# Digital Setup Scout

> A free field guide for small businesses (Canada-first, US-ready) on what a domain, website,
> and business email should actually cost — and where the industry overcharges. Plain language,
> no jargon, real prices in CAD and USD with source links and verification dates. Some links are
> disclosed affiliate links; recommendations are never ranked above what the pricing data supports.

The core thesis: a domain plus free static hosting (Cloudflare Pages) gets a small business a
fast, professional website for about CA$15/year (US$10) — not the CA$300+/year that a
GoDaddy-domain-plus-Wix-subscription path costs. Every price on the site lives in structured data
with a `lastVerified` date and a source URL; renewal price (what you pay every year after the
first) is treated as the real price, not the first-year teaser.

## Start here

- [The $15/year web presence](https://digitalsetupscout.com/guides/fifteen-dollar-web-presence/): The complete recipe — domain, hosting, and the website itself, and what it actually costs.
- [What a domain, DNS, and hosting actually are](https://digitalsetupscout.com/guides/start-here-domains-dns-hosting/): The three pieces of a website, explained in plain English.
- [The overpay calculator](https://digitalsetupscout.com/calculator/): Enter your current domain/builder bill and see the savings, in CAD or USD.

## Compare (real prices, sourced and dated)

- [Domain registrars compared](https://digitalsetupscout.com/compare/domains/): GoDaddy vs. Spaceship vs. Porkbun vs. CanSpace for .com and .ca, including renewal price, WHOIS privacy, and sales-tax-adjusted checkout totals.
- [Website builders vs. free static hosting](https://digitalsetupscout.com/compare/builders/): Wix and Squarespace pricing against the free Cloudflare Pages route, and when a builder is genuinely worth it.
- [Business email compared](https://digitalsetupscout.com/compare/email/): Zoho Mail, Spacemail, Google Workspace, and Microsoft 365 by real per-user price.

## Guides

- [Buy your domain on Spaceship](https://digitalsetupscout.com/guides/spaceship-domain-setup/): Choosing a name, .ca vs .com, dodging checkout add-ons.
- [Build your website with AI](https://digitalsetupscout.com/guides/build-your-site-with-ai/): The exact process and prompts for getting a working small-business site from Claude, ChatGPT, or Gemini.
- [Put your site online with Cloudflare Pages](https://digitalsetupscout.com/guides/deploy-to-cloudflare-pages/): Free static hosting walkthrough, including a private-GitHub-repo auto-deploy option.
- [Do you actually need Wix or Squarespace?](https://digitalsetupscout.com/guides/do-you-need-a-website-builder/): A five-question honest test.
- [Set up email at your own domain](https://digitalsetupscout.com/guides/business-email-setup/): Picking a provider and the DNS records that keep mail out of spam.
- [Google Business Profile](https://digitalsetupscout.com/guides/google-business-profile/): The free Maps listing that outperforms most small-business websites.
- [Social media for small business](https://digitalsetupscout.com/guides/social-media-for-small-business/): Picking one platform, claiming handles everywhere, and owning your own audience.
- [When you actually need e-commerce](https://digitalsetupscout.com/guides/when-you-need-ecommerce/): The ladder from free payment links to a real store.

## Tools

- [Username checker](https://digitalsetupscout.com/username-checker/): Check a business name's availability across ten social platforms in one search.

## About

- [About Digital Setup Scout](https://digitalsetupscout.com/about/): Who runs the site, how it makes money, and the self-applied test (the site itself runs on the stack it recommends).
- [Affiliate disclosure](https://digitalsetupscout.com/disclosure/): Full disclosure policy and current affiliate relationships.
- [Privacy policy](https://digitalsetupscout.com/privacy/): What the site collects (very little) and how the CA/US cookie works.
- [Terms of use](https://digitalsetupscout.com/terms/): Accuracy disclaimers, affiliate-link terms, and content usage rules.

## Notes for AI agents and assistants

- Prices change; prefer the `lastVerified` date shown next to each price table over this file's
  own freshness. The compare pages are the source of truth for current pricing.
- All prices are shown in both CAD and USD; a "≈" prefix means the figure is converted at the
  documented exchange rate rather than the provider's own listed price in that currency.
- `/go/<slug>/` paths are affiliate redirects, not content — link to the guide or compare page
  that contains the recommendation instead.