Pay monthly websites: what they really cost over 3 years

By Webdesign Cheshire · 6 October 2026 · 6 minute read

Short answer: a pay monthly website at £30 to £60 a month costs £1,080 to £2,160 in fees over 3 years, plus a setup charge of £0 to £499, and at the end of it you own nothing. That is cheaper in cash than buying a site, and that is the whole pitch. The question is what you get for the money, and what happens on the day you stop paying.

Three ways to pay, over 3 years

The table compares a rented template, our own build-and-care model, and a typical Cheshire agency. All figures are for a 5-page small business site over 36 months.

Three things stand out.

• The rented template is the cheapest in cash. Nobody is pretending otherwise.
• Our model costs more over 3 years than renting, because £150 a month pays for work on the site, not just a server.
• The agency figure is the widest range because you are paying for a custom design and a team’s time, which a 5-page local site rarely needs.

What the £150 a month actually buys

Hosting costs a designer £5 to £20 a month, so a fee of £30 to £60 is mostly margin for keeping the lights on. Ours is higher because it is a working fee. Each month it covers:

• Hosting, SSL and daily backups
• Security and software updates, so the site does not break or get hacked
• Content edits whenever you need them, such as a new price, a new photo or a new team member
• One new page or article a month, written with you, aimed at a trade and town search
• A short report that tells you where you rank and what changed

If you do not want that work, you do not need the care plan. The £399 site is yours either way and you can host it anywhere. That is the difference between a purchase and a subscription.

The ownership trap

Here is the part the “from £30 a month” adverts leave out. With most pay monthly providers:

• The site is built on their platform and cannot be exported. Stop paying and it goes offline.
• The domain is sometimes registered in their name. Getting it back can take weeks and a fee.
• The copy and photos they produced belong to them under the contract, so you cannot reuse them.
• Your Google rankings are tied to their pages. Leave, and you start again from zero.

So after 3 years and £2,000 you have a site you cannot take with you, and the only way to keep it is to keep paying. That is rent. It is a reasonable choice if you want to test a business idea for 6 months. It is a poor choice for a trade or a shop that plans to be around in 5 years.

When pay monthly makes sense

Honest answer: sometimes.

• You are starting out and cannot spare £399 this month
• You are not sure the business will still exist next year
• You need something online this week and will replace it later

In each case, go in knowing you are renting, and set a date to buy your own site.

How to compare two quotes fairly

Do the same sum for every quote you get. Setup plus 36 monthly payments equals the 3-year total. Then write next to it whether you own the site at the end, and what work is included each month. A £40 a month site with nothing included and no ownership is £1,440 for 3 years of hosting. A £399 site with a £150 care plan is £5,799 for a site you own plus 36 months of pages, edits and reports. Both are honest prices. They are for different things.

Questions to ask before you sign

Put these to any provider, in writing, and keep the answers.

• Who owns the domain, and is it registered in my name?
• Can I export the site and host it elsewhere, and what does that cost?
• What exactly is included in the monthly fee, listed item by item?
• What happens to the site, the content and the domain on the day I stop paying?
• Is there a minimum term, and what is the exit fee?
• Will anyone write new pages for my town, or is the monthly fee hosting only?

If a provider will not answer the ownership questions in writing, that is the answer.