Short answer: no, you don’t have to pay monthly for a website. But the option you choose will shape everything that comes after — how much work you put in, how much support you get, and whether your website actually does what you need it to. This article walks through all the real options so you can make the right call for your business.
No, you don’t have to pay monthly — but it’s often the smartest choice for small businesses and therapists in private practice. The alternatives are either more work than they look (DIY) or a bigger cost upfront (one-off build). Pay monthly spreads the cost, includes ongoing support, and means someone else handles the tech while you get on with your work.
Your main options for getting a website
There are four realistic routes to getting a website up and running:
- DIY website builders — platforms like Wix, Squarespace, or Weebly where you build it yourself
- One-off website build — you pay a designer once and own the finished site outright
- Pay monthly website plan — a designer builds, hosts, and manages your site for a monthly fee
- Free website builders — the free tiers on Wix, Google Sites, or similar platforms
Each has genuine upsides. Each has real downsides. Here’s what you need to know about each one.
DIY website builders: easier than they look?
Wix and Squarespace have become enormously popular — and it’s easy to see why. You can sign up, pick a template, and have something online within a few hours. There’s no designer to brief, no upfront cost (on most plans), and you’re in complete control of every change.
For a temporary placeholder or a very basic online presence, they can work perfectly well.
But there are a few things worth knowing before you commit.
The first is that DIY builders tend to produce fairly generic results. The templates are used by thousands of other websites, and customising them beyond a certain point requires more technical knowledge than the marketing suggests. Many people spend far longer than expected getting the site to look the way they imagined.
The second is SEO. DIY builders have improved in this area, but they still lag behind a properly built WordPress website when it comes to ranking in search results. If being found on Google matters to you — and for most therapists and small businesses, it really does — this is worth thinking about carefully.
The third is what happens when you outgrow the platform. I work with a lot of people who’ve built something on Wix or Squarespace and then want to move to WordPress. There are plenty of articles online that will tell you this migration is straightforward. In my experience, it really isn’t. Blog posts may come across via an RSS export, but images, custom layouts, and design elements don’t transfer — and nothing of your Wix or Squarespace design comes across at all. Most of the time, you end up rebuilding the site from scratch, using the old one as a reference for content and structure. It’s not a quick move; it’s a full rebuild.
If you’re starting out and want to test the water before investing, a DIY builder is a reasonable short-term option. But go in with realistic expectations.
One-off website build
With a one-off build, you pay a designer a fixed fee to build your website. When it’s done, you own it outright — no ongoing monthly cost to the designer.
The main appeal is obvious: one payment, done. You’re not committed to a monthly fee indefinitely, and the site is yours to do with as you like.
The practical reality is a bit more involved, though. You’ll still need to pay for hosting — typically around £10 a month — and keep the site maintained. On WordPress, that means regular updates to the core software, theme, and plugins. If you’re comfortable doing that yourself, fine. If not, you’ll need to pay someone to do it, which tends to mean an hourly rate every time something needs touching.
The other risk is what I’d call the build-and-disappear problem. I’ve spoken with many clients who had a website built by a designer, who then became hard to reach, unavailable, or simply moved on. When something broke or they needed a change, there was nobody to call. The site sat untouched — outdated, sometimes broken — because there was no ongoing relationship and no support included.
A one-off build can work well if you have some technical confidence, a reliable maintenance plan, and a clear ongoing relationship with your designer. Without those, you can end up spending more over time than a pay monthly plan would have cost.
Pay monthly: is it worth it?
I’ll be honest: I think pay monthly is the best option for most therapists and small service businesses, and it’s the model I run at RTWD. But let me explain why rather than just saying so.
With a pay monthly plan, you spread the cost of a professionally built website into manageable monthly payments. There’s no large upfront fee. Your designer builds the site, handles the hosting, keeps the software updated, monitors for security issues, and is there when you need something changed. You get a fully working, professionally managed website for a predictable monthly cost.
At RTWD, the entry-level Pips plan is £59 a month. To put that in context: standalone hosting costs around £10 a month, and a website care plan — just maintenance and updates, no website included — costs £39 a month. That’s £49 a month before you’ve even paid for the website itself. For £10 more, Pips gives you a properly built, hosted, and maintained website with ongoing support included.
For a full breakdown of what each plan covers, take a look at what’s included in a pay monthly website package.
Pay monthly works best for:
- Therapists and counsellors in private practice who want a professional online presence without the tech headache
- Small businesses that want predictable monthly costs rather than unpredictable one-off fees
- Anyone who’s been let down by a previous designer and wants an ongoing relationship with proper support
- Newly established practitioners who need a professional website but can’t justify a large upfront payment right now
It works less well for someone who wants complete technical control of every aspect of their site and has the skills to manage it themselves. If that’s you, a one-off build with a good maintenance plan is probably a better fit.
If you’re comparing providers, I’ve put together an honest comparison of the main pay monthly website options in the UK — including some of the other well-known names alongside RTWD.
What does your website actually need to do?
Before choosing a path, it’s worth being clear about what you actually need your website to achieve — because the answer shapes which option makes most sense.
In my experience, most therapists and small business owners want one of two things from their website, and they’re quite different.
The first is an online presence — a professional page that tells people who you are, what you do, and that you’re the kind of person worth trusting. Know, like, trust. If that’s your goal, a clean, well-written brochure site does the job. You don’t need anything complex.
The second is a lead generation tool — a website that actively brings in enquiries, gets people to take action, and works for you while you’re in session. That’s a different brief entirely. You still need the know, like, trust foundation, but you also need clear calls to action, pages built around the specific searches your potential clients are making, and ideally some SEO or local search work behind the scenes.
Most therapists want the second thing but sometimes underestimate what’s involved in getting there. If you’re a therapist thinking about your website specifically, this guide to what a therapist website actually needs is worth a read before you decide.
The SEO reality check
Whichever option you choose, there’s one thing that catches almost everyone out: the assumption that once your website is live, Google will find it and send you clients.
It doesn’t work that way. A brand-new website — however well-built — takes time to gain visibility in search results. Research consistently shows that new websites typically take 3 to 6 months to see their first rankings, and 6 to 12 months to build meaningful visibility for more competitive search terms. Google needs to discover your site, index it, and decide it’s worth showing to people searching for what you offer. That process requires ongoing effort: good content, a well-structured site, local SEO signals, and increasingly, visibility in AI search tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google’s own AI Overviews.
I mention this not to discourage you, but because I’ve had many conversations with potential clients whose language tells me they’re expecting their website to rank at the top of Google within days of going live. Setting realistic expectations here matters — and it means the work doesn’t stop at launch.
RTWD’s Seedlings and Blossoms plans include SEO setup from day one, and an AI Search Visibility service is available as a standalone add-on for existing clients who want their website to appear in AI-generated search responses.
Free website builders: are they worth it?
A quick word on the free tier. Platforms like Wix offer a free version where you can publish a site at no cost. The catch is that it comes with the platform’s own branding and a subdomain — something like yourname.wixsite.com/yoursite — which doesn’t look professional and signals to potential clients that you haven’t invested in your online presence.
For testing an idea or getting something up as a placeholder, they’re fine. For a therapist or small business that wants to be taken seriously, they’re not the right long-term solution. The upgrade path on free builders tends to lead straight back to the paid tiers — at which point the cost comparison with a pay monthly plan becomes a lot more interesting.
So which option is right for you?
Here’s a plain-English summary:
- DIY builder: Good for testing the water or a very basic presence. Expect to invest more time than you think, and plan for a full rebuild if you want to move to WordPress later.
- One-off build: Works well if you have ongoing technical support arranged and a clear maintenance plan. Less straightforward if you’re relying on a designer who may not be available long-term.
- Pay monthly: The most straightforward option for most therapists and small businesses. Predictable cost, professional result, and someone to call when things need changing.
- Free builders: Fine for a placeholder. Not a professional long-term solution.
If you’re a therapist or counsellor in private practice and you want a website that reflects your professionalism, gets found on Google, and doesn’t give you a tech headache — pay monthly is almost always the answer. It’s why I built RTWD around that model.
Feel free to take a look at RTWD’s pay monthly plans — or if you’d like a quick chat about what would work best for you, I’m happy to help.
Frequently asked questions
Do you have to pay monthly for a website?
No — there are several ways to get a website without a monthly fee. You could build one yourself using a platform like Wix or Squarespace, or pay a designer a one-off fee for a finished site. That said, all websites have some ongoing costs (hosting, maintenance, updates), whether you pay for them monthly or handle them yourself. A pay monthly plan bundles everything into one predictable cost and includes professional support — for many small businesses, that works out simpler and better value than managing it separately.
Can I move my Wix website to WordPress?
Technically yes, but in practice it’s rarely as straightforward as the migration guides suggest. The automated migration tools don’t work reliably — blog posts may come across via an RSS export, but images, custom layouts, and design elements don’t transfer. Most of the time, moving from Wix or Squarespace to WordPress means rebuilding the site from scratch, using the old one as a reference for content and structure. It’s a full rebuild, not a simple switch. If you’re considering it, it’s worth factoring that into your planning and budget.
What’s included in a pay monthly website plan?
It varies by provider, but a good pay monthly plan should include the website build itself, hosting, an SSL certificate (the padlock that makes your site secure), regular software updates, and ongoing support. At RTWD, the Pips plan (£59/month) covers all of those for a one-to-three-page website. The Seedlings plan (£89/month) adds SEO setup, a Google Business Profile review, booking integration, legal pages, and analytics. The Blossoms plan (£129/month) goes further still, adding advanced SEO, payment integration, a blog, and quarterly strategy reviews. There’s no large upfront fee, and a £99 setup fee is currently waived for all new clients.
Is a pay monthly website cheaper than a one-off build?
Over a long period, a one-off build will often cost less in total — if you factor in only the upfront fee. But that comparison rarely tells the whole story. A one-off build still needs hosting (typically £10/month), ongoing maintenance (either your time or a paid care plan at around £39/month), and a designer’s hourly rate for changes. Add those up and you’re looking at £49/month or more, without a website included. RTWD’s Pips plan is £59/month with everything bundled. For most therapists and small businesses, the difference is smaller than expected — and pay monthly includes the professional relationship and support that a one-off build often doesn’t.
What happens if I cancel a pay monthly website?
This is one of the most common questions I get, and it’s a fair one. The answer depends on the provider. With some, the website is theirs — cancel, and it goes offline. With others, you can take the site with you. At RTWD, the situation is straightforward: if you cancel, the website comes down because it’s hosted and maintained as part of the plan. However, all your content — text, images, and structure — is yours, and I’ll always help you move on sensibly if that’s what you need. It’s worth asking any pay monthly provider this question directly before signing up.