There are two common ways to pay for a website. You can pay once to have it built, then take care of hosting and changes as you go. Or you can pay a monthly subscription to a provider that runs the site for you, including the hosting and the upkeep.
Salespeople on each side will tell you the other one is a trap. It is not. They are different deals that suit different offices, and the right answer depends on how your business works, not on which pitch sounds better.
What a one-time build really includes
You pay a larger amount upfront, and a developer or agency designs and builds the site. At the end, you have a website.
What you usually do not have is anyone responsible for it afterwards. Hosting, the rented space your site lives on, is billed separately. So is the domain renewal. The software needs security updates. Something will break eventually, perhaps after a browser update, and someone has to fix it. And every new listing, new photo or change of phone number is either something you learn to do or something you pay for.
Some developers include a period of support after launch. Ask how long it lasts and what it covers. The honest summary of a one-time build is this: the site is yours, and so is the job of keeping it alive.
What a subscription really includes
You pay monthly. Hosting, updates and fixes are the provider's job. On a good platform you add and edit listings yourself, and improvements arrive without you paying for a rebuild.
The catch is the mirror image of the one-time build. You are paying for an ongoing service, so if you stop paying, the service stops. That makes one question more important than any other: when you leave, what can you take with you? Your listings, your enquiries and, above all, your domain name should all be yours to keep. We go through what to ask in who owns your leads and listings if you switch providers.
Watch for subscriptions that also charge a large setup fee on top, which is really a build fee under another name. Some providers instead charge more in the first few months and less after, which covers the same setup work inside the subscription. Our own plans work that way, with no separate build fee, and the figures are on the pricing page. Whatever model a provider uses, ask them to set it out in writing.
Which one suits your office
A one-time build tends to suit you if:
- You have a reliable person, in-house or a developer you trust, for changes
- Your stock rarely changes, like a builder with a single project
- You want a design made from scratch and can budget for it
- You are comfortable managing hosting and renewals yourself
A subscription tends to suit you if:
- You add, sell and rent out listings every week
- You do not want to chase anyone when something breaks
- You would rather spread the cost than pay a large sum upfront
- Nobody in the office wants to think about hosting
A busy resale broker in Vadodara with forty active listings and a small team usually falls in the second group. A builder in Nashik with one project and a marketing agency already on retainer might sensibly fall in the first. Neither is wrong.
Compare them over three years
The mistake almost everyone makes is comparing the first invoice. Compare three years instead.
For a one-time build, add the build cost, three years of hosting, three domain renewals, a realistic estimate of changes and fixes, and the value of your own time spent chasing them. For a subscription, add thirty-six monthly payments plus anything charged on top.
Put the two totals next to each other, with what each one includes, and the choice usually becomes much clearer. We have written more about what goes into those numbers in what a property website should actually cost.
What to do this week
- Ask every provider the same question: what happens in month thirteen?
- For a build, ask who fixes things, and at what cost, once support ends.
- For a subscription, ask whether the price changes over time, and how you leave.
- Decide honestly who in your office will update the site, and how often.
If the answer to that last one is "nobody", read who updates the website before you buy anything at all. The payment model matters much less than whether the site will be kept current.
In the end, pick the model that matches how your office actually runs, not the one with the lowest first invoice. A site that is cheap to start and never updated is the most expensive option of all.
