You did the research. You compared four or five builders, looked at the pricing pages, and picked the one that fit your budget. £4.99 a month sounded perfectly reasonable. You built the site over a weekend and felt good about it. Twelve months later an e-mail arrives: your plan is renewing — at £8.99. Or £12.99. In extreme cases five to fifteen times the headline rate. Nobody warned you. The price you signed up for was a promotional rate and it has now expired. This article pulls back the curtain on the hidden-fee mechanics that fund the UK website-builder industry, explains how vendor lock-in works, and gives you a practical checklist so you do not fall into the traps.
Renewal price hikes · VAT not included · Premium templates and plugins · E-mail hosting sold separately · SSL add-on charges · Transaction fees on sales · The lock-in problem · Long-term damage · Pre-signup checklist · How to avoid hidden fees · How Sitejet Builder compares · FAQ
The single biggest hidden cost in the website-builder market is the gap between introductory price and renewal price. Almost every major provider does this. The scale varies enormously.
One of the most aggressive. Their Website Builder starts around £4.99/month for new customers on an annual plan. When the first year ends, the renewal lands at £8–£10/month — a 40–60% jump. Their hosting products follow the same pattern, with some plans doubling at renewal. If you also bought a domain from GoDaddy, a .co.uk at £1 in year one often renews at £12–£15. The first-year price was never the real price; it was bait.
IONOS pushes further. MyWebsite plans are sometimes advertised at £1/month for the first year. When the promotional period ends, the rate can rise to £9–£15/month — an increase of up to 1,500%. Technically disclosed in the small print; the headline is what most people remember when they sign up.
Wix is more subtle. Plans run £9–£119/month and they occasionally run 50% off the first year. The renewal price is the normal rate, which can feel like a significant jump even though it is the baseline. Combined with the lock-in problem below, you feel trapped into paying whatever Wix charges.
Squarespace is closer to transparent — the advertised price is typically the renewal price — but they also run periodic 20–30% off promotions for first-year customers that renew at full list in year two.
A good rule of thumb: if the advertised price seems too good to be true, check the renewal price. If the provider does not display it prominently, that tells you what you need to know. For the full cost picture, see the true cost of running a website.
This catches a surprising number of UK SMEs. VAT is charged at 20% on digital services. Many builders — particularly those based outside the UK — advertise prices excluding VAT. The tax is added at checkout or on your invoice.
| Provider | Advertised | With 20% VAT | Annual difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wix (Light) | £9/mo | £10.80/mo | +£21.60/yr |
| Wix (Business) | £22/mo | £26.40/mo | +£52.80/yr |
| Squarespace (Personal) | £12/mo | £14.40/mo | +£28.80/yr |
| GoDaddy (Basic) | £4.99/mo | £5.99/mo | +£12.00/yr |
| Shopify (Basic) | £19/mo | £22.80/mo | +£45.60/yr |
That extra 20% compounds. On a £22/month Wix Business plan you are actually paying £316.80/year, not the £264 the pricing page implies. VAT-registered businesses can reclaim; most sole traders and micro-businesses are not registered, so the VAT-inclusive price is the real price. When comparing builders, always compare the VAT-inclusive annual cost. It is the only honest number.
Most builders advertise hundreds of templates. What they do not always make clear is that some of the best templates — the ones featured in marketing — are premium. You pay extra to use them.
The same applies to plugins, add-ons and integrations. Want a booking system? Separate monthly charge. Advanced contact form with conditional logic? Add-on. Remove the builder's branding from your footer? Reserved for higher-tier plans. Individual charges are typically small — £3 here, £5 there — but they accumulate. A business that started on a £9/month plan can easily end up paying £20–£30/month once they have added the features they actually need.
With Sitejet Builder, all 170+ templates are included at no extra cost. No premium tiers, no paid plugins for basic features, no branding on your site. The price you see is the price you pay.
A professional e-mail address — [email protected] — is essential for credibility. Many owners assume the builder includes it. It rarely does.
Over a year, one professional address can cost £36–£144 on top of the subscription. A small business with two or three addresses is adding £72–£432/year the pricing page never mentioned. When comparing builders, always factor in e-mail. A builder that looks cheap on its own might be expensive once you add the e-mail your business actually needs. For the detailed math, see business website cost in the UK.
An SSL certificate is the padlock in your visitors' address bar. It encrypts the connection between your site and the person visiting it. In 2026, SSL is not optional — Google penalises sites without one and browsers display a “Not secure” warning that scares visitors away.
Most major builders now include a basic SSL certificate for free. But not all hosting providers do, and some charge £30–£100/year as a separate add-on. If you are using a builder that sits on top of separate hosting (WordPress with a third-party host), check whether SSL is included or charged separately. With Sitejet Builder, a free SSL certificate is included with every hosting plan — no upsell, no separate charge, no configuration.
This one specifically bites any UK business that sells online. Several builders charge an additional transaction fee on sales, layered on top of the payment gateway's own fee.
On a UK shop turning over £50,000/year, a 1% platform fee is £500 straight out of margin. Worth checking.
Hidden fees are frustrating. There is something worse: discovering that even if you want to leave, you cannot take your website with you. This is vendor lock-in, and it is one of the most damaging practices in the industry.
When you build on Wix, your site exists only on Wix's servers in Wix's proprietary format. You cannot download it. You cannot export it. You cannot move it. If you want to leave Wix, you have one option: start again. Rebuild every page, rewrite every paragraph, recreate every design choice — from scratch, on a different platform.
Squarespace is marginally better — you can export blog posts and some basic page content in XML — but the site design, custom styling and page layouts do not come with you. For all practical purposes, leaving Squarespace also means rebuilding.
GoDaddy's Website Builder has the same problem: no export feature. Your website lives and dies on their platform.
Lock-in removes your bargaining power. If a provider raises prices by 50%, you cannot threaten to leave — because leaving means losing your entire website. You are a captive customer and they know it. The cost of switching is not the new builder's fee; it is the hours (or days) of work required to rebuild everything you already built.
For an owner who spent a weekend carefully building their site, choosing photos, writing copy, and getting it right, the thought of doing it all again is enough to make them accept any price increase. That is precisely the point.
The damage goes beyond price. It affects the business in ways that are not obvious when you sign up.
For broader context across builders, see best website builders for UK businesses 2026.
Before you commit, ask these questions. If the provider cannot answer clearly — or the answers are buried in small print — treat it as a red flag.
| Question | What you want to hear | Red flag |
|---|---|---|
| What is the renewal price? | Same as introductory, or clearly stated upfront | Price only in small print or T&Cs |
| Does the price include VAT? | Yes, or clearly displayed with VAT | Ex-VAT with no indication until checkout |
| Can I export my website? | Full ZIP export of all files | “You can copy/paste text” or no export at all |
| Is SSL included? | Yes, free with every plan | SSL charged as a separate add-on |
| Is e-mail included? | Yes, or clearly priced as an option | Requires separate subscription from a third party |
| Are all templates free? | Yes, every template included | Some templates marked “premium” or “Pro only” |
| Does the site show the builder's branding? | No branding on any plan | Branding removed only on higher tiers |
| Transaction fee on online sales? | Gateway fees only (Stripe etc.) | Additional platform fee stacked on top |
| What happens if I want to leave? | Export and take the site elsewhere | No export — you must rebuild |
| Where is my data hosted? | EU / UK data centres | “Globally” with no specificity |
| Do I own the source code? | Yes, fully exportable | Proprietary format only |
| What is the notice period to cancel? | None or minimal | 30–90 day notice clauses |
Print this list. Bring it with you when comparing builders. It will save you from the most common and costly mistakes.
The good news: not every builder operates this way. Transparent options exist in the UK market, and avoiding the traps is straightforward if you know what to look for.
Look for a provider where the price today is the price next year. No introductory discounts that expire, no promotional rates, no fine-print surprises. Sitejet Builder is included free with hosting at £5/month — that is the price at signup, at renewal, and every month after. There is no introductory period because there is no price increase waiting.
Non-negotiable. If you cannot download your site as a set of files (HTML, CSS, images) and take it to another host, you do not own your website — the platform does. Sitejet Builder lets you export the entire site as a ZIP at any time.
SSL should be free. Daily backups should be included. Templates should not have premium tiers. There should be no builder branding on your site. These are baseline features, not upsells. If a provider charges extra for any of them, they are padding the bill.
Do not compare headline monthly prices. Compare total annual cost including VAT, renewal pricing, e-mail, SSL, transaction fees and any add-ons you will actually need. A builder at £5/month with everything included is cheaper over two years than a builder starting at £4.99 that renews at £10, charges separately for e-mail, and locks you in so you cannot switch.
| Feature | Sitejet Builder | Wix | Squarespace | GoDaddy | IONOS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly cost | £5 (hosting incl.) | £9–119 | £12–79 | £4.99 intro | £1 intro |
| Renewal price | Same | Full rate after promo | Full rate after promo | £8–10+ | £9–15+ |
| VAT included | Yes | No (added at checkout) | No | No | No |
| Website export | Full ZIP export | No | Limited (blog XML) | No | No |
| Free SSL | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Premium templates | None — all free | Some premium | All included | All included | Some premium |
| Builder branding | None | On free plan | None | None | On basic plan |
| Daily backups | Included | No automated backups | No automated backups | Paid add-on | Paid add-on |
| Transaction fees on sales | Gateway only | Up to 2.9% | Up to 3% | Gateway only | Varies |
The numbers speak for themselves. Over two years a Wix Business plan (with VAT and full renewal pricing) costs well over £600. Sitejet Builder with hosting costs £120 for the same two years — with more transparency, more freedom and zero lock-in.
Q: Why do website builders increase prices at renewal?
A: A customer-acquisition strategy. Low introductory prices attract signups. Once you have invested time building your site the switching cost is high — especially if the platform does not let you export. Providers know most customers will accept a hike rather than rebuild. The introductory price was never the real price.
Q: Can I move my Wix website to another provider?
A: No. Wix offers no form of website export. Pages, designs, images and content are stored in Wix's proprietary format and cannot be downloaded or transferred. Leaving Wix means rebuilding your entire site on a new platform.
Q: Do website builder prices include VAT in the UK?
A: Most do not. Wix, Squarespace, GoDaddy and IONOS all advertise prices excluding 20% VAT. A plan advertised at £13/month actually costs £15.60 once VAT is applied. Always check whether the price you are comparing is VAT-inclusive.
Q: What is vendor lock-in and why should I care?
A: Your site is tied to one platform with no way to export or move it. If the platform raises prices, changes terms, removes features or shuts down, you have no recourse. Choose a builder that lets you export — like Sitejet Builder, which allows full ZIP export any time.
Q: Is Sitejet Builder really free with hosting?
A: Yes. Included at no additional cost with hosting plans starting at £5/month. That single price covers the builder, hosting, a free SSL certificate, daily backups and one mailbox. No premium template fees, no surcharges, no renewal hikes.
Q: How do I check for hidden fees before choosing a builder?
A: Use the checklist above. Specifically: check renewal price (not just intro), confirm VAT inclusion, ask whether SSL and e-mail are included, find out if templates or plugins cost extra, and most importantly confirm whether you can export your site. If any of this is hard to find, treat it as a warning.
Q: Which builders have the worst lock-in?
A: Wix and GoDaddy Website Builder are the most restrictive — neither offers any export feature. Squarespace allows limited export of blog posts in XML but designs, layouts and styling cannot be exported. If portability matters, choose Sitejet Builder or self-hosted WordPress.
Q: Can I negotiate the renewal price?
A: Occasionally — Wix, Squarespace and GoDaddy support teams will sometimes apply a retention discount if you call or e-mail asking to cancel. But that becomes an annual chore and the discount usually lasts only one year.
Q: Does Google penalise sites that switch providers?
A: Only if you change the domain name or the URL structure. Keep the domain and URL paths identical and Google will not notice the migration. Problems arise when owners leave a locked-in builder and are forced onto a new domain because the original integrated free subdomain is no longer available.
Q: How do I migrate from Wix to Sitejet Builder?
A: Since Wix offers no export, you rebuild on a Sitejet template by copying text and images across. With 170+ templates it is usually quicker than owners expect — a weekend in most cases. Keep the .co.uk domain pointed at the new site to preserve SEO. See our weekend build guide.