What does a website cost? One-off, monthly, hidden

A website costs three times: once when it is built, every month while it runs, and a third time in the items nobody looked at. So the honest answer to «what does a website cost?» is not a number but a list with three columns. Our own «from» line is on the pricing page; it comes straight from our system and changes only there. This article is about the items behind it, so you can read any proposal, ours included, the same way.

What belongs to the one-off cost?

The build: design, texts, images, page structure, forms, setting up domain and e-mail. This is where providers differ most, and where the first extras hide. Questions worth asking: are texts and photos included, or do you supply them? Is the move of the old site included, with its old addresses? How many rounds of corrections are in? In our three rebuilds this year the move was part of the job every time; at Crystal’s Karaoke with 279 old addresses that all lead to the new site. Whoever does not plan it pays for it later, in lost visitors.

A second point: what happens if you do not like the draft? With many agencies the deposit is gone. With us you see the finished website before you sign anything. That is not a discount, it is an order of events.

What keeps costing every month?

Hosting, domain, security updates, backups, small changes. In a website builder this sits inside the subscription; with an agency site, hosting and maintenance often come separately, and maintenance is sometimes missing altogether. Then the site runs on an old version until it breaks. When we review existing websites for our sales team, that is exactly what we find: sites showing visitors program errors with server paths, or a system several major versions behind the current one.

Ask about every monthly amount: what is in it? Does someone react when the site is down? Does someone change the opening hours when you send them? With us that is included: you write to us, we apply it.

Where are the hidden costs?

Four items rarely appear in proposals. First, licences: website builders and many systems charge extra modules with their own subscription for forms, galleries or multiple languages. Second, third-party services: translation by service, bookings through an external provider, review widgets, each with its own invoice and its own privacy problem. Third, the exit fee: who owns the website if you leave? With some rental models you take nothing with you, not even the domain. Fourth, time: if you have to deliver texts and pictures and enter corrections yourself, that is your working day.

With us the answer to the third item is in the contract: the website belongs to you, domain included. If you leave after the term, you take it with you, without a buyout fee.

What does the price depend on at Sitomat?

On three things: scope, languages and modules. A business with one page that holds everything important needs less than one with services, team, directions and job openings. Every additional language is its own, edited version, not a machine translation. Modules such as appointment booking, table reservations or a client area come on top when they fit your business. What your business needs, we settle in the first call, and you know the price before we build. The current «from» line is on the pricing page; here in the guide we leave it out on purpose, so it never goes stale anywhere.