Compare your quote
If you were offered a monthly website plan, enter its quote to compare it with buying once or building it yourself over 1 to 5 years. Your numbers stay in your browser.
How it decides
| Rule | Calculation |
|---|---|
| R1. Rent, cash paid by month m | Setup fee + monthly price × m. |
| R2. Rent, total if you leave at month m | Setup fee + monthly price × the larger of m and the minimum months, plus the hand-over fee if you chose “Only for a fee”. The rest of the minimum is counted because the contract may require it. |
| R3. Buy once, cost by month m | One-time price + (hosting and domain per year + changes per year) ÷ 12 × m. |
| R4. Build it yourself, cost by month m | (Plan price per month + other yearly costs ÷ 12) × m. Your time is added only if you enter the value of an hour and your build hours: value of an hour × (build hours + update hours per year ÷ 12 × m). |
| R5. Break-even month, on cash paid | The first month m in which R1 is more than R3, found with whole-cent arithmetic. “Never” if no month qualifies. |
| R6. Verdict | The lowest of R2, R3 and R4 at the years you chose. R4 takes part only when your time is counted. Equal totals are a tie. |
| R7. Break-even hours | (The lower of R2 and R3, minus the builder fees in R4) ÷ the value of an hour. |
| R8. If you keep no files | R2 + the one-time price again. Shown on its own line and never used in the verdict. |
Worked example: $285 × 36 = $10,260. Cash paid passes the cost of buying in month 8 ($2,280 against $2,253). With the 12-month minimum, leaving in months 1 to 12 owes $3,420.
| Cost at month | Month 7 | Month 8 | Month 12 | Month 36 | Month 60 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rent at $285 a month: cash paid (R1) | $1,995 | $2,280 | $3,420 | $10,260 | $17,100 |
| Rent: owed if you leave, 12-month minimum (R2) | $3,420 | $3,420 | $3,420 | $10,260 | $17,100 |
| Buy once at $2,000 plus $380 a year (R3) | $2,222 | $2,253 | $2,380 | $3,140 | $3,900 |
| Squarespace Core, fees only (R4) | $203 | $232 | $348 | $1,044 | $1,740 |
Who keeps the site if you stop paying
| Path | What you keep | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Rent (Blue Veil Web Designs) | Blue Veil keeps the website. You keep your domain and your content. | Blue Veil FAQ, read October 6, 2026. |
| Buy once (Montrelia) | You own your domain and your site code. | Montrelia terms as of October 7, 2026. |
| Build it yourself (a site builder) | Not checked here: whether a site built on a builder can be exported if you leave. | Squarespace pricing page read October 6, 2026; no export terms read. |
When another choice fits
| If | Then | Figure and assumption |
|---|---|---|
| You will build and update the site yourself | Building it yourself can cost least | Squarespace Core fees are $1,044 over 36 months. Building costs less than buying once if your hours over 36 months stay under about 42, at an assumed $50 an hour (rule R7). |
| You need more than 10 pages | Our price does not apply | The $2,000 covers up to 10 pages. See who we are not for. |
| You cannot write the text for every page | Add the cost of the writing | Our price assumes you supply the text for up to 10 pages. This page has no figure for copywriting. |
| You want the lowest one-time price | Cheaper listings exist | WebEaze lists $949 for up to 3 custom pages plus a contact page, and DMV Web Design $399 with no page limit stated (read October 6, 2026). More prices near you: website cost in Northern Virginia and DC. |
| You want edits and support inside one monthly price | A rental can fit | Blue Veil lists unlimited edits and 24/7 support in its $285 a month plan (read October 6, 2026). |
What it cannot tell you
Published figures
| Source | What it says | Date read | Who publishes it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Blue Veil Web Designs, pricing Blue Veil Web Designs, FAQ | Growth plan: $285 a month for up to 10 pages. Domain, hosting, SSL, unlimited edits and 24/7 support are in the price. No setup fee is listed in the visible text of the pricing or FAQ pages; the pricing page title and description read “$0 Down”. 12-month minimum, and ending early means paying the rest of the 12 months. The website stays Blue Veil's property if you cancel; you keep the domain and your content. | October 6, 2026 | Blue Veil Web Designs, which sells rented websites. |
| WebEaze, pricing | On monthly billing, Essential is $199 a month (up to 3 pages) and Growth $299 (up to 6 pages), each with a $99 one-time setup fee that is non-refundable and waived on yearly billing. No contract. | October 6, 2026 | WebEaze, which sells rented websites. |
| WebEaze, fee schedule | One-time new website: $949 for up to 3 custom pages plus a contact page. No monthly plan required. Domain registration is sold separately. | October 6, 2026 | WebEaze, which sells this build. |
| DMV Web Design | One-time site at $399, listed as a limited-time offer against a regular $799. The listing states no page limit. The domain and hosting are free in year one; after that the domain is $20 a year and hosting is from $19 a month. | October 6, 2026 | DMV Web Design, which sells these sites. |
| Bytes WebWorks, blog post dated April 21, 2026 | Running costs of a site you own: domain $10 to $20 a year, hosting $5 to $30 a month, maintenance $50 to $200 a month (covers updates, backups, security). | October 6, 2026 | Bytes WebWorks, which sells websites and maintenance. |
| Squarespace, pricing | Core plan: $348 a year billed yearly ($29 a month), or $39 a month billed monthly. Hosting is included. A yearly plan includes a free domain for the first year, and the page lists no renewal rate. The page shows a “20% off” badge on each plan and gives no end date. | October 6, 2026 | Squarespace, which sells the plans. |
Questions people ask
Who pays for hosting and the domain on a Montrelia website?
You do. Hosting and domain renewal sit in your own accounts and you pay for them. We set them up. Montrelia lists no yearly figure, so the calculator starts at $380 a year, the top of the Bytes WebWorks ranges: a $20 domain plus hosting at $30 a month × 12 (read October 6, 2026).
What changes does the $2,000 cover?
As of October 7, 2026, one revision is included. One consolidated round of feedback on the whole site after first delivery. New pages or features count as new work. That round comes before the site is published on your own domain. Changes after launch are not priced in this calculator, so the buy-once path uses your own yearly estimate. One published rental lists unlimited edits inside its monthly price.
When does renting a website make sense?
Renting costs less than buying when two things hold. First, the minimum total (monthly price × minimum months + setup) is below the one-time price. Second, you will keep the site fewer months than the break-even month. Renting can also fit when you cannot pay the one-time price at once, even where the total is higher.
Last updated October 6, 2026