Websites you don’t pay monthly for.
A website is a set of files and a domain name. Neither needs a subscription. This page is what that actually means, in numbers, with nothing hidden.
What the monthly fee turns into
If you’re paying $200 a month to keep your website alive, that’s $2,400 a year. Three years in you’ve spent $7,200. Five years, $12,000, and the meter is still running.
Now the question that matters more than any of those numbers: what did all that money turn into? Not the files. Sometimes not even the domain. Rent doesn’t build toward anything. That’s not an accident, it’s the business model. I watched it from the inside for years, and it’s the whole reason Rootline exists.
Rent disappears the day you send it. What you own stays yours.
The honest list
- 01
Your domain name
Around fifteen dollars a year, bought by you, in your own account. The one recurring cost, and the one you should never let anybody else hold for you.
Yours · yearly - 02
The build, once
Quoted for your project. When it’s done, it’s done. No ongoing fee owed to me, ever, and nothing I can switch off.
One price, once - 03
Card fees, only if you sell
If your site takes payments, your processor takes a percentage of real sales. That only happens after somebody has paid you, which is the only kind of fee I’m comfortable putting in front of a small business.
Only on real sales - 04
Everything else: nothing
Hosting, spam protection, the contact form, and easy editing all run on free plans, in accounts created in your name and handed over at launch. If one of those companies ever changes in a way that stops being safe for you, that’s my job to notice. I’ve already moved every client once for exactly that reason.
$0 a month
What happens if we never speak again?
Nothing. That’s the answer I hold myself to, and the only honest test of whether you own something.
Your site keeps running. The code lives under your account. The hosting is your account. The domain is registered to you. Your business email routes to your inbox. You have a screen recording of every field you can change yourself, so you can come back to it on a random Tuesday without needing me to be reachable.
And because you have the files, you can pick the whole thing up and move it anywhere. Nothing about how I build ties you to a company. Including me.
Questions people ask about this
01Can you really have a website with no monthly fee?
Yes. A website is a set of files and a domain name. The files can sit on hosting that's free for a small business site, and the domain is about fifteen dollars a year in your own name. What people usually pay monthly for is a platform subscription or a designer who kept the keys. Neither one is required to have a website.
02What do I actually have to pay for then?
Your domain name, yearly, in your own account. That's it for a typical small business site. If you sell online, your processor takes a percentage of real sales, which only happens once you've been paid. Everything else in how I build, hosting, spam protection, the contact form, the editor, runs on free plans in accounts created in your name.
03What is the catch?
You pay for the build once, and it's more than a monthly plan costs in month one. That's the whole trade. A monthly plan is easier to start and never stops. A build you own is a bigger number once, then nothing.
04What happens if I stop working with you?
Nothing. Your site keeps running. The files are yours, the accounts are in your name, the domain is registered to you, and you have a video walkthrough of how to change things yourself. Move the whole site to any host you want, any time. Nothing about how I build ties you to a company, including me.
05Who should still pay monthly for a website?
Honestly, some should. If you need somebody running campaigns, publishing constantly, or managing a complicated store week to week, you're paying for a person doing work, and that's fair. The thing worth refusing is a monthly fee that only exists to keep you from having your own files.
Own your corner of the internet.
No pressure, no pitch. Tell me about your business and I’ll tell you honestly what it needs.