Website as a Service vs Buying a Website: Which Suits You?

Website as a service, often shortened to WaaS, is a simple idea: instead of paying a large sum up front for a website and then looking after it yourself, you pay a monthly fee and a team builds the site, hosts it and keeps it current for you. Most of what is written about it is aimed at agencies deciding whether to sell it. This guide is for the other side of the table: the business owner deciding whether to buy it.

We offer both models, a monthly plan called Hosted for You and one-off website projects, so we have no reason to pretend one is always better. Here is how they compare.

What the comparison covers

There are two broad ways for a small business to get a professional website.

The first is to buy it: a designer builds the site as a project, you pay once, and afterwards you own it and look after it, yourself or with a separate maintenance plan.

The second is the subscription model: you pay monthly, and the provider designs, builds, hosts and maintains the site as one service.

We compare them on cost, effort, ownership, flexibility and results, then look at which kind of business suits which.

Buying a website: what it is and who it suits

What it is. A project with a start and an end. You agree a scope and a price, the site is designed and built, and on launch day it is handed over to you. You then pay separately for the platform or hosting and decide how changes get made.

Who it suits. Businesses that want full control, have someone who will look after the site, or need something unusual that only a dedicated project can deliver. It also suits businesses that prefer a single capital cost to an ongoing bill.

What it costs. A larger amount up front, then running costs afterwards. Our own fixed-price projects start from $5,000 for Launch and $9,500 for Rebuild, and the price is agreed in writing before work starts.

Website as a service: what it is and who it suits

What it is. An ongoing service. One monthly or yearly fee covers the design, the build, hosting, security, the domain settings and the changes you ask for. You don't manage the site; you send changes and they are made.

Who it suits. Small and growing businesses that want a site that looks the part and stays current, but would rather not own the technical side or find time to update it. Typical examples are trades, clinics, coaches, consultants and local service businesses.

What it costs. A lower start and a predictable monthly fee. Our Hosted for You plans are $197, $497 or $1,497 a month billed yearly, with two months free and no setup fee, or $237, $597 and $1,797 a month billed monthly, plus a setup fee quoted on a call.

Side by side

Cost

Buying means a bigger first payment and smaller running costs, unless you pay someone to maintain it. A subscription spreads the cost and includes the running costs, so the monthly figure is the whole figure. Compare the total over two or three years, including maintenance, not just the first invoice.

Effort

Owning a site means someone has to update it. On a subscription, changes are part of the service: on Hosted for You you send a message in your own WhatsApp group and the change is live within 48 hours, or the same day on Pro.

Ownership

This is the question to ask every provider. When you buy a site, you own it. Subscriptions vary: some providers keep the site forever, some hand it over after a period. On our yearly plans, you own the whole site outright after a full paid year: code, design, content and domain. On monthly plans, the domain and content are always yours, while we keep the design and code.

Flexibility

Owning a site lets you change anything at any time, if you have the skills or the budget. A subscription is flexible in a different way: you don't need either, because a team makes the change. The limit is usually one change at a time, in the order you send them.

Results

A site only brings in customers if people can find it and it stays current. Some subscriptions include work on that, such as new pages written around what customers search for. Our Growth plan adds two new pages a month and Pro adds ten. Be wary of any plan that promises rankings: Google's own advice on hiring an SEO says "No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google."

Pros and cons

Buying outright

Pros: full ownership from day one, full control, one capital cost, no ongoing contract.

Cons: a larger upfront cost, changes and updates are your job or an extra cost, and sites often go stale because nobody has time to update them.

Website as a service

Pros: lower start, predictable cost, changes and hosting included, no technical decisions, the site stays current.

Cons: an ongoing fee, less direct control, and ownership depends entirely on the provider's terms.

Which business suits which option

Choose a subscription if

You would rather send a message than log in to a website builder, your prices, services or team change often, and you want a predictable monthly cost with nothing technical to manage.

Choose to buy if

You want to edit everything yourself, have a specific design or functionality need, or prefer a one-off investment. If you like doing it yourself, a custom site on a builder such as Squarespace is often the better fit; its plans, listed on the Squarespace pricing page, include hosting and are cheaper when paid annually.

Either can work if

You want a professional site and someone else to keep it current. In that case, compare a subscription with a one-off build plus a maintenance plan, over the same number of years.

How to decide

Ask every provider the same four questions. What is the total cost over three years, including setup? Who owns the site, the domain and the content, and when? How do I send changes, and how fast are they made? What happens if I leave?

The provider whose answers are clearest is usually the safest choice, whichever model they sell. Also ask to see sites they run today, and how long those clients have stayed. A provider that keeps clients for years is doing the ongoing part well, which is the part you are paying for. Finally, ask what your first month looks like: who you speak to, what you need to send and when the site will be live. Clear, specific answers here are a good sign that the rest of the service will be clear too.

The short version

A website subscription suits businesses that want a professional site kept current without thinking about it, for a predictable fee. Buying suits businesses that want full control and have someone to look after the site. The deciding factors are ownership, total cost over time and how changes are made, so get those in writing before you choose. Our guide to website maintenance cost breaks down what keeping a site running really costs.

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