Contractor Website Costs | The Real 3-Year Math
See the true cost difference between WordPress and subscription builders. Stop overpaying for slow sites.
The Real Cost of Your Website: Own It Once or Rent It Forever
You run a trade business. Every dollar matters, but the cheapest website is often the one with the weakest ownership, slowest recovery path, and least proof. Subscription sites can look inexpensive upfront, then become expensive when you need control.
What We’re Comparing
Two paths:
- Subscription builders like Wix, Squarespace, GoDaddy; monthly rent, limited control.
- WordPress ownership, one-time build, you keep everything.
If you want the deeper audit on what you truly own in each scenario, read our ownership checklist and the Wix vs WordPress comparison ; together they show how fast low-control rent turns into lost assets.
Time frame: 3 years. Typical 5-page contractor site with photos, contact form, basic SEO.
WordPress Ownership Costs
- Build: Current WordPress rebuilds are scoped by risk, page depth, redirects, integrations, content, and launch proof.
- Hosting: $10/month.
- Domain: $15/year.
- Maintenance: Ad hoc or support-plan work depends on risk and response needs.
After launch, the asset is yours. The key value is control, not the lowest starting number.
Subscription Builder Costs
- Base plan: $30-$50/month.
- Domain + email: $80/year.
- SEO + storage + upsells: $200/year.
3-year total: $3,000-$5,000.
Stop paying, site dies.
It can look cheaper. The risk is that you rent every line of code.
Hidden Fees and Slow Bleeds
Platforms sell add-ons: email, forms, analytics, storage, priority support, and migration help.
You lose time waiting on support. You lose leads when slow pages drop your rank. Low control turns costly fast.
How Agencies Pad Quotes
Watch for:
- “Custom package” with no line-items.
- Monthly “support” retainers you’ll never use.
- Migration fees that trap you.
If you can’t see what you’re paying for, you’re the product.
FunkPd Current Scope Paths
No rent. No bloat. Scope and price are written before work starts:
- Website Rescue: active failures, hacked sites, fragile handoffs, staging fixes, and proof.
- WordPress Rebuilds: owned rebuilds when the old site is not worth patching.
- Systems Work: WooCommerce, catalogs, CRM, integrations, and workflow risk.
All scoped with handoff proof.
Run Your Numbers
Add up what you’ve paid, then ask what you can recover, move, prove, and operate without vendor permission.
