Just as most of us pay monthly for our smartphone and cellular/data service rather than buying the phone outright at a huge expense, Website-as-a-Service (WaaS) allows you to have a premium website for a low monthly cost, with nothing upfront.
Everything is taken care of for you, so you don’t need to think about it.
COMPARE: | Pay Upfront (Traditional) | Website-as-a-Service |
|---|---|---|
| Summary | You pay for your website up front—typically 50% in advance and 50% at launch. Once it's completed, you have financial responsibility for hosting, maintenance, updates, security and anything else. When you want to add new pages, redesign a page, or overhaul the look and feel, you pay for that too. | You pay a monthly fee that covers design, development, hosting, maintenance, security and any changes to the site. Essentially, everything required to keep your site fresh and up-to-date. |
| Upfront cost (premium website) | $3K to $15K+ | Just the first monthly payment |
| Cost varies by number of pages? | Yes | Yes |
| Cost varies by number of features? | Yes | No |
| Ongoing costs | Anything required or desired is an additional cost (hosting, backups, domain registrations, security certificates, plugin licence renewals, layout changes, etc.) | Just the same monthly payment |
| Website hosting, maintenance, security, backups, anti-spam | $250 to $600 annually, plus additional labour as required. | All included. Daily backups. Weekly maintenance to keep site secure and running efficiently. Top-tier firewall and security plugins installed. |
| Content updates, layout changes, addition of new features | While you can make some changes with the WordPress CMS (Content Management System), some things like page navigation are tied tightly into the site structure and should be done by us. Plus, you don't really have the time to do changes. We typically charge by the hour. | All included (with certain exceptions)2. We'll add new pages1, re-arrange content, make whatever changes you want. |
| Troubleshooting, Fixing, restoring backups | It's not uncommon for websites to be hacked, or issues to arise from bugs in components used in the site design. Any labour and software needed to repair a broken site is billable at our hourly rate. | All included. We utilize the latest security techniques to prevent website attacks. But, if your website is ever compromised will will fix and restore your site at no additional cost. |
| Website refresh | Websites have a shelf life. Styles change and technology continues to improve. Most companies update their website every 1-1/2 to 2 years. | Because all changes to the site are included, your site will usually be continually updated as your company grows and evolves. |
Custom development, custom integration with external systems, or functionality that requires a plugin costing more than $30/year. We’ll always try to find the most cost-effective solution, and even these do not necessarily require extra charges (but probably). Talk to us about what you have in mind.
The monthly cost will increase as soon as we begin design of the new page and your next payment will reflect the new page. If you add any new pages during the last 6 months of the 2-year term, the term is extended by 3 months for every page added.
The monthly cost will increase as soon as we begin design of the new page and your next payment will reflect the new page. If you add any new pages during the last 6 months of the 2-year term, the term is extended by 3 months for every page added.
It’s typically a collaborative effort. You know your story better than anyone. You also likely have copy that’s been created in the past that makes a good starting point. We’re happy to use it verbatim or we can refine it to ensure your unique value really shines.
It's quite possible that we'll increase the price at some point, but your monthly per-page rate will stay the same for a minimum of two years.
We accept Visa, Mastercard, Discover and American Express for monthly plans. We also accept check or Interac e-transfer payments if you’re pre-paying for a whole year.
Many of our clients are based in the US or overseas, and are familiar with US currency (like us Canadians). But only Canadians understand Canadian dollars.
Our monthly pricing model allows us to manage our own infrastructure and software solutions. This keeps our reliance on third-parties to an absolute minimum and allows for a true end-to-end solution. You’ll never get a random bill from a company you didn’t know about (seriously, this happens a lot!) We'll try not to tell you “the problem isn’t on our end” and point the finger elsewhere (unless it absolutely, truly is!) We can address just about every issue within a single phone call or email.
