One-off build or subscription: what costs more over five years?
A worked five-year comparison between a £3,000 one-off build and a £79/mo subscription. No wishful maths, no hidden assumptions.
01 / The headline number versus the real number
A build price is not a website price
The most common mistake in small business website budgeting is comparing a one-off build fee to a subscription fee directly. It looks like £3,000 versus £79/mo, and £79/mo looks like the cheap option. But the £3,000 is not the whole cost. It is the first line item on a five-year bill.
Run the real numbers. A £3,000 build typically comes with hosting (£12/mo), a maintenance retainer (£60/mo), and a couple of change projects across the life of the site. Over five years, that adds up to roughly £7,800. The £79/mo subscription, across the same five years, adds up to £4,740 with changes included.
The subscription is £3,000 cheaper at year five on the typical small service business site. If the site changes more, the gap widens because every change under the subscription is included. If the site changes less, one-off can be cheaper. The break-even is usually somewhere around year three, which is why we bother writing this page.
02 / The worked example
Six factors, one five-year total
A typical UK small service business, comparing a £3,000 one-off plus retainer versus £79/mo Standard over five years.
Year 1 cash out, one-off
£3,000 build. Usually paid 50% on kick-off, 50% on launch. That is £1,500 in month one, £1,500 in month three or four. Plus hosting at £12/mo and a £60/mo support retainer from month two. Year one total: roughly £3,792.
Year 1 cash out, subscription
£0 up front. Design and build before the first charge. From launch day onwards, £79/mo on Standard. Year one total: £948, spread across twelve invoices.
Years 2-5 on the one-off
Hosting plus maintenance retainer at £72/mo carries on. Add two or three bigger change jobs (new services page, rebrand refresh, booking form) at £300-£600 each. Four more years runs about £4,000. Five-year total: roughly £7,792.
Years 2-5 on subscription
Same £79/mo, with all changes included. No separate invoice for the new services page, the rebrand refresh, or the seasonal homepage tweak. Four more years is £3,792. Five-year total: £4,740.
The gap at five years
Subscription is roughly £3,050 cheaper over five years on this typical scenario, and the site has kept being updated the whole time rather than ossifying in year two. The gap widens further in year six and beyond.
When one-off wins on cost
If you genuinely will not change the site for five years (a conference site, a static portfolio, a brochure for a dormant arm of the business), a one-off can be cheaper because you skip the ongoing fee. But most small business sites need at least a dozen changes a year to stay current.
03 / The qualitative difference
The site that ages well is the one that stays tended
The £7,800 one-off scenario assumes you pay for two big change projects across five years. In practice, most owners do not. They launch, they avoid the invoice, the site ages, the copy drifts out of date, the photos get stale, and by year three it is hurting the business rather than helping it.
The £4,740 subscription scenario is different. Changes are included, so they actually happen. The new team member gets on the About page in the same week they start. The seasonal offer gets a banner on the homepage. The new service gets a proper page instead of a forgotten line in a paragraph. The site stays current, which is the whole point of having one.
When small businesses compare one-off and subscription at year five, the money gap is the headline. The bigger story is which site is still doing its job.
FAQ
Common questions
Is subscription web design really cheaper than a one-off build?
Over one year, no. A £1,500 build plus £12/mo hosting comes in at £1,644, versus £948 for a £79/mo subscription. But a one-year one-off is not a fair comparison because the maintenance, hosting, and change requests start in year two. Over five years the subscription comes out £2,000-£3,500 cheaper on a typical small business site, while including all the changes along the way.
What does the real five-year maths look like?
Take a £3,000 one-off build. Add £12/mo hosting for five years (£720). Add a £60/mo support retainer (£3,600). Add two £500 change projects across five years. Total: £7,820. Standard at £79/mo over five years is £4,740 with changes included. The gap is £3,080. Starter at £39/mo over five years is £2,340 for smaller sites.
When does a one-off build still make sense?
Three scenarios. One: the site is genuinely static (a museum microsite, a fixed conference page). Two: you have in-house technical capacity to maintain it and an in-house designer to change it. Three: you want to own the code outright and self-host for compliance reasons. Outside those cases, the subscription maths usually win.
What happens to my site if I cancel subscription?
Your domain is yours. Your content is yours. We hand over both cleanly. You would need to arrange new hosting and a developer to take over the code. The cost of that is similar to the cost of a new build, so most owners stay subscribed. That is also why we have no contracts. Lock-in makes people cynical.
Is subscription just a rented website?
No, because the domain and content are yours throughout. What you are renting is the hosting, the maintenance, and the team. It is closer to leasing a company car than renting a flat. Stop paying and you hand the car back, but you keep the driver's licence, the playlist and the places you went.
What is the cashflow benefit on top of the total?
A £3,000 bill in month one is often the reason small businesses delay the website they need. £79/mo is a different conversation. It lands inside the same budget as a phone bill or a Xero subscription, so it gets approved faster and the site ships sooner. Faster launch means earlier enquiries, which is its own form of saving.
See the five-year maths for your business
Plans from £39/mo. No upfront cost, no contract, all changes included.