Website as a service
What is website as a service?
The subscription model for business websites, explained by a company that actually runs one — including the cases where it's the wrong choice.
Website as a service — usually shortened to WaaS — is a model where a provider designs, builds, hosts, and maintains your website for a recurring monthly fee, instead of charging a large one-time project cost and handing over the files. You may also see it called a website subscription or a subscription-based website. The build, the hosting, the security, and the ongoing changes are bundled into one payment, and the provider stays responsible for the site after it launches.
The model exists because the traditional arrangement fails a lot of small businesses: a five-figure invoice before anything is proven, then a site nobody maintains because every change costs extra. WaaS trades that for a predictable monthly cost and a provider with a reason to keep the thing working.
What's in it
What a WaaS plan usually includes
The build
Design and development of the site itself, spread across the subscription instead of invoiced as a project.
Hosting and SSL
Servers, certificate, and CDN, bundled rather than billed separately or left for you to arrange.
Security and monitoring
Patching, uptime checks, and the unglamorous upkeep that decides whether a site is still working in a year.
Ongoing changes
Content edits as the business changes. The scope of what counts as an edit is the detail that varies most between providers.
Support
A named route to a human. On a one-time build, support usually ends at launch.
The other side
When website as a service is the wrong choice
We sell this model, so treat the following as a company arguing against its own product where the facts point that way.
You'll keep the same site for five years or more
Over a long enough horizon, a one-time build costs less. At $249/month a subscription passes $8,900 in three years. If you can host cheaply, do your own updates, and leave the site untouched, paying once is the better arithmetic — and any provider who won't say so is selling, not advising.
You want to control the code yourself
If you have a developer in-house who wants to deploy changes directly, a managed subscription adds a layer you don't need. Buy the build, keep the repository, and run it yourself.
The provider keeps the site if you stop paying
This is the model's real failure case. When the site only exists inside a proprietary builder, or the domain is registered to the provider, cancelling means losing the asset you paid for. If a provider can't tell you exactly what you walk away with, the answer is usually nothing.
How to judge a WaaS provider
The model itself is neither good nor bad; the terms are what matter. Four questions separate a fair arrangement from a trap, and you should be able to get all four answered in writing before you pay anything:
- If I cancel, what exactly do I keep — the site, the domain, the content?
- Is the site portable, or does it only run on your platform?
- Is there a minimum term, a cancellation fee, or a charge to export my own content?
- What counts as an included change, and what gets billed separately?
Our answers: you keep the site, domain, and content; plans are month-to-month with no setup or cancellation fee; and content updates are included — ten a month on Starter, unlimited on Professional and Business.
Website as a service FAQ
Website as a service (WaaS) is a subscription model where a provider builds, hosts, and maintains your website for a recurring fee instead of charging a large one-time project cost. The design, hosting, security, and ongoing updates are bundled into a single monthly payment, and the provider stays responsible for the site after launch.
It typically runs from about $100 to $1,000 per month depending on the size of the site and what the plan covers. Ours is $249 per month for Starter, $449 for Professional, and from $749 for Business, in USD, with design, hosting, SSL, security, and content updates included in every tier.
In the first year or two, almost always — there is no large upfront invoice, and hosting and maintenance are included. Over four or five years on an unchanged site, a one-time build usually works out cheaper. The honest comparison is total cost over the period you'll actually keep the site, including what you'd otherwise pay for hosting and maintenance.
With us, yes: the site, domain, and content are yours, and if you leave we hand everything over. Across the industry it varies enormously, and this is the question that matters most. Ask any provider what you keep if you cancel, and get the answer in writing before you start.
That depends entirely on the provider. Some models leave you with nothing because the site only runs on their platform. Ours is month-to-month: cancel from your billing page, effective at the end of the current cycle, with no cancellation fee, and you keep the site, domain, and content.
No. With a builder you do the work yourself on a subscription to software. With WaaS a team does the design, build, and ongoing changes for you. The monthly fee is buying labour and responsibility, not a tool licence.
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