A lot of small businesses pay a monthly fee for their website and could not tell you what it is for. Sometimes it is fair. Sometimes it is rent on something you should already own. Here is how to tell the difference.
What a monthly fee can legitimately cover
Some things about a website do cost money every year, whoever built it.
- Your domain. The web address itself, renewed every year or two.
- Hosting. The service that keeps the site online.
- Software updates and backups. Some kinds of website need regular updates to stay secure.
- Actual changes. Someone updating the site for you, on request.
If your fee covers real costs and real work, and the person can show you both, it is a fair deal.
Four questions to ask
1. What did you do last month? A good provider can answer straight away. If the answer is vague, nothing much was done.
2. What is included, and what is extra? Ask whether changing your opening hours is covered. If small changes are billed on top of the monthly fee, find out what the fee is for.
3. Whose name is everything in? Domain, hosting and logins. If they are in the provider's name, the monthly fee is partly what keeps you from leaving. Here is how to check.
4. What happens if I stop paying? The honest answers are "we hand everything over" or "your site moves to your own hosting". If the answer is "the site gets switched off", you do not own a website. You are renting one.
When a plan makes sense
- You run an online shop or take bookings and payments through the site.
- The site uses a lot of add ons that need regular updates.
- You want changes made often and have no interest in doing them yourself.
In those cases, paying someone to keep watch is sensible. Just make sure it is written down what they do.
When it probably does not
- The site is a simple set of pages that rarely changes.
- It is on a managed service that looks after its own updates and backups.
- You are able to change your own words and photos.
Then your real running costs are the domain and the hosting, paid direct, in your own name.
Why we do not sell one
We build the site in your accounts, show you how to update it on a handover call, and leave. There is no monthly fee to us. You keep paying your own domain and hosting the way you already do, usually a few hundred dollars a year.
If something breaks later or you want a new section, you ring us and we quote it as its own small job. Most people never need to.
We are not saying every care plan is a con. We are saying you should know what yours buys. If you are weighing it up against starting again, read what a website actually costs.