to its new home. That map is built before anything moves, checked after launch, and watched for 90 days. Expect a brief dip in Google impressions while the new site is re-crawled; it usually recovers within weeks. Any migration, by anyone, causes that dip. We tell you now so it doesn't cause a panic later.
Who edits the site afterwards?
You do, or anyone you choose. The new site comes with an editing panel, so changing words, images and pages is a login, not a support ticket. It is built on open, widely used technology and handed over documented, so any competent developer can take it from there. Stay on Run ($199 a month, cancel any time) and we host it, monitor it and fix what the checks find. Or take the keys: everything is in your name, hosting on your own Cloudflare account runs $0 to $5 a month, and you get a full export and a written handover.
What does Run cost and what's in it?
Run is $199 a month, cancel any time. It includes edge hosting, SSL, backups and your editing login; 32 automated checks on the live site every day; automatic platform and security updates, applied and logged; SEO and AI-search fixes applied as the checks find them, with a monthly change log; an uptime and deploy-drift watch that reads the live site rather than a status page; and a person when the system can't fix something, because Peter reviews every escalation. Over three years that is $7,164, less than the low end of a typical WordPress setup. Prefer to own it outright? Take the keys: $0 a month, hosting $0 to $5 a month on your own account, a full export and a written handover.
What is EmDash, and why not WordPress?
EmDash is the content editor your new site runs on: the login where you change words, images and pages, with the content stored in a database you own. Pages are built with Astro and served from Cloudflare's edge network. There is no plugin stack, so there is nothing to patch. A typical WordPress site depends on plugins and themes that need constant updates, and that upkeep is what the monthly maintenance fee pays for.
How long does it take?
Typical rebuilds run weeks, not months. Your assessment report includes the timeline for your site specifically. Your current site stays live the whole time.
What happens if I don't continue after the assessment?
Nothing. The report is yours to keep, act on, or hand to another developer. The quote doesn't expire while you think. And if the honest answer is that you don't need us, the report says that too.
The next step
Find out what your site could be.
The assessment is free, requires no call, and ends with a written plan and a fixed price, whether you build with us or not.