Pay monthly website, and the site stays yours

A pay monthly website, in most offers I read in France, means paying a monthly fee for a site the agency builds, hosts and keeps, usually on its own platform, during the commitment. At WebGazelle, the pricing page shows a « Forfait tout compris à partir de 99.90€ HT/mois », from 99.90 euros a month before tax, with an « Engagement sur 24 mois minimum », and the package page adds that once the commitment ends, « votre site est réglé et vous en êtes propriétaire dans son entièreté », meaning the site is paid off and fully yours. So for two years the site isn't yours, and it runs on the WebGazelle CMS, the agency's own content tool.

Other offers present the rental as a light plan with no fixed term, and the pages sometimes contradict each other. At Le Site Français, the rental page lists 49 and 99 euros a month before tax for a « Site Internet WordPress » on rental with an « Engagement sur 48 mois », a 48 month commitment, while the same vendor's creation page reads « 49€/mois · Livré en 10 jours · Sans engagement », meaning no commitment. At ALEO, the creation page advertises a site « À partir de 69€ HT par mois », from 69 euros a month before tax, built on WordPress, without stating any commitment length or exit terms. The prices are easy to read, the exit terms much less so.

Paying every month for a hosted and maintained site is a healthy model in itself, and it's the one I run. It all comes down to who owns the site and the domain name. When the domain is registered in the agency's name, or when the site lives on a tool you can't take with you, every month you pay buys an online presence you lose the day you leave, along with your email addresses and your position on Google. I explain in the article on choosing and owning your domain name why this single point decides everything else, and it's better to know it before signing for several years.

A classic rental suits a business that needs an online presence right now, for a short time, and doesn't plan to build lasting visibility on its own domain. A seasonal project, a shop still testing its idea or a company that knows it will change its name in two years can rent a WordPress site at 49 or 69 euros a month without regret, as long as they read the commitment length and check that the domain will be handed back on the way out. In that specific case, the lack of ownership doesn't weigh much, because there's nothing to keep afterwards.

Buying outright suits a company with the cash, a precise need and someone in house to look after hosting, backups and updates once the site is delivered. That's often a small or medium business with an IT team, or a business whose site barely changes from one year to the next. The real cost of a bought site doesn't stop at the first invoice though, because hosting, the domain, the security certificate and maintenance come back every year. I listed those items in the article on website maintenance and what it costs each year, and many quotes forget to mention them.

My subscription suits a business that lives from local customers, wants a site of its own without a large payment upfront, and would rather have someone look after it every month. A plumber, an osteopath, a restaurant or a renovation company get a site coded for their trade, pages I change within 48 working hours, and a domain that stays theirs the day they leave. The page on websites for tradespeople shows what that kind of site looks like in practice. The Visibility plan is for those who also want to be found on Google and in the answers of ChatGPT or Perplexity, through the pages and articles written every month on verified keywords.

The order starts with a conversation about your business, your customers and the pages you need, then a quote with the first year total at the top. Once the quote is accepted and the order amount is paid, I register the domain in your name, or take over the one you already have, and I build a complete first version of the site, with the pages, the base text and the images, adapted to phones as well as desktops. You receive it with a private link so you can read it calmly and send me your feedback, in one go if possible.

After your feedback, I apply the adjustments, I check speed, accessibility and technical SEO, then I put the site live after your written approval. The usual delay is less than 48 hours between the order and the launch, and it depends mostly on how long you take to review. Features that aren't included in the subscription, such as an online shop, online booking, a client area or a heavy redesign, get a separate quote, and in the Essential plan an extra page gets a small quote.

Once the site is live, the subscription takes over, with hosting, daily backups, security monitoring, technical fixes, text and image changes within 48 working hours and a monthly report on traffic and uptime. Those tasks are automated on my side, and that's what makes the price possible. If one day you want to move the site elsewhere, you ask for the export and you receive it within 15 days, with the domain already in your name. To ask a question or request a quote, you write to me from the contact page and I'll reply with a total for the first year.