Website as a Service: What You Pay For, and What You Own

A website subscription is a monthly fee for a site that a company builds, hosts and keeps running for you. You usually pay little or nothing up front. The trade-off is that you often rent the site rather than own it.

That can be a fair deal. It can also be an expensive one. It depends on three things: what the fee covers, who owns the site, and what happens when you stop paying.

What a monthly plan usually includes

Plans differ, but most bundle the same pieces into one fee:

• The build. A designer sets up the site, often from a template the company reuses.
• Hosting. The server that keeps the site online.
• Updates and security. Someone keeps the software patched.
• Small changes. A set number of edits a month, or "reasonable" edits.
• Support. Someone to call or email when something breaks.

Some plans add extras like search engine work, review tools or a booking system. Read what's actually in your plan, not what's in the ad.

Who owns the site

This is the question that matters most, and the one sales pages talk about least.

With many website as a service plans, the company owns the design, the code and the hosting account. Sometimes it even holds your domain. You're paying for the right to use the site while your plan is active.

So ask, before you sign: if I cancel, what do I keep? The answers fall into roughly three groups.

1. You keep everything. The site, the domain and your content move to your own accounts. Not every plan offers this, and it's worth a lot.
2. You keep the domain and your words and photos, but not the site. You start over with a new build.
3. You keep nothing. The site goes dark, and sometimes the domain stays with them.

Get the answer in writing. "Don't worry about it" isn't an answer.

What it costs over time

A monthly plan feels cheap because the number is small. The useful number is the total.

Take any monthly fee and multiply it by 36. That's three years. Then multiply it by 60 for five years. Compare that with the cost of building a site you own, plus its own monthly costs over the same stretch.

As an example only, a $150-a-month plan comes to $5,400 over three years and $9,000 over five. At the end, with many plans, you still don't own a site. If you leave, you pay to build one anyway.

That's not always a bad deal. You get someone handling things, and that's worth something. Just make the choice with the total in front of you. For what each monthly line is really for, see how much a website costs per month.

If price is what's pushing you toward a plan, read what cheap costs you later first.

When a monthly plan makes sense

Renting a site is a reasonable choice in a few cases:

• You're brand new and not sure the business will be here in two years.
• Cash is tight right now, and a few thousand dollars up front would hurt.
• You don't want to own anything technical, and you're fine paying for that forever.
• The contract is short, with no big penalty to leave.

If the business is established, the math usually tips the other way. You'll be paying for years, and owning the site gives you choices you don't have when you rent.

Questions to ask before you sign

Run any website plan through these:

1. How long is the contract? Is there a fee to leave early?
2. Who owns the domain? It should be registered in your name.
3. If I cancel, what do I keep? Ask for a plain answer, in writing.
4. What's included, and what costs extra? How many changes a month? What counts as "a change"?
5. Can the price go up? When, and by how much?
6. Is my site built on a shared template? Some plans reuse one design with new colors.
7. Can I see sites you've built that are still live? Test them on Google's PageSpeed Insights, especially the mobile score.

If you're comparing a plan with other ways to get a site built, here's what to expect from companies that build websites for you.

The other way to spread the cost

The main reason owners pick a monthly plan is that they don't want a big bill up front. That's fair. But renting isn't the only way to spread the cost.

A payment plan on a site you own gets you there too. You pay over time, and when it's paid off, the payments stop. The site is yours.

That's how we do it. I'd rather you pay once for a site that's yours than pay me every month to keep it alive. Our custom builds start at $6,000, with payment plans available. We don't do retainers or $97-a-month plans. Everything goes into your own accounts, in writing. Hosting runs $0 to about $20 a month, and 12 months of support is included.

We also build first. About a week after a 60-second application and a 15-minute call, you see a working first pass of your whole site, live at a link. If you love it, that's when you pay. If you never love it, you never pay.

For build prices in our area, see what a small business website costs in NJ. If you want a site you own without paying on faith, see how our build-first process works.