Disclaimer first: the business is hypothetical — a trades company with a brochure site on a big site-builder platform. The prices are real market prices you can check yourself. The point is the math.
What they rent today
The "free website" that isn't:
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01
The platform subscription
To use your own domain and kill the ads: ≈ €15–€25/mo billed annually. It never ends, and it rises — platforms reprice every couple of years.
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02
The preset ceiling
Every template looks like the template. Your site shares a skeleton with a dog groomer in another country. Visitors can't tell you apart, and the builder's export is deliberately hard — moving means rebuilding. That's not an accident.
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03
The hours nobody invoices
Dragging blocks into "close enough": realistically 10–20 hours to launch, then hours every quarter fighting the editor for small changes. At even €25/hr, the "free" site's first year costs ≈ €400+ of your time — before the subscription.
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04
The add-on upsells
Custom domain "free with annual", email, SEO tools, form submissions beyond some cap — each a few euros more per month. A typical stack lands ≈ €30–€45/mo all-in.
Itemized: €35/mo average + a build weekend every year ≈ €420+/year forever, for a site you can't fully control and can't leave cheaply.
What the owned site costs
One flat build: €229 for a custom one-pager, or €690 for a full site. Designed around your business instead of a preset, delivered working in 24–48h (one-pager), handed over as your code with a hosting guide. Hosting afterwards is a few euros a month on infrastructure you choose — or free on static hosts.
The ownership point is sharpest here of anywhere: with the builder, you're renting a look and borrowing an escape hatch that's nailed shut. With your own site, tomorrow you can restyle it, add a booking form, move hosts, or hand it to any developer alive. Nobody can reprice it, delist a feature, or hold your domain hostage. It's yours — the same way the shop itself is.
The crossover month
€229 one-pager ÷ €35/mo ≈ month 7 — and that ignores the launch weekend you never lose and the redesign you never re-rent. After that, the difference is a few euros of hosting versus a permanent subscription.
When renting still wins
If you need a one-page placeholder live today and you genuinely enjoy block-dragging, the builder is fine. The moment you want custom behavior — bookings, quotes, a real brand — do the math above with your own numbers. It usually comes back "own."