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A one‑off $800 vs a monthly retainer

A bespoke website for a small NZ organisation is commonly quoted in the thousands, and the quote usually comes with a monthly care plan attached. Ours is a flat $800, once, and then nothing. This page sets the two arrangements side by side, honestly, including the cases where paying monthly genuinely earns its keep.

Last updated July 2026 · prices checked July 2026

The going rate

What a website usually costs here

Ask a New Zealand agency to quote a proper multi-page site for a small organisation and the number that comes back is commonly several thousand dollars, often between $3,000 and $8,000, before GST and before extras. Add a search function or an on-site assistant and it climbs from there. Then, in most quotes, comes the second number: a care plan or retainer, typically somewhere between $50 and $300 a month, for hosting, updates and support, and it doesn't have an end date.

None of that is a scam. Agencies carry offices, teams and account management, and their price carries them too. But it does mean the real cost of the site isn't the quote. It's the quote plus the retainer times every month you keep the site, which is usually every month you're in business.

Side by side

The two arrangements, totalled over three years

A worked example, deliberately fair to the agency: a mid-range $4,000 build with a modest $100 a month care plan, next to ours. Redo it with any quote you have been given, the working is on the page.

$800once, and then never again · $400 at the community rate
The arrangement Up front Each month Three-year total
A $4,000 agency build with a $100 a month care plan Up front$4,000 Each month$100 Three years$7,600
A Freehold build, owned outright Up front$800 Each month$0 Three years$800

The honest footnote: if you asked us for edits in that time, add $20 per batch you actually requested. Four batches a year, which would be a busy site, adds $240 over the three years. The totals don't get close to each other.

What the flat price buys

Included in the $800, in plain writing

The whole site, built to your organisation from your own story, not a template. Hosting, free, for as long as you want it, with no plan behind it. The on-site assistant that answers your visitors’ questions, included, nothing metered. The search-engine groundwork done properly on day one: a fast site, a sitemap, the right registrations, honest structure. Setting up or tidying your Google Business Profile. And the deed itself: your domain in your name, the whole site exportable any time, free, so you're never staying because leaving is hard.

What we'll never sell you: a ranking guarantee. Nobody can promise you a spot on Google, including Google, and anyone who does is showing you a red flag. What we promise is that everything within anyone’s control is done properly, once, and that you can watch your own progress for free, forever.

The honest part

When a retainer genuinely earns its keep

If your website is a daily operation, a busy online shop, a booking system under constant load, a site run as a live marketing campaign with someone adjusting it every week, then a standing arrangement with an agency can be exactly right. You're buying a team on call, and some sites truly need one.

Most small organisations and businesses aren't that. Their site changes a few times a year, and the monthly fee is buying readiness they never use. If that reads like your situation, the sum on this page is your sum. If you're already inside a monthly arrangement and want out, Going Freehold is the calm way to look before you leap: we rebuild your site free, privately, and you decide with it in front of you.

Common questions

Asked and answered, plainly

The question The answer
“How can it possibly be $800, once?” AnswerThree honest reasons. We're a small studio with no offices and no sales team. We build sites as fast, simple files that cost almost nothing to keep online, so there's no hosting bill to pass on. And the price is published, the same for everyone by rule, so none of your $800 is paying for someone to negotiate with you.
“Can we pay the $800 off monthly?” AnswerYes. Think of it like paying off a small mortgage on your website. You pick $50 or $100 a month, or if you already pay monthly for a site we simply match that amount, and when the payments add up to $800 they stop forever. No interest, the total never grows, and there's nothing up front: your site goes live first, then the payments start. If you're already paying monthly for a website, nothing changes in your budget, except that one day the bill ends.
“Is GST added on top?” AnswerNo. We aren't GST registered, so the price you see is the whole amount. $800 means $800.
“What if I need changes later?” AnswerYou ask when you actually want something changed. A batch of edits is $20 flat, however many edits are in it, usually back within a couple of days. If something on the site is wrong, we fix it for nothing, because that is not a change, that is us not having got it right. $35 jumps the queue for same-day. There's no plan, no minimum, and a year of no changes costs you nothing.
“What does the $800 not include?” AnswerYour domain name, because it must be registered in your name, not ours. That's about $65 a year to a registrar of your choice, and it would be true on any provider. We help you set it up and it stays yours forever. Everything else about the site is included.
“Is the cheaper site a lesser site?” AnswerThere's no cheaper site. $800 is the standard price and $400 is our published community rate for organisations where $800 would genuinely be a stretch. Same build, same care, same ownership, by rule.
“What does website maintenance usually cost in New Zealand?” AnswerOn published prices, care plans and maintenance retainers mostly sit between $50 and $300 a month, and they charge whether or not anything changed that month. Ours has no monthly number at all: a batch of edits is $20 when you actually ask for one, and a quiet year costs you nothing.
Keep reading

The rest of the sums

The whole market in one honest read: what a website really costs in New Zealand. Why owning beats renting in the first place, with the three-year table: owning vs renting your website. The plain yes-or-no on monthly fees: a website with no monthly fees. Whether the $400 rate applies to you: who qualifies for the community rate. The whole process, step by step: how it works.

Got a quote to compare?

Send it over, we'll be straight with you

Tell us what you've been quoted, or what you pay now. If the arrangement you have is genuinely right for you, we'll say so and leave you to it.

Email us any time: studio@freehold.org.nz. Every message comes straight to us, and we reply to all of them.
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