Paying monthly for a website can mean four different things, and what you own at the end differs in each. On a builder like Wix or Squarespace you rent the software, and the site drops to a free address or shows an expiry notice when you stop. On a designer's pay-monthly deal you usually rent the site itself, on a 12 to 36 month contract. A one-off build is yours if the contract says so, and you then pay a host, or a care plan, to keep it up. Pay once if you want to own it and can fund the build. Pay monthly if cash flow matters more and you accept a minimum term. I build sites in Huddersfield at a fixed price, so I'm not neutral. Every figure here has a named source and a date.
What are the four ways to pay for a website?
A builder subscription. A designer's pay-monthly or lease deal. A one-off build with hosting you pay for directly. Or a one-off build plus a care plan, where the builder hosts, updates and backs it up for a monthly fee.
A UK Business Forums member asked the key question in 2011 about a £50 a month lease: "would you still delete it after 12 months as really we have paid for it by then". A designer replied: "if you cancel you keep your domain name and we delete your site (unless you buy it off us and take it with you.)"
What are you renting on a builder subscription?
Software, hosting and the editor. You own the words and pictures you put in. You do not own the system, and the design cannot move to another host.
Wix's cheapest plan with a custom domain is Light at £9 a month, then Core at £16 and Business at £25, for yearly subscriptions paid up front, and Wix says the prices "do not include applicable taxes". Squarespace's Basic plan is £12 a month on annual billing or £16 billed monthly, and the page does not say whether VAT is included. Wix's page shows only annual prices; Startups.co.uk (March 2026) puts Light at £11.50 billed monthly. Both give a free domain for the first year on an annual plan, and Startups.co.uk puts a Wix .co.uk domain at £10 to £20 a year after that.
On Wix, cancelling turns off auto-renewal and "the plan remains active until the end of the billing cycle". After that the site "reverts to the free Wix URL", Wix ads appear, and your content stays. A custom domain is a separate subscription and keeps renewing unless you cancel it too. A plan "may renew up to 3 weeks before the expiration date". Wix refunds a first purchase cancelled within 14 days, and not renewals.
On Squarespace, service runs to the end of the billing cycle, then visitors see a "Website expired" message. Your data is kept so you can reactivate, and you can still log in and export the available content. The domain "stays active" on its own. Refunds are for annual plans cancelled within 14 days of the first payment, and "We don't offer refunds for monthly plans".
For a small site this can be the right call. If you have a few pages, a reasonable eye and a few evenings, a builder at £108 to £192 a year plus a domain is hard to beat, and you don't need me. Stop paying and Wix drops the site to a free Wix address with ads, while Squarespace shows "Website expired" until you reactivate.
What are you renting on a designer's pay-monthly deal?
Usually the website itself. The designer builds it, hosts it and keeps the files, and you pay monthly, often with a setup charge, for a minimum term.
Two UK examples. iWebServices in York lists Startup at from £25 a month with a £199 setup fee, and says "A 36-month minimum term applies to all packages." The page does not say what happens at the end, or whose name the domain is in. Cloudswitched asks for "a minimum twelve-month commitment", then rolls monthly on thirty days' notice; after that you can have the files and domain transferred, or buy the site "at a reduced price", unstated.
Yell's published terms are worth reading because Yell says more than 50,000 UK businesses use it. Websites run for "a 12-month minimum term and then continue monthly thereafter". The design fee can be paid in advance or as "a monthly payment of a fixed amount" over the first 12 months, and if the agreement ends "all unpaid Design Fee monthly payments shall become immediately due and payable". The site is not transferable "to an alternative host without our prior written agreement". A domain Yell registers for you is yours. Once every charge is paid, Yell "may grant" you a perpetual right to use the written copy it wrote for you. The website now comes inside Amplify marketing packages priced from £299 a month, so it is not a like-for-like price.
So what happens the day you stop depends on the contract you signed.
Pay monthly isn't wrong. If you haven't got £1,000 in month one it can be the only way to get a site. Just read it as a lease and ask the buy-out price before you sign.
What do you own after a one-off build?
Whatever the contract gives you. Government guidance on copyright says the first legal owner of a commissioned work is the person or organisation that created it, "unless you otherwise agree it in writing". So a one-off payment does not by itself make the design and code yours.
With your own hosting, you pay the designer once and a hosting company every month or year. Startups.co.uk (March 2026) gives hosting at £20 to £300 or more a year and a domain at £8 to £20 or more. Krystal's smallest shared plan is £7 a month before VAT, £8.40 with it. Its "Include VAT" toggle is off by default. When you stop paying the designer, nothing happens to the site. When you stop paying the host, it goes offline, so keep the hosting contract in your own name. As a 2011 forum reply put it, that way "you can swap designers/developers without having to move hosting." Updates, backups and fixes become your job, or someone's bill.
With a care plan, you pay the builder monthly to do that work, and the thing to pin down is what happens on the day you cancel.
Here are my own terms. A website is £750 to £1,500, fixed before I start, half to begin and half when it goes live, no VAT because I'm not registered. The domain is registered in your name from the start and copyright in the code and design is assigned to you in writing. A care plan is £50 or £99 a month, month to month, and you can skip it and host the files elsewhere. If you leave, you get the source code, a copy of the database, the latest backup and the DNS and email settings, and the site stays up to the end of the paid month. What each plan includes is in what a maintenance plan covers.
How do the four compare over three years?
| Builder subscription | Designer pay-monthly | One-off build, own hosting | One-off build plus care plan | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What you own at the end | Your content. Not the site or design | Per contract. Nothing, a buy-out at a price, or a handover after the term are all seen | Code and design if assigned in writing, plus content | The same, plus backups handed over |
| Day you stop paying | Wix: free address with ads. Squarespace: "Website expired", data kept | Per contract. Deletion, buy-out, or balance due are all seen | Site unaffected until hosting lapses | Per plan. Mine: stays up to end of paid month, files handed over |
| Typical contract | Monthly or annual, rolling | 12 to 36 month minimum, then rolling | None with the designer; host's billing cycle | Rolling monthly (mine), or as stated |
| Three years, worked example | £324 (Wix Light) to £432 (Squarespace Basic), plus domain from year two, plus VAT where charged | £1,099 (iWebServices Startup, 36 months plus setup) | £1,076 to £1,862 (my build, Krystal with VAT, a domain) | £2,550 to £3,300 (my build, £50 plan) |
List prices checked 11 October 2026, times 36 months, with no promotions, price rises or your own time. Builder figures need £20 to £40 adding for domain renewals in years two and three. The own-hosting figure uses Krystal at £8.40 x 36 and a domain at £8 to £20 a year. On my £99 plan the total is £4,314 to £5,064.
The care plan route costs the most in cash and the builder the least. The middle two differ on who does the updates and whether you keep the site at the end. A pay-monthly site at £25 looks cheap next to a plan at £50, and it may be, once you price the setup fee, the minimum term and the buy-out too. For build prices in general, see how much a website costs in the UK.
What should you ask before signing anything monthly?
Ask in writing and keep the answers.
- How long is the minimum term, and what do I owe if I leave early?
- After the minimum term, how much notice, and does it renew for another full term by itself? One Yell reviewer said "there is no contact to let you know you are entering into a new term".
- Whose name is the domain registered in? Nominet, the .uk registry, charges £10 plus VAT to move a domain to a new registrant, and the current registrant, or their registrar, has to start it.
- What do I get on the day I leave? Files, database, content, design, DNS and email settings.
- Is there a release fee, buy-out price or transfer charge, written down now?
- When exactly is my card charged, how far ahead of renewal, what is the refund window, and is the price with or without VAT?
- How many changes a month are included, and what does extra work cost? Cloudswitched, for example, includes minor text and image updates and says larger changes "may incur a small additional charge".
The 14-day cooling-off right people know from online shopping comes from rules for contracts "between traders and consumers", as Trading Standards' Business Companion guide puts it. I'm not a lawyer, and whether anything like it helps when you sign as a business is a question for a solicitor. There is a longer list in what to ask a web designer.
Want a fixed price for a site you keep?
See the websites page or get in touch. The first conversation is free, and if a builder plan will do the job for you, that is a fine outcome.
