Rent or own your website?
Put in what your site costs each month on Wix, Squarespace, Shopify, or an agency plan. See the month owning would pay for itself, or a plain answer to stay where you are.
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The numbers in the boxes are an example. Swap in yours.
What you pay to rent today
Prices checked Sep 2026 on each platform's US pricing page: Wix, Squarespace, Shopify. Regular prices; first-term sales are left out.
Only what you'd drop by leaving the platform.
Anyone you pay monthly to host, update, or look after the site.
Leave at 0 if you never pay for one.
What owning would cost
Optional. Some owners keep monthly help, like my Growth Engine from $750 a month. Hosting has no fee either way.
Your comparison
What you keep from one customer after costs.
Owning pays for itself in
| Total after | Renting | Owning |
|---|
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Get a fixed quote for a site you own
Send your numbers and your site's address. I'll reply with a fixed quote, or tell you to stay put if renting is the better deal. One email, no drip campaign.
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Renting vs owning: what you pay for
Renting gets you
- Hosting, templates, and the builder itself.
- Platform support, and a built-in store on most plans.
- On some yearly plans, a free domain for the first year.
Renting doesn't get you
- The site itself. The plan has to stay paid for the site to stay as it is.
- Apps, design help, or your own hours. Those cost extra.
Owning costs after launch
- Your domain renewal, the same bill you'd pay renting.
- Hosting: no fee. My builds run on Cloudflare.
- 30 days of direct support, then monthly help only if you want it.
- Nothing else you must keep paying to stay live. The code, domain, and content are yours.
How the math works
Renting per month = plan + apps + agency fee + redesign ÷ (years between × 12)
Owning = build price + monthly help × months
Payback month = build price ÷ (renting per month minus monthly help), rounded up
- Plan: $29 a month. Squarespace Core billed yearly, the second tier on both Squarespace and Wix.
- Apps $20, agency fee $100. Example numbers. Put in yours.
- Redesign: $0, since I don't know your cycle. A $3,000 redesign every 5 years adds $50 a month.
- Build: $4,500. My published starting price for a full build.
- Monthly help: $0. It's optional, and hosting has no fee either way.
- Five years. Past that, the verdict says stay: I wouldn't rebuild a site to save money that far out.
- Left out of both sides: your domain (it renews either way), card fees (charged either way), your own time, and future price changes. Owning has no redesign built in, so if you'd refresh your site inside your window, add that to monthly help.
A worked example
Say your plan and apps come to $50 a month, and someone charges $100 a month to keep the site updated. That's $150 a month. $4,500 ÷ $150 = 30, so owning pays for itself in month 30. Over five years, renting costs $9,000 and owning costs $4,500.
Now take away the $100 fee. $4,500 ÷ $50 = 90 months, seven and a half years. That's past the five-year line, so the calculator says stay where you are, and so would I.
How to read your number
Month 1 to 24
Owning pays for itself inside two years. Get a real quote, and check it covers everything your site does today.
Month 25 to 60
Owning pays off if you keep this site that long. If you might close, move, or rebrand in the next few years, wait.
Past month 60, or never
Stay where you are. If you rebuild, do it because the site isn't bringing in work, not to save money. The free Website Leak Scanner shows where it leaks.
When renting is the right call
If the plan is all you pay, renting usually beats a full build. It also makes sense when you need a site this week with little money down, when the site is short-term, or when your store runs on Shopify's checkout. I'd rather say so now than sell you a build you don't need.
For all three ways to buy a site side by side, see the website cost comparison.
Questions people ask
Is Wix or Squarespace cheaper than a custom website? +
Usually, if the plan is all you pay. At $29 a month, a $4,500 custom build takes 156 months, 13 years, to pay for itself. Add apps, a maintenance fee, or an agency plan, and the payback gets shorter.
When does a custom website pay for itself? +
When the monthly bills you stop paying add up to the build price. Divide the build price by the monthly gap and round up: at $150 a month, a $4,500 build pays for itself in month 30. Past five years out, I'd stay put.
What does a website cost after launch if I own it? +
On my builds, the ongoing cost is your domain renewal, which you'd pay on any platform. Hosting runs on Cloudflare with no fee. Every build includes 30 days of direct support, and monthly help after that is optional, never required.
Should I leave Shopify for a custom site? +
Usually not to save money. Shopify runs your checkout, stock, and payments, and a custom site would need all of that too. If most of your revenue goes through checkout, staying on Shopify is often the right call.
I pay an agency every month. Should I switch? +
Run your numbers first: at $300 a month, a $4,500 build pays for itself in month 15. Before you switch, ask the agency what happens to your site and domain if you stop paying.
Want a site you own outright?
The Conversion-Engineered Site is a full custom build from $4,500, live in 21 days, with no hosting fees after. I take on a limited number of builds each month. The call is free, and if renting is the better deal for you, I'll tell you.