Why Total Cost Beats the Monthly Figure
A website decision lasts years, but offers are usually quoted per month or per project. Those numbers are not comparable on their own. A rental at a modest monthly fee and a build at a larger one-time price can end up close over three years, or far apart, depending on hosting, edits, renewals and what leaving would cost.
Total cost of ownership (TCO) is the simple fix: add every cost of each option over the same period, including the value of your own time. That is all this calculator does. It does not know any prices; it only adds up yours.
What Goes in Each Field
Rent
Use the figures from the rental offer. If there is no setup fee, leave it blank. "Add-ons" covers anything billed on top of the base fee, such as extra pages or a booking tool. "Cost to leave" is easy to forget: enter any cancellation fee, any buyout price, or a rough rebuild cost if you would have to start over somewhere else.
Buy
Use the designer's or agency's quote for the build. Hosting is usually a separate monthly plan. "Maintenance and edits" covers software updates, backups and the changes you would pay someone to make each year. If you would expect a refresh within the period, add it.
Do it yourself
The builder subscription and any paid apps or templates are straightforward. The hours fields matter most: how long it would take you to learn the tool and build the site, and how many hours a year you would spend keeping it current.
Putting a Value on Your Time
The "your time" field changes the result more than people expect. An hour you spend fixing a layout is an hour not spent on paid work, quoting, or your family. Use whichever number feels honest: what you charge customers per hour, what you would pay someone to do the task, or a figure that reflects what an evening is worth to you.
If you set it to zero, you are saying your time is free. That is sometimes true for an owner who enjoys the work. For most people running a business, it is not.
Do Not Skip the Exit Cost
Leaving is part of the cost of renting. Even if you expect to stay, enter what it would cost to leave at the end of the period: fees in the agreement, plus a rough cost to rebuild elsewhere if the design does not come with you. If the rental is only cheapest when the exit cost is zero, you have learned something important about it. The ownership guide explains what usually comes with you and what does not.
Reading the Result
The lowest total is highlighted, but the lowest number is not automatically the right choice. If two paths are close, the deciding factors should be control, effort and exit terms, covered in rent vs buy vs DIY. If one path is far cheaper, check you have not left a cost out, especially your hours and the exit.
When you are ready, print the comparison, take it to the providers you are weighing up with the contract questions, or send us a note.