Why There Is No Such Thing As One-Time Website Pricing

“One-Time” Pricing for a Business Website

You browse around the internet for a company to build your business a website. You find solutions for a complete website for one-time fees of anywhere between $500 and $5,000. But there’s something they’re not telling you…

…it’s going to cost you more; oftentimes a lot more!

The thing is – one-time pricing is never really “one-time”. There are always recurring costs associated with owning a website, regardless of the size or type. Companies like to leave this piece of information out of the sales call. The truth usually doesn’t come out until after your website is finished.

Owning a Website is Like Owning a House

When you purchase a house, you set a budget for extra expenses like insurance, taxes, utilities, maintenance, and the unexpected repair. These costs can quickly add up and can even be higher than your mortgage payment. A website works the same way. If you don’t budget for domain name registration, web hosting, themes, plug-ins, periodic updates, content changes, and unexpected bug fixes, you may be in for a surprise later on.

Just like a house, it’s also cheaper to keep up with regular maintenance instead of waiting for your website to break. If you’re tech savvy, it’s possible to manage certain parts of the website on your own. However, your time is valuable and you can’t be certain things are done correctly 100% of the time.

Why Cemah Believes in Monthly Pricing

Through many years of experience, we’ve discovered a majority of small businesses are better served with a flat monthly rate. There are no startup costs to break the bank, your monthly payment is predictable, and it’s affordable to fit into your business’ marketing budget. You’ll also never have to worry about support. We build and manage everything for you, without any unexpected fees. It is our incentive to stay here with you, helping you throughout the life of your website.

A True End-to-End Solution

Our monthly pricing model allows us to manage our own infrastructure and software solutions. This keeps our reliance on third-parties to an absolute minimum and allows for a true end-to-end solution. You’ll never get a random bill from a company you didn’t know about (seriously, this happens a lot!) We’ll never tell you “the problem isn’t on our end” and point the finger elsewhere. We can address just about every issue within a single phone call or email.

Subscription Pricing Without The Typical Downsides

We offer a short term one year commitment with a 60-day money back guarantee. Our clients retain full ownership of their website and we never hold their website hostage. Although we work hard to make sure you won’t want to leave, you are completely free to move your website after one year. Plus, the rate you pay when you start is the rate you’ll continue to pay. We don’t play the introductory pricing bait and switch game. We’re a small business too, and being able to offer a fair solution for other small businesses is why we do what we do.

View Our Affordable Plans

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The Typical Recurring Website Expenses

Below are the five typical recurring expense categories for website ownership. Annual cost estimate ranges are included for each category.

Your domain name must be registered annually for a fee of around 10 dollars. It is also important to have an SSL security certificate for your website. Although technically optional, SSL provides security and is preferred among search engines like Google, enhancing your search results score.

Many companies and freelance web designers use WordPress software plugins for advanced development functionality and themes to design your website. These are often made by third-parties and require annual subscription fees. Your “one-time” rate may include the first year of payment for these plugins and themes. After the first year, you’ll be hit with renewal bills from these third-party companies you may have never even known about. Depending on the type of theme used and number of plugins, you could be in for some bad sticker shock.

Web hosting is necessary for visitors to connect to and load your website. There are many different price points for web hosting, however the lower you pay, the more you’ll need to do on your own. If you go with $5 a month budget hosting, you’ll want to invest in a security plugin for advanced security measures and you’ll be on your own for software updates. For advanced hosting, you’ll pay closer to $30 a month but it will include enhanced security and software updates, along with better support.

Throughout the course of owning your website there may be times you need to change information. Did your business move, change hours, or update services? Do you want to be able to add monthly specials? If you’re tech savvy, you may be able to update these things on your own. With design changes, you’ll almost always need the help of an expert. Most companies bill out at a high hourly rate for any updates made to your site, and that’s if you can even get ahold of them.

Even if you don’t think you’ll need content or design changes, it is always good practice to be making regular updates to your website. Visitors and search engines like seeing updated content. If you set it and forget it, you’re never going to get a good return on your investment.

There will always be things that can be improved on your website. It’s best to consult with a marketing expert to find gaps and make improvements to acquire more customers. By using analytics software, data can be gathered about your visitors to help make informed decisions. Utilization of analytics has a difficult learning curve and having a marketing expert by your side can make a large difference.