DockeryAI · site and portal analysis · 23 August 2026

What Skyline got, what a $10k website buys, and what the whole build would cost at market rates

Three questions, answered from measurement and published prices: how skylinefirestopping.com compares with the competitor sites measured for the Tocharian look-up; what a $10,000 / £8,000 website actually includes from real agency packages; and what it would cost to buy everything Skyline received, piece by piece, at 2025–26 market rates. Every number links to its source.

£45k–£95k
To buy the Skyline build separately, one-off
Strategy, 32-page custom site with copy, per-question pages, video, four guides, conversion set-up, governance, baseline measurement
£15k–£25k / mo
To run it separately, every month
SEO, AI-visibility, content, social, target-account outreach, tooling; before any senior oversight
5–15 pages
What $10k buys elsewhere
Semi-custom design, contact form, meta tags; copy, blog, CRM and structured data usually extra

1. The site itself, measured against the competitor sites

Same probe on every site (real browser, desktop and iPhone 13, 23 August 2026): load time, bytes transferred, readable text, images without alt text, JavaScript errors, forms and click-to-call links, structured data, llms.txt, page count.

Site Load Transfer Rendered text Images / no alt JS errors Forms / tel Structured data llms.txt Pages
skylinefirestopping.com 1.07 s 35 KB 6,142 (10,156 without JS) 21 / 2 0 1 / 4 Organization, WebSite, WebPage, VideoObject, ImageObject yes 32
bigdataboutique.com 1.70 s 334 KB 10,250 88 / 9 0 1 / 0 WebSite, Person, Service, FAQPage yes 410
qavi.tech 0.40 s 1,082 KB 6,955 94 / 0 0 0 / 7 Organization, Place, Offer yes small
pureinsights.com 1.97 s 1,032 KB 3,856 20 / 6 1 1 / 0 WebPage, Breadcrumb (no H1) yes Elementor
nextbrick.com 0.67 s 700 KB 1,551 21 / 0 0 0 / 1 Organization, WebSite yes 880
crestdata.ai 2.20 s 2,010 KB 5,454 49 / 19 0 4 / 0 Organization, FAQPage (no H1) yes WordPress
meteorops.com 1.40 s 898 KB 12,447 22 / 2 0 0 / 0 Organization, Service yes + agents.md 657
sematext.com 0.85 s 619 KB 7,206 16 / 16 1 0 / 0 WebPage, Breadcrumb yes large
mimacom.com 1.61 s 675 KB 3,203 28 / 0 1 0 / 0 none no 904
oktopeak.com 1.18 s 3,307 KB 16,033 45 / 5 1 1 / 0 Organization, FAQPage, AggregateRating yes small
squareshift.co 1.65 s 1,945 KB 3,793 78 / 1 0 1 / 0 Organization, FAQPage, Article yes Wix
tocharian.eu (prospect) 1.23 s 83 KB 10,164 (75 without JS) 0 / 0 0 0 / 0 Organization, SoftwareApplication no single page
Skyline is the lightest and fastest site in the set (35 KB against 334 KB to 3.3 MB), with zero script errors, no mobile overflow, readable without JavaScript, 32 pages, an llms.txt and an AI-crawler policy. Only MeteorOps is comparably deliberate about the engines. Where the competitors lead: four of them carry FAQ blocks with FAQPage schema on the cited page; Skyline has one question heading on the home page and no reviews schema, and two images lack alt text.

2. What a $10,000 / £8,000 website includes, from real packages

Eighteen live agency pricing pages were read. The pattern is consistent across the UK and US.

Item At $10k / £8k Evidence
Pages 5 to 15 Nextiny $8k for 5, $12k for 15 · Thrive $7,500 for 5 · Lounge Lizard $7–20k for 8–15 · Expertsure UK £3–8k for 5–10
Design Customised theme, not built from scratch Thrive's $7,500 tier is "templated"; B2B specialists start higher: Bop Design from $25k, Digital Silk $10k minimum, Kanuka $13k "small"
Copywriting Usually extra or client-supplied NewMedia +$2–6k · Thrive $300/page · Media Village UK excluded at £5–10k
SEO Title and meta tags; sometimes Search Console and Analytics set-up Thrive "meta + title tags only"; eSEOspace the one package with schema; SEO retainers sold separately at $750–3,500/month
Structured data, llms.txt, AI-crawler readiness Absent Schema in one of eighteen packages; llms.txt in none; AEO sold separately at $1,000–12,000/month (310 Creative, WebFX)
Lead capture A contact form CRM integration excluded at £5–10k (Media Village), or one tier up (Comrade $799/month, Kanuka $19k)
Blog Rarely set up; never written Absent from Thrive, Lounge Lizard, NewMedia; Nextiny ships posts only inside the $500/month HubSpot plan
Video, lead magnets, founder content Not included Founder video averages $3,185 (Advids); a written and designed guide about $3,000 (Stellar Content)
After launch Hosting and care plan billed monthly Thrive $127/month · eSEOspace $50 + $250/month · UK care plans £39–£385/month (Inspirable, WP Buffs, SiteCare)
Client publishing workflow Not offered No package sells "request a page, approve it, publish it"; the nearest are proofing tools at $50–$400/month (BugHerd comparison)
So the honest answer to "how does Skyline compare to a $10k site": on the surface, a $10k site from a competent agency looks similar. Underneath, it has a third of the pages, no strategy, no copy, no per-question pages, no structured data or AI-crawler work, a contact form instead of a conversion layer, no blog, no measurement, and no way for the client to request and publish pages. Each of those is a separate purchase.

3. Feature by feature: the Skyline site and portal against a $10k site and the competitor sites

Capability Skyline (DockeryAI) $10k website Competitor sites (best of ten) Bought separately (typical)
Strategy underneath: buyers, message, target accounts, numbers Yes, the plan everything is built from No Not visible £10,000–£15,000 sprint
Design exploration before build Three design directions, shortlisted, refined 2–3 revision rounds on one theme Inside custom builds from $25k
Pages, written 32, copy included, every claim traceable to the brand documents 5–15, copy extra Varies; thin text on several £150–£500 per page for copy
A page per buyer question Yes (resources, guides, gateways, certified-vs-generalist) No One cited service page each £1,100–£4,400 per landing page
Readable without JavaScript, llms.txt, AI-crawler policy, structured data Yes, all four No llms.txt on 9 of 10; crawler policy on 2 AEO set-up $1,500–$5,000; retainer $1,000–$12,000 / month
Monthly measurement: rankings, pages, traffic, AI citations against a baseline Yes, in the portal No Not visible Rank tracking $103–$224; AI tracking $29–$499; dashboards $64–$159 / month
Lead capture on every call to action, with consent rules 17 capture points, honeypot, regional consent, notifications Contact form Form; MeteorOps has an agent endpoint CallRail $50–$215 / month; CRO set-up £1,500–£3,000
Leads inbox with status and source Yes No Pipedrive $14 + LeadBooster $32 / month
Founder video with transcript; downloadable guides One video, four guides No Testimonials, no video Video ~$3,185; guide ~$3,000 each
Blog written and published in the owner's voice Synapse, delivered to the live site No Blogs exist; quality varies $400–$1,200 per 1,000 words; $5–10k / month retainers
Social and LinkedIn posts in the owner's name Synapse No $2,000–$5,500 / month
Target-account outreach by phone and email, meetings booked 100 accounts, 4 meetings in month one No £4,000–£8,000 / month
Client can edit text and images, with version history and restore Yes, locked fields protected CMS log-in CMS Webflow $25–$39; HubSpot Content Hub $20–$500 / month
Client can request a page, approve the brief, publish it live Yes No No Nothing equivalent; proofing tools $50–$400 / month plus agency build $1,500–$6,000 per page
Publishing gates: credentials, claims, copy style, accessibility, mobile fit, links, titles, sitemap, robots Every publish No No Accessibility audit $1,250–$2,750; claims review enterprise-only; technical audit $500–$2,499
Indexing duty: Search Console verification, sitemap ping, IndexNow on every publish Yes Sometimes GSC set-up Unknown Inside technical audits $500–$1,500
Immutable releases with rollback; staging Yes No Care plans $79–$435 / month offer staging on the top tier
Asset library with tags and alt text Yes No Canva $25; Cloudinary $89–$99 / month
Design rounds, site map, meetings, deliverables, team access for the client Yes (My Project) No Proofing and PM tools $50–$400 / month

4. What it would cost to buy the Skyline build at market rates

A bill of materials for exactly what Skyline received, priced at the typical 2025–26 rate for each component. Ranges are low-to-typical; premium providers sit above them. Sources are the same research passes cited throughout.

One-off

Component delivered to Skyline Market price Basis
Go-to-market strategy: positioning, messaging, buyer map, 100 target accounts tiered by intent, funnel numbers, 90-day plan £10,000–£15,000 Fletch PMM $20k at this revenue band, Aventi $19k, Inflection £10k+
Custom website, 32 pages, fully written, three design directions explored first £25,000–£45,000 Bigfork £8–25k for a lead-gen site plus copy at £150–£500 × 32 pages; Clutch avg $38k; B2B specialists from $25k
AI-citation engineering: per-question page architecture, structured data, llms.txt, crawler policy £3,000–£8,000 310 Creative audit $1,500–$5,000 plus entry set-up; Gushwork llms.txt from $699/month
Founder video edited, poster, transcript, VideoObject schema £1,500–£2,500 Advids avg $3,185
Four downloadable guides (Behind the Wall and three more), written and designed £6,000–£9,000 Stellar Content ~$3,000 each
Conversion set-up: 17 capture points, consent rules, notifications, click-to-call £1,500–£3,000 CRO set-up projects; CallRail tooling
Accessibility, mobile-fit and claims review before launch £1,000–£2,500 Accessible.org $1,250–$2,750 (claims review has no SMB product)
Technical SEO set-up: Search Console, sitemap, IndexNow, canonicals, link checks £500–£2,000 RankAI $500–$1,500; SEO.co $2,499
Baseline measurement: 150 buyer questions across three AI engines, re-asked monthly £1,200–£5,800 GEO audits $1,500–$7,500 (LLMReach)
One-off total £50,000–£93,000 Rounded: £45k–£95k

Every month

Component running for Skyline Market price / month Basis
SEO: technical, content, links £1,500–£5,000 Ahrefs survey, Targeted SEO UK
AI-search visibility: pages, citations, monthly re-measurement £2,500–£8,000 WebFX, 310 Creative
Blog and content in the founder's voice £2,500–£8,000 Windmill Growth 2026 $5–10k retainers; $400–$1,200 per 1,000 words
Social and LinkedIn in the founder's name £2,000–£5,500 Foundera
Target-account outreach by phone and email, meetings booked £4,000–£8,000 Sentrama, Air Marketing
Portal equivalent as software: CMS, rank and AI tracking, lead inbox, analytics, asset library, care plan £260–£600 Software-only stack, see section 5
Lead handling and follow-up, monthly reporting in enquiries, proposals and won work £500–£2,000 Inside growth retainers (Whitehat, Directive)
Monthly total, before senior oversight £13,000–£37,000 Typical midpoint about £20,000; a fractional CMO or CRO adds £6,000–£13,000
What Skyline actually paid: the £20,000 Strategy Sprint, then the month-to-month Growth Engine, of which DockeryAI's systems run at about $2,000 a month (DockeryAI business plan, deal range). Against a market replacement cost of £45,000–£95,000 up front and £13,000–£37,000 a month, the engagement delivers the full set at a fraction of the separate price, which is what AI production plus one integrated system makes possible.

5. Replacing the portal's backend with software and services

What a firm would pay, per month, to assemble the portal's capabilities itself: CMS with visual editing and version history; rank and AI-citation tracking; lead capture and inbox; blog production; analytics dashboards; asset library; care plan with edits; page builds on request.

Scenario Low Typical What is in it
Software only, the firm operates it ~£260 / month ~£600 / month Webflow or Storyblok; SE Ranking or Ahrefs; Otterly or Peec; Pipedrive + Tally; Jasper or Writesonic; GA4 or Databox; Canva or Cloudinary; Inspirable or WP Buffs
Done for you, four posts a month ~£640 / month ~£2,800 / month Same tools plus managed writing at $150–$800 a post
Each new page on request £370–£2,200 £1,100–£4,400 Convertri, Apexure 2026 guides

Even the typical software stack leaves the owner operating eight tools and writing the content; nothing in it measures AI citations against a baseline of the buyer's own questions, gates a publish on credentials and claims, or lets the client approve a brief and publish the page. Those have no off-the-shelf equivalent at any price found.

6. Method