Pay monthly website vs buying outright: the real cost

A pay monthly website or one you buy outright: it is the first real decision most small businesses make about a new site, and it is usually made on the wrong number. People compare the deposit with the full price, pick the smaller figure, and find out a year later what they actually signed up for.

I offer both, so I have no reason to push you one way. This guide sets out what each route really costs over three years, what you get for the money, who owns the site, and the questions that should decide it for you.

What each route actually costs

Here are my own prices, because a comparison without real figures is not much use. You can check every one of them on the pricing page.

• Pay monthly: a £99 setup fee paid with your first month, then £100 a month for a services site with Standard SEO, or £200 with Performance SEO. Bookings and ecommerce sites are £150 or £250 a month. There is a 12-month minimum, then it rolls monthly on 30 days' notice.
• Buy outright: from £800 for a services site and from £1,000 for a bookings site, plus £25 a month hosting.

No VAT to add on either, as I am not VAT registered. Now put them side by side over time, using the cheapest version of each.

• After one year: £1,299 pay monthly (£99 plus twelve months at £100) against £1,100 outright (£800 plus twelve months of hosting).
• After three years: £3,699 pay monthly against £1,700 outright.

So buying outright costs less up front and less in total, while paying monthly spreads the cost and includes ongoing work that an outright build does not. The two figures are not buying the same thing, so the useful question is which package fits your business, not which number is smaller.

What the monthly price pays for

A site bought outright is a finished product. It goes live, it is hosted, and it does what it did on launch day. A monthly plan is a service that carries on after launch. Every month it includes:

• Hosting, the same as an outright site.
• SEO kept up every month, rather than done once at launch and left. On Performance this adds the AEO and GEO work that helps you get named in AI answers.
• Up to 1 hour of small changes a month on Standard, or 2 hours on Performance, done within 2 working days. Unused time does not roll over, and bigger work such as new pages is quoted first.
• A plain English report each month on what the site did and what changed.

Whether that is worth the difference depends entirely on whether you would otherwise pay for that work, or do it yourself. If your site barely changes and you are happy to look after search yourself, you may not need it. If you change prices, add services, post offers or care about where you appear on Google in Kent, you are buying time you would otherwise spend, or pay someone else for, anyway. My SEO, AEO and GEO page explains what that ongoing work involves, and separate SEO work starts from £300.

Who owns the website?

This is the question to ask any agency before you sign, because the answers vary wildly across the industry. Some pay monthly deals mean you never own anything: stop paying and the site disappears, sometimes with your domain inside it.

Mine work like this. Bought outright, once the build is paid in full the design and code are yours, to use, change and host with any developer you like. If you ever stop the hosting, you get a copy of the code and your domain is pointed wherever you ask.

On a monthly plan, the site is a service I build, host and look after while the plan runs. After the 12-month minimum it rolls monthly, and you can settle the balance of the build at any time, not only at the end, at a figure set out in writing before you sign. Once that is paid, the site is yours in the same way as an outright build. Whoever you choose, get that figure and that process in writing before you commit. If an agency cannot tell you what it costs to leave, that tells you something.

Can you edit it yourself?

This is often the deciding point, and people forget to ask it. On my monthly plans you do not edit the site: you send a message and I make the change. That suits owners who would rather never log in to anything. A site bought outright can come with its own editor, so you can change text, photos and prices yourself whenever you like.

Be honest with yourself about which you are. Plenty of people buy an editable site, mean to keep it fresh, and never open the editor after the first month. Equally, some owners find waiting even two working days for a change frustrating and would rather do it themselves at eleven at night. Neither is wrong. Pick the route that matches how you actually work, not how you hope to.

Which one should you choose?

Pay monthly tends to suit you if:

• You would rather not find £800 or more up front, especially in your first year of trading.
• You want SEO and changes handled without thinking about them.
• You do not want to learn a website editor.
• You want one predictable cost each month that covers everything.

Buying outright tends to suit you if:

• You can pay for the build now and want the lowest cost over several years.
• You want to own the site from the moment it is paid for.
• You are comfortable making your own changes, or have someone who will.
• Your site will stay much the same for long stretches.

If you are torn, look at the next three years rather than the first month. Ask how often your site will need changing, who will do it, and whether getting found on Google matters to how you win work. Those three answers usually settle it. For a wider look at what drives the price of any build, my guide to how much a website costs in the UK breaks it down.

The traps to watch for, wherever you buy

Whichever route you go, and whoever you go with, these are the things that cost small businesses money later:

• A domain registered in the agency's name rather than yours.
• A monthly plan with no buyout figure, or one that is only revealed when you try to leave.
• A contract that renews for another full term unless you cancel in a narrow window.
• A low monthly price built on a template that dozens of other local firms share. My piece on why cheap website templates cost more goes into that one.

Read the terms, ask the questions above, and get the answers in writing. A good designer will be glad you asked.

If you want to talk it through for your own business, the details of every plan are on my pay monthly websites page, and the outright builds are on the web design page. Or get in touch and I will tell you straight which route I think suits you.

Frequently asked questions

Is a pay monthly website cheaper than buying one outright?

It costs less up front and more in total. With my prices, a services site comes to £3,699 over three years on the cheapest monthly plan against £1,700 bought outright with hosting, but the monthly plan also includes SEO kept up every month, small changes and a monthly report.

Do I own a pay monthly website?

It depends on the agency, so always ask. On my plans you can settle the balance of the build at any time, at a figure agreed in writing before you sign, and the site then becomes yours. Some agencies never hand it over.

What happens if I stop paying for a monthly website?

With me, after the 12-month minimum the plan rolls monthly and you can stop with 30 days' notice. To keep the site, settle the balance of the build. The full terms are on the pay monthly websites page.

How much does it cost to buy a website outright?

My builds start from £800 for a services site and from £1,000 for a bookings site, plus £25 a month hosting. Every price is on the pricing page.

Can I switch from pay monthly to owning the site later?

Yes. You can settle the balance of the build at any point, not only at the end of the minimum term, and the site is then yours in the same way as one bought outright.