Website: one-time payment or monthly subscription?
Every business owner ordering a website faces the same question: pay the full amount at once, or get the website on a monthly subscription? A one-time payment looks more logical at first — "I paid once, the site is mine". But a website is not just a design; it is a service that has to work every day.
The hidden costs of a one-time purchase
Costs continue after the site is delivered:
- Hosting — the server the site runs on, renewed every year.
- Domain — your .az or .com address, paid yearly.
- SSL certificate — the "secure" padlock; without it Google ranks the site lower.
- Edits — new prices, services or images. Each one is a separate order and a wait.
- Maintenance — updates, backups, a form that stops working.
These costs are rarely discussed at the start, and a year or two later the site is outdated: information is stale, forms break, enquiries get lost.
What the subscription model gives you
With a subscription, the website works as a service. The monthly fee covers design, development, hosting, SSL, domain and a set number of monthly edits. No large upfront payment — the money stays in your business.
The key difference is responsibility: keeping the site running, secure and up to date is the provider's job for the whole subscription.
A simple calculation
Say a one-time price for a corporate website is 2,500–4,000 ₼, plus hosting, domain and edits during the year. On a subscription, the same site starts from 159 ₼ a month with everything included. Over the first two years the costs roughly even out — but on a subscription the site is kept updated and working the whole time.
Which one fits you?
A one-time purchase makes sense for companies with their own technical team. A subscription suits those who want to use the website as a sales tool rather than "build it and forget it" — especially when website enquiries should land straight in a CRM.
SBT Web plans start from 63 ₼ a month, and with SBT CRM both subscriptions get 20% off.
