ChoptekYou're renting a website you'll never own.
If the site disappears the day you stop paying, you aren't a customer. You're a tenant. I rebuild the site, put the web address in your name, and you stop paying rent on something you should have owned from the start.
How to tell
Nobody signs up for this on purpose. It usually comes bundled into a monthly marketing package, and ownership is never the part they lead with. If two or more of these are true, the site isn't yours.
- The site vanishes if you stop paying. It doesn't go offline until you renew. It's gone.
- Your web address is registered to them, not to you or your business.
- You can't get the files. Ask for a copy of your website and see what happens.
- Every edit goes through them, on their timeline, and small changes take weeks.
- The agreement renews itself for another year or three unless you cancel inside a narrow window.
- Your Google listing sits in their account, so your reviews and your map pin are theirs too.
What renting costs you
Monthly website packages around here run $300 to $600. Put in what you pay and see what the same stretch of time costs both ways.
You don't have to fight anybody
A lot of these agreements push disputes into arbitration, so fighting one is slow, expensive and rarely worth it. I don't bother. I build you a better site, move your web address across, and let the old agreement run out on whatever terms it already has.
I read the paperwork
Free. Send me the agreement and I'll walk you through what it says: when it renews, what the cancellation window is, and who your web address is registered to, which is the part most people have never actually been told. I'm a web developer, not a lawyer, so this is a plain-English read and not legal advice. If you need a real attorney, I'll say so.
I build the replacement
Your new site gets built while the old one is still up, so nothing goes dark.
I move your web address
Into an account in your name, with you as the owner on the paperwork. If they hold the address and won't release it, there's a way around that too, and I'll walk you through it on the call.
I switch it over
Old pages point to the new ones so your Google ranking carries across. Then you cancel on your own schedule, with a site that's already live and already yours.
Price
The same as a new build, since the work involved is much the same either way.
Rescue rebuild
$2,500 one time
Half to start, half when you approve the finished site.
- Five to seven pages with a custom design
- Your agreement read first, free
- Web address moved into your name
- Content moved over or rewritten
- Redirects mapped so your ranking holds
- First year of hosting included, then $180 a year
Read my contract
Free
For when you aren't ready to move and just want to know where you stand. Send me what you signed and I'll tell you who owns your web address, when the agreement renews, how to cancel, and what leaving would cost. There's no pitch if the answer is to stay put.
Veteran-owned business? Take $250 off, and I'll set up your Google Business Profile and review system at launch at no charge. Tick the box on the contact form.
Questions people ask
Can they stop me from leaving?
No. You can stop paying anyone you like. What they can do is keep whatever is in their name, which is usually the website itself and sometimes your web address. That's exactly what I work around: you get a new site that's yours, and I move or replace the pieces they're holding.
What if they own my web address?
It happens, and it's the most common reason people feel stuck. Sometimes they release it when you ask in writing. Sometimes they don't, and then I register the right alternative and redirect everything to it. In practice you lose less than you'd expect.
Do I have to cancel before you start?
No, and I'd rather you didn't. Your current site stays up while I build the new one, and you cancel once the replacement is live, on whatever date your agreement allows.
Isn't $2,500 a lot to pay to leave?
At $400 a month it's about six months of what you're already paying, and then the bill stops. Five years of that plan is $24,000. Five years with me is $3,220.
What if I'm happy with my current site?
Then stay. Send me the agreement anyway and I'll tell you what it says, free. It's worth knowing who owns your web address whether or not you ever hire me.