Paying for a website: one-off or monthly?

The short answer: with a subscription you pay little to start and everything comes in one monthly fee. If you pay once, you pay more at the start, but the site is yours. Which of the two is cheaper depends on what the subscription costs, how many years you count and how many pages you need. Either way, you pay for hosting somewhere.

We build websites for a one-off price, so we're not neutral. That's why this article also shows when a subscription is the better choice.

The difference in brief

• Subscription: you pay a fixed amount every month. Building, hosting, the domain name and maintenance are often included. The provider makes changes for you, sometimes with a limit per year. Whether you can take the site with you when you stop depends on the provider.
• One-off: you pay once for the build. After that you pay for hosting and a domain name yourself, and for maintenance if you want it. The site and the domain name are in your name. You make changes yourself and can move whenever you like.

How a website subscription works

With a subscription, start-up costs are low or zero. In return, you pay a monthly fee for as long as you have the site. The provider builds it, puts it online and looks after it.

What's included varies from offer to offer. It often covers the design and build, hosting, a domain name, an SSL certificate and updates. Sometimes email is included too. The number of pages is often fixed per plan, and sometimes so is the number of changes the provider makes for you each year.

Not everything is always on the price list: how long the contract runs, the notice period, what happens to your domain name and your site when you cancel, and whether prices include VAT. Ask before you sign. You'll find a list of questions further down.

If you're looking at a Dutch provider, the contract and terms may well be in Dutch only. Ask for them in writing in English if you need them, before you sign.

We don't name any providers in this article. Instead we work with an example: say a subscription costs $20 a month (an example amount, not the price of any particular provider). When you get a real offer, use that amount for your own sums.

How paying once works

You pay once for the design and build. After that, you arrange two things:

• Hosting and a domain name. You get these from a hosting provider of your choice, in your own name. How those costs add up is explained in what a website costs per year, including whether a .nl or a .com domain makes sense. In the worked example there, it comes to $142.96 a year: a .com domain from Porkbun and Hostinger's Premium plan at the renewal price. We're a Hostinger partner, which that article explains.
• Maintenance. WordPress and plugins need regular updates. You do that yourself, or you hand it over. With us, that starts at $19.99 a month, and you can cancel any month.

In WordPress you change texts, photos, opening hours and prices yourself, as often as you like. There's no limit.

Can you have a website with no monthly costs at all? Not quite. You always pay for hosting and a domain name, even if you pay for the build once. But you're not tied to a monthly subscription with your web designer.

Worked example: what you pay after 1, 3 and 5 years

This is an example, not an average. We put our fixed prices next to the example subscription of $20 a month. This is how we calculated it:

• One-off, you do the maintenance: the build price, plus $142.96 a year for hosting and the domain name.
• One-off, with Basic maintenance: the build price, plus $142.96 and $239.88 (12 × $19.99) a year.
• Subscription: 12 × $20 a year. We leave out promotions and discounts.

So is a website on a subscription cheaper? In the first years, yes. What the table shows:

• If you do the maintenance yourself, a one-pager becomes cheaper than the example subscription after about 3.1 years. A site of up to 5 pages gets there after about 5.2 years.
• If we do the maintenance, paying once is more expensive every year in this example. You then pay $382.84 a year, against $240 for the subscription.
• The number of pages in a subscription varies. So compare with a subscription for as many pages as you need. A cheaper subscription moves the break-even point later, and a more expensive one brings it closer.

Want to work it out for a real offer? Divide the build price by the difference between a year of subscription and a year of hosting and domain. That gives you the number of years to the break-even point. If the subscription costs less per year than hosting and a domain, there is no break-even point.

A note on VAT. We don't charge VAT on our invoices. Hostinger and Porkbun don't say whether tax is included in their prices, so check the total at checkout. Ask a subscription provider whether its price includes VAT. If VAT is added on top, or you can't reclaim VAT yourself, the amounts and the break-even point change.

To be fair, then: on cost alone, paying once isn't automatically cheaper. The difference is mainly in what you get for it.

Who owns the website when you stop paying?

This is the question to ask up front. You usually only find out the answer when you want to switch.

With a subscription, it depends on the terms. Is the domain name registered in your name or the provider's? Do you get your site's files, or only your texts and photos? And does the site run on software you can also use with another provider? If the terms don't say, ask for the answer in writing.

Can you move from a subscription to your own hosting later? That depends on the provider and on the system your site is built on. If it runs on a system only that provider uses, you can't take it with you, and you have a new site built elsewhere.

When you pay once, the domain name and hosting are in your name, with your hosting provider. With us, you also get all files and login details. A WordPress site can move to any hosting provider that supports WordPress. How that works in practice, and how it differs from a website builder, is covered in ownership and moving with WordPress and Wix.

When a subscription makes sense

• You only need the site for a few years, for example to test an idea. You may not reach the break-even point.
• You don't want to change anything yourself and a few changes a year are enough.
• You don't want to arrange anything: no hosting, no domain name, no updates. One company, one amount.
• You'd rather not pay a lump sum. A fixed monthly fee is easier to budget for than a few hundred dollars up front.

Sound like you? Then a subscription is a perfectly good choice. Just read the terms carefully.

When paying once fits better

• You want to own your site and your domain name, and decide where the site lives.
• You change things regularly, such as opening hours, prices, photos or an offer. Then you don't want to wait for the provider or run into a limit.
• You'll use the site for more than a few years. If you do the maintenance yourself, you pay less after the break-even point.
• You want to be free to choose: a different host, different maintenance or a different web designer, without starting over.

Questions to ask before you sign

Ask every provider these questions, including us:

1. How long does the contract run? Is there a minimum term, and does it renew automatically?
2. What's the notice period?
3. Whose name is the domain registered in? And can you take it with you when you cancel?
4. What do you get when you leave? Only your texts and photos, or the whole site with its files?
5. How many changes are included? And what does a change cost beyond that?
6. Can you get the contract and terms in English? You should understand what you sign.

Also ask whether the prices include VAT.

How we do it

We build WordPress websites for a fixed, one-off price: $299.99 for a one-pager and $499.99 for a site of up to 5 pages. You get hosting and a domain name yourself, in your own name. What's included and what isn't is on our fixed prices page.

Maintenance is optional. If you'd rather not look after the site yourself, you can get maintenance and security from us, from $19.99 a month. Without maintenance, you pay us nothing after the build.

Our answers to the questions above: you pay for the build once, with no ongoing contract. You can cancel maintenance any month. The domain name is in your name, you get all the files, and in WordPress you make changes yourself as often as you like. The intro call, the proposal and the walkthrough can all be in English.

Want to know what your site costs to build? Request a quote.

Prices from Hostinger and Porkbun as used in our article on yearly website costs, checked on 25 October 2026. The $20 a month subscription is an example amount, not the price of any particular provider. Providers change their prices and terms regularly, so check their own sites for the current situation.