Upkept's terms at a glance
- Price: £99 a month, with no setup fee. Our terms say prices include VAT where applicable.
- Contract: a 12-month initial plan to cover your build and setup, then month to month. Cancel with 30 days' notice.
- Ownership: your domain is registered to you and your content belongs to you. If you leave, you can take your site's content with you.
- Price rises: we won't raise your price without telling you well in advance.
- Domains: bring yours at no extra cost, or add a new one from £12 a year, billed with your plan.
Read them in full in our terms.
What is a pay monthly website?
Instead of paying a designer a lump sum and then paying separately for hosting and changes, you pay one monthly fee. The provider spreads the cost of building the site across the months, and the fee also covers keeping it online, secure and up to date. Most providers ask for a minimum term so the build cost is covered.
What's included varies a lot. Some plans cover hosting only, some include a few hours of changes a month, and some, like Upkept, include unlimited changes. Read what's in the fee before you compare prices.
How long is the contract?
Ours is a 12-month initial plan, then month to month with 30 days' notice. That's a common pattern in the UK. ProfileTree's monthly packages, for example, also start with a 12-month term and then roll monthly with 30 days' written notice. Some providers advertise no long-term contract at all, and some ask for longer terms.
Whoever you choose, find out:
- the total you're committing to over the minimum term;
- the notice period once the minimum term ends;
- how and when the price can go up;
- whether there's a fee to leave early, or to take your site with you.
Who owns the website and the domain?
This is the question that matters most, so here is ours in our own terms' words:
- Your domain is registered to you, and your content belongs to you.
- Your domain, your words, your photos and your logo stay yours, and if you leave you can take your site's content with you.
- The Upkept service and everything behind it is ours: the software, the tools that build and change sites, and our themes, designs and templates.
In practice that means you're never stuck. Your domain can be pointed anywhere, and your words, photos and logo go with it. What stays with us is the machinery that runs the site.
How to check who owns your domain
If a designer or agency registered your domain, make sure it's in your name. For a .uk domain, use Nominet's domain lookup; for others, such as .com, use ICANN Lookup. Personal details are often hidden in public records, so the surest check is the account at the company you registered it with, which should list you as the registrant. If it lists someone else, ask them to transfer it to you.
What happens if you stop paying?
With Upkept, once your initial 12 months are up, you give 30 days' notice and the service ends. Your domain stays registered to you, and you take your site's content with you. During the first 12 months you're on the initial plan, which is what pays for your build and setup.
With any provider, ask the same question before you sign: on the day you leave, what exactly do you get, and in what form?
Pay monthly or pay upfront?
Paying monthly costs more over time than a cheap one-off build, and less than a typical agency build with maintenance. Here are running totals for three years, using published prices.
| Option | After 1 year | After 2 years | After 3 years |
|---|---|---|---|
| DIY: Wix Light, yearly plan, excluding tax and your time | £108 | £216 | £324 |
| One-off: trade specialist, up to 5 pages, plus hosting and care | £995 | £1,395 | £1,795 |
| One-off: agency brochure site, plus running costs | £3,500 to £7,000 | £4,000 to £9,000 | £4,500 to £11,000 |
| Pay monthly: Upkept, everything included | £1,188 | £2,376 | £3,564 |
DIY: Wix Light at £9 a month on a yearly plan. Trade specialist: Websites for Tradespeople's Essentials package at £595 including VAT, plus hosting at £150 and care at £250 a year. Agency: Whito's May 2026 figures of £3,000 to £5,000 to build and £500 to £2,000 a year to run. Domain renewals are extra on the first three rows; on Upkept your domain's management is included, and a new domain registration is from £12 a year.
What the monthly fee buys you is no upfront cost, nothing to learn, and changes whenever you want them. If your site will barely change and you're happy to look after hosting, paying once can be the cheaper choice, and we'd rather you knew that now.
Questions to ask any pay monthly provider
- What's the minimum term, and what's the total over it?
- Is the domain registered in my name?
- What do I get when I leave, and is there a fee for it?
- How many changes are included, and how fast are they done?
- Are hosting, SSL, security and backups all included?
- Is VAT included in the price you've quoted?
- How much notice will I get of a price rise?
Sources
Prices were read from each company's own UK website on 15 October 2026. They change, so check before you buy.
- Upkept terms: Price, VAT, the 12-month initial plan, 30 days' notice, price changes, and who owns the domain, content and service.
- ProfileTree: web design monthly packages: 12-month initial term, then rolling monthly with 30 days' written notice; domain registered in the client's name.
- Opace: pay monthly websites: Brochure websites from £50 a month, advertised without long-term contracts, with full ownership after 12 months.
- Websites for Tradespeople pricing: Essentials from £595 including VAT; care £250 a year; hosting £150 a year.
- Whito: website design costs UK 2026: Agency brochure site £3,000 to £5,000; running costs £500 to £2,000 a year.
- Wix plans: Light £9 a month on a yearly subscription, excluding applicable taxes.