Website design packages

A package is a way of selling several things at one price so the parts cannot be compared. That is not automatically a trick — bundling real work is how a monthly price gets cheap — but it does mean the only useful question is what is inside. Here is what belongs at each price, what pay-monthly actually changes, and the five lines to read before signing. Prices as of September 2026.

What should website design packages include?

Three honest tiers exist in this market. The names change; the contents do not.

Two things are missing from every tier above and should be checked individually every time, because they are the most common exclusions: the writing on the pages, and the edits after launch. A package that includes "5 pages" but not the words on them has quoted you for a shell.

Do you have to pay monthly for a website?

No. A site can be bought once and hosted for a few dollars a month, and for a site that will genuinely never change again, that is the cheapest thing you can do. Be honest about "never change", though: a price, a phone number, a new service, a member of staff, opening hours at Christmas.

A monthly plan buys three things a one-off build does not, and you should decide whether you want them rather than whether monthly sounds better:

1. Hosting that is someone else's responsibility. Including the renewal nobody remembers and the certificate that expires at 3am.
2. Maintenance. Updates, backups, and the security work that has no visible output until the month it does.
3. A person to email. This is most of what you are paying for, and it is the part with no line item.

If you will want all three, you are going to pay for them either way — as a monthly fee or as an hourly invoice at an awkward moment. The arithmetic of both routes, over two years, is on how much a website costs.

Why are pay-monthly prices so different?

Because "pay monthly" describes two unrelated arrangements that happen to bill the same way.

That last row is the one that matters, and the answers differ more than people expect. Some subscription providers keep the site and take it offline when you leave: Townsquare Interactive's terms state that on termination "Client will no longer have access to or ownership rights in the Website, the template of the Website, or any other design or look and feel contained within the Website" ( Terms of Service 4.4, September 2026). It is not the only one: B12's terms state "You understand that B12 owns the Services" and that "Account termination may result in destruction of any Content associated with your account" ( Terms of Service, September 2026).

Both are legitimate models, clearly written down by the companies themselves. They are also the single thing most people never check — and checking costs nothing but reading one clause before you sign.

The five lines to read before you sign

1. The setup fee, and when it is charged. Before the work, on approval, or on launch — three very different risks.
2. What the monthly covers. Hosting, maintenance, and how many minutes of edits. "Support" is not a quantity.
3. What happens to the site if you stop paying. In writing, in the contract, not in an email from a salesperson.
4. Who the domain is registered to. It should be you. This is the line that decides whether leaving is possible at all.
5. The notice period and any exit fee. Twelve-month minimum terms are common and are not always mentioned out loud.

Is a cheap package a false economy?

Not inherently. Check what the price excludes rather than what it includes, because the common pattern is a low build price with the hosting, the edits and the domain retained by the provider — so the cheap part is the only part ever quoted.

Total it properly: the build, two years of every recurring fee, the edits you will realistically ask for at their published hourly rate, and any renewal on something registered in their name. Compare that number. Sometimes the cheap package still wins, and when it does it is a good buy — you just made it with the full number in front of you.

What ours contains

Two plans and one add-on, listed here so this page is comparable with every other one on it.

Against the five lines above: the setup is charged only on approval and never before; the monthly covers hosting, maintenance and 30 minutes, with anything beyond it at $20 an hour quoted in writing first; if you stop paying you get a complete export of the site, free, the same day; the domain is registered in your name from the start; and it is month to month with no exit fee.

The model itself — what website-as-a-service means and what happens when you stop paying — is covered on the monthly plan page. Every number, with the year-one arithmetic, is on pricing.