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Freestone County considers switching website host after Sierra raises hosting fee nearly tenfold
Summary
County staff presented three vendor quotes for migrating and hosting the county website; Sierra (current host) proposed a migration fee near $23,000 and annual hosting rising to about $9,550, while GovStack quoted $13,199 upfront and $4,697 annually with ADA compliance included. Commissioners discussed cleanup of legacy pages and set next procurement steps with an expiring GovStack quote (June 4).
Karen (county staff) presented three quotes for Freestone County’s website migration and hosting during the commissioners court on May 20, saying Sierra, the county’s current vendor, has proposed raising the annual hosting fee from about $1,500 to $9,550 and is charging an estimated migration fee of roughly $23,000 because the county’s site has nearly 200 pages. Karen said commission-recording videos account for a large share of pages and that deleting or linking older videos to YouTube could reduce migration costs.
Karen said GovStack (a vendor she discussed with a company representative named Stephanie) offered to build a new site for $13,199 upfront and host it for $4,697 per year; GovStack’s system included built-in ADA compliance, Karen said. A third vendor presented different pricing and a more complicated back end. Commissioners and staff discussed the tradeoffs: Sierra would continue to host county email if the court moved away from its site hosting, but its migration and ADA-compliance fees were higher; GovStack’s quote was time-limited and expires June 4.
Commissioners expressed concern about add‑ons and ongoing costs, and staff described options for reducing the county’s page count (for example by linking long video archives to the county’s YouTube channel). The court made a motion related to the website procurement process and discussed whether to act at the June 3 meeting or to table the item until the next budget cycle. The transcript does not show a final executed contract recorded on May 20.
Why it matters: The website serves public access to agendas, minutes and court videos, and migrating to a new platform could increase annual operating costs or improve accessibility for residents (ADA compliance was a recurring theme). Commissioners must weigh short-term migration costs against expected annual hosting fees and staff time needed to streamline content.
Next steps: The GovStack quote is time-limited; the court discussed acting at the June 3 meeting or later. Staff offered to clean up legacy pages to reduce migration costs and to coordinate with vendors for clarifications; no final procurement award was confirmed in the May 20 transcript.
