Website as a service: how agencies sell sites by the month

What is website as a service?

Website as a service is a monthly plan where the client pays to have a site built and kept running. The agency sets what the plan includes and what costs extra.

Here's what a WaaS plan can bundle, and what to decide for each part.

Write each part into the plan's terms. Then a client knows what the fee covers before the first request comes in. For reselling a builder in place of building, see how reselling a website builder works.

A partner can do the building while your name stays on the work. If someone else builds the sites behind your brand, start with What is a white label website?.

What is a WaaS agency?

A WaaS agency is an agency that sells websites on monthly plans as a main part of its business. It builds each site once, then earns from it every month it keeps the site running.

The work behind the plans has to come from somewhere. A WaaS agency can do it with its own staff, with a builder it rebrands, or with a partner team that works under its brand.

Here's how one partner team describes its side of that work. DeskTeam360's plans list web work among the kinds of work its team does, and a full site is done as a string of tasks, one at a time on the lowest plan. Its websites page says website maintenance is included in its plan: updates to WordPress itself, its plugins and its theme, security monitoring and malware scans, speed work, backups, and uptime checks. With DeskTeam360, you keep the strategy and the client, and you bring the words.

One agency used a partner this way. For Duct Tape Marketing, which serves small businesses, DeskTeam360's team took client websites through launch. It also handled page updates for that agency's monthly clients.

Is WaaS worth it for a web design agency?

WaaS is worth it when the monthly income outweighs the support load that comes with it. Steady fees help you plan, but every site you keep needs looking after.

What it can give you:

• income that comes in each month, on top of the fees for new builds
• a reason to stay in touch with each client
• a smaller first bill for the client, which can make a yes easier

What it asks of you:

• support for every site, every month, for as long as the client pays
• updates, backups and fixes on a schedule, even in a busy week
• less cash up front, since the build is paid back over time
• clear terms on what happens when a client leaves

Questions to ask before you switch:

1. How many sites can you look after each month before the support crowds out new builds?
2. Who does the upkeep: you, your staff, or a partner?
3. What does the plan cost you to run, per site, each month?
4. How long does a client have to stay before the build is paid back?

If a partner team does the upkeep, its cost goes into your math. DeskTeam360 sets its plan prices by the number of tasks in progress at the same moment. Its Entrepreneur plan is $1,497 a month for one task in progress at a time; Marketer is $2,994 a month for 2; Agency is $4,491 a month for 3. For the cost side, see What does one client site cost to deliver, each way, in California?.

Monthly plans also mean monthly bills to send. For billing each month, see how to bill for a website.