Published · Updated · By Christopher Ross
At a working figure of $99 a month, a template site costs $3,564 over three years and $5,940 over five. Starter here is $2,800 once plus $150 a year for hosting: $3,250 over three years and $3,550 over five. So the fixed price pulls ahead during the third year and keeps pulling. The larger difference is what you hold on the day you stop paying, and that turns on two things you can check before you sign: whose name the domain is in, and whether the pages can leave the platform.
Want this handled instead of DIY'd? See what a fixed-price solo site costs.
A furniture rental company will put a sofa in your living room for a small monthly fee. It arrives quickly, it looks fine, and someone else worries about it. Three years in, you have paid for the sofa more than once, and the day you stop paying the room is empty.
Nothing about that deal is dishonest. It is a rental. The trouble starts when a law firm believes it bought the sofa.
One thing to say plainly before the numbers: the fixed-price side of this comparison is my own product, so I have an interest in how it reads. Every figure below is one you can check against your own quote, and there is a section further down on where the monthly model beats me.
The arithmetic, done once
A solo practitioner weighing this is comparing a fixed-price build against a template vendor charging one monthly fee that covers the site, the hosting, and something called support. Prices vary, so use the quote in front of you. The sums below are in US dollars.
Take $99 a month as the working figure. One law firm site vendor publishes that exact price, as the vendor check below shows, but treat it as a number for the sum and not as an average of anything. Starter here is $2,800, paid once, plus $150 a year for hosting.
| Period | Monthly template ($99 a month, a working figure, all in) | Starter build ($2,800 once, plus $150 a year hosting) |
|---|---|---|
| 3 years | $3,564 | $3,250 |
| 5 years | $5,940 | $3,550 |
The monthly column climbs at the same rate for as long as the site is up. The fixed column climbs by $150 a year once the build is paid for, which is why five years pulls so far apart.
Two things sit outside both columns. The domain renewal is billed by the registrar, in your firm's name, at the registrar's current price, so check it before you compare. And after-launch support is inside the monthly fee, while the Starter column is the build and the hosting. If you want somebody on call after launch, ask me what that costs and put the figure in the right-hand column before you decide the two totals are comparable.
What vendors publish
On 2026-09-21 the public pages of 16 sellers of law firm websites in the US and Canada, found through web searches, were checked for a price. Five blocked automated requests and were not read, so the count below is 11 vendors, and "not stated" means not found on the pages read. It is a convenience sample and nothing more, and the price on a vendor's page can differ from the quote it sends you.
Of the 11, seven showed a monthly price and four showed only one-time fees or custom quotes. Six of the seven monthly prices were plain dollar figures with no currency named. Two of the seven sell a law firm website as a subscription at a figure close to the working one.
| Vendor, page read 2026-09-21 | What the page says | Ownership or export terms on that page |
|---|---|---|
| Sites for Law Firms | $89 a month, 14-day free trial, no setup fee | Not stated |
| Worldwide Web Designs | $99 a month, $0 setup, zero contracts, cancel anytime, 30-day refund | Not stated |
| LegalPeel | Growth plan $1,750 to $2,250 a month, 3-month minimum, marketing bundled | Not stated |
| Civille | Ongoing SEO and hosting $500 to $2,500 a month, a range given in an article | States that it does not hand over the underlying platform or proprietary code |
| PaperStreet | Essentials from about $3,000 for the first year, hosting, support and platform included | "Own Your Site", listed as a guarantee, "No strings attached" |
| YE Studio | One-time, from $850 CAD | "The code, design, domain, and hosting account are fully transferred to you" |
Two things stand out. The subscription vendors say what the fee is, what it includes and how to cancel, and on the pages read neither says who holds the domain or what you receive if you leave. The plainest ownership statements came from vendors charging once. Civille, an agency charging monthly, says it does not hand over the platform, and lists what you should be able to take: the content you paid for, the images you commissioned, your blog archive, your analytics history, and access to any accounts. That is a fair list to hold up against any quote, including mine.
Run it with your own quote
- Monthly fee $______ x 36 = $______ (three years)
- Monthly fee $______ x 60 = $______ (five years)
- One-time price $______ + (hosting $______ x 3) = $______ (three years)
- One-time price $______ + (hosting $______ x 5) = $______ (five years)
- Both columns: domain renewal $______ a year, and after-launch support $______
The sum moves with the fee. At $79 a month, three years is $2,844, which is under Starter's $3,250 over the same period. At $149 it is $5,364. If either quote includes something the other leaves out, write it on a spare line before you compare the totals.
What you have at the end
This is where the two models part company, and it is the part the arithmetic cannot show you.
Where a site is built inside a vendor's own editor, the pages exist only inside that vendor's system. Two of the largest site builders say so on their own help pages. Wix states that a site must run on Wix's servers because its architecture uses Wix's proprietary technology and does not support external hosting. Squarespace offers an export of certain content to an .xml file, and lists what stays behind: store pages, cover pages, index pages, product and video blocks, style settings and custom CSS among them. Squarespace also notes that if your site has expired, you may need to reactivate the subscription before you can export.
A law firm template vendor may be built on one of those, or on a system of its own. Either way, the question to ask is the same: if we leave, what do we receive, in what format, and can another developer run the site from it?
The domain is a separate asset, and it can go either way. Wix, for one, lets you buy and manage the domain with another provider and connect it to the site. So a template site can sit on a domain your firm holds, and it can also sit on one the vendor registered. Look at whose name is on the registrar invoice.
Stop paying, and what stays with you is whatever the platform allows plus whatever is registered in your firm's name. If the domain was the vendor's, the search history that address built up goes with it.
That is the product working as designed. You were renting, and the fee was the rent.
You were renting, and the fee was the rent.
A fixed-price site is the other kind of purchase. The registrar invoice is in the firm's name, the hosting login is in the firm's hands, and the pages are built on software any developer can open. Three years on, if you want someone else to look after it, you hand over a password and that is the whole procedure.
What the monthly model does well
It is a real product with real advantages, and the fair version of this comparison has to say so.
The cost spreads across months, which matters if the practice is young and cash flow is the binding constraint. Somebody else answers when the site breaks on a Sunday night, and that support is already inside the fee. The platform is maintained by people whose whole job is that platform. For a firm that wants to think about its website as little as possible, and accepts that the site exists for as long as the payments do, that is a coherent purchase. My objection is to firms making it without being told that is the trade.
Two questions that decide the cost comparison
Ask them of me as well as of the other vendor.
- What renews on its own, and who bills it? Hosting and the domain both renew, and so does any add-on folded into the package. Get each one named, with a price and the name of whoever sends the invoice. One line for all renewals hides the surprises.
- What happens to the price? Is the monthly fee fixed for the term or reviewed each year, and by how much has it moved? A package at $99 today and, say, $129 in year three turns $3,564 into a different number. Ask the same of a one-time quote: is the hosting figure held or reviewed?
Write both answers down and put them beside your two columns. A vendor who answers each in a single line is a good sign, whatever the price turns out to be.
Where a fixed price fits, and where it does not
Starter suits a solo practice that wants a small, sharp site and expects to be at the same address in five years. The solo practitioner page has the full list. If your practice is six months old and every dollar is committed, the monthly model may be the better call this year, and you can buy the site you own later. The sums are here so the decision is yours, with the numbers visible.
One boundary, as everywhere on this site: I am not an attorney and I will not advise you on what your advertising may say. That is a question for your own bar counsel.
Email hello@divorcewebdesigner.com, or use the contact page.
Checked against Wix and Squarespace help pages, and six law firm website vendors' own pages, on 2026-09-21: Exporting or embedding your Wix site elsewhere, Squarespace, Exporting your site, Sites for Law Firms, pricing, Worldwide Web Designs, law firm web design, LegalPeel, pricing, Civille, law firm website cost 2026, PaperStreet, custom design pricing, YE Studio, law firm websites Vancouver. Sixteen vendors were checked; five blocked automated requests and were not read, and "not stated" means not found on the pages read. The $99 working figure matches one published price; the $79, $129 and $149 variants are numbers for the sum, not published prices from any vendor.
Common questions
Is a monthly-fee template site cheaper than a fixed-price one?
It depends on the monthly figure, so run your own. The crossover at $99 a month is during the third year: 29 months of fees passes $2,800, and with three years of hosting added the crossover lands around month 33. At $79 a month the monthly side is still cheaper at three years and dearer by five.
What happens to a template site if I stop paying the monthly fee?
What you can take with you is set by the platform. Squarespace's help pages say an expired site may need its subscription reactivated before an export is possible, so if you are leaving, export before the last payment, not after. Then check the domain separately, because it can be in your name even when the pages cannot leave.
What do I own with a fixed-price site?
The domain, the hosting account, the files and the database, all in your firm's name, on standard software. Ask for the logins at handover and keep them somewhere the firm controls, because paperwork that says the site is yours does nothing on the day nobody can find the password.
Is the monthly model ever the right choice?
Yes, when cash flow is the constraint or when the firm wants the maintenance handled by someone else. Treat it as a decision to revisit: a firm can rent for its first year and buy once the practice is steady, and any text you wrote yourself can be copied from your own live pages.
Do law firm website vendors say who owns the domain?
Of the 11 vendor pages read on 2026-09-21, one, YE Studio, stated plainly that the domain and hosting account transfer to the client, and PaperStreet lists owning your site as a guarantee. The two subscription vendors said nothing about it on their pricing pages. So ask in writing before you sign, and keep the reply with the contract.
Does the monthly fee include things the fixed price leaves out?
Support after launch, and depending on the package, email or a directory listing. List each one, and put a price beside it on the fixed-price side, so the two totals compare the same things.
Canadian? The same three sizes in Canadian dollars are on the CAD pricing page.