It’s three separate costs, not one — a one-time build, a recurring infrastructure line, and an ongoing marketing line — and treating it as a single one-time expense is what produces the year-two surprise. Splitting it into three lines before you buy prevents almost every budgeting problem people run into.
We’re not accountants and this isn’t tax advice; how these are treated in your books is a question for your CA. What follows is about planning.
The moment it happens
Is a website a marketing cost, an IT cost, or a one-time expense usually gets asked at renewal, when a bill arrives for something you thought you’d already paid for. Or when your accountant asks which head to put it under and you realise you’d never thought of it as recurring at all.
The classification isn’t pedantry. It determines whether you budget for year two.
The three lines
Line 1 — The build. One-time.
Design, development, content writing, setup. You pay once. It’s genuinely a one-time cost and this is the part everyone plans for.
Line 2 — Infrastructure. Recurring, small, non-negotiable.
Domain, roughly ₹700–1,200 a year. Hosting, a few thousand a year for a small site. SSL, usually free with hosting. Maintenance, if you take a plan — small business AMCs commonly run ₹15,000–30,000 a year.
This line is not optional. Skip it and the site stops existing. It’s closer to a utility bill than to a project cost, and it’s the line that produces renewal shock because nobody mentioned it during the sale.
Line 3 — Marketing. Recurring, variable, genuinely optional.
Ads, SEO work, content, listings. This is what brings visitors. It’s the only one of the three that’s actually discretionary, and it’s the one most often assumed to be included in line 1.
| Line | Frequency | Typical scale | Optional? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Build | One-time | Whatever you agreed | No, if you want a site |
| Infrastructure | Yearly | Domain + hosting + optional AMC | No |
| Marketing | Monthly or campaign-based | Your choice | Yes — but nothing arrives without it |
The misclassification that causes the damage
Treating the whole thing as a single one-time purchase, like buying a signboard.
That framing produces three predictable outcomes. You don’t budget for year two, so the renewal feels like a demand rather than a bill. You assume traffic is included, because a signboard doesn’t need a separate spend to be seen. And when nothing happens after launch, you conclude the purchase failed — when in fact line 3 was never bought.
The right way to plan it
Before commissioning anything, write down three numbers:
- Build: what you’ll pay once.
- Year two onward: domain plus hosting plus maintenance, if any. Ask the vendor for this figure in writing before you sign. Their willingness to state it is the single best predictor of whether renewal will surprise you.
- Being found: what you can put toward reach over the first three months.
Then check the third number exists. The most common budgeting error is spending the entire available amount on line 1 and having nothing for line 3 — which produces a working website that behaves exactly like no website.
A workable starting split: roughly two-thirds of your total to the build, one-third to reach over the first three months.
Which department it belongs to
If you’re structured enough for this to matter:
Marketing owns the outcome. The site exists to produce enquiries or credibility, and marketing owns whether that happens — including line 3.
Whoever handles IT or administration owns the infrastructure. Renewals, backups, access, uptime. The critical part is that a named person owns the renewal dates, because unowned renewals are how sites die.
The owner decides the budget. All three lines, together, once.
In a small business all three are you. The value of the split isn’t organisational — it’s that three named lines each get a number, and unnamed things don’t get budgeted.
The questions to ask your vendor
Two, and get both in writing:
What’s the total for year two — domain, hosting, and maintenance if any?
Does this package include anything that brings visitors, or only building the site?
The first prevents renewal shock. The second prevents the “live but nothing happens” outcome. Both take one message.
What to do this week
- Write your three numbers before commissioning anything.
- Ask any vendor for the year-two figure in writing.
- Ask whether the package includes anything that brings visitors.
- Confirm line 3 has a number, even a small one.
- Name who owns the renewal dates, and put them in a calendar.
If you want it done the certain way
We quote all three lines separately — build, year-two infrastructure, and what reach would cost — so you’re deciding with the whole picture rather than discovering two-thirds of it later. If your budget only covers two of the three, we’ll tell you which to drop. WhatsApp us; we reply in about five minutes between 9am and 7pm.
Related reading
- The hidden costs of a website
- Year-two renewal shock
- You spent everything on the website — what’s left?
- Who should approve the website budget?
FAQ
Is a website a one-time cost or a recurring one?
Both. The build is one-time; domain, hosting and any maintenance recur yearly; and getting visitors is an ongoing separate spend. Treating it as purely one-time is what causes the year-two surprise.
What are the recurring costs of a small business website?
Domain around ₹700–1,200 a year, basic shared hosting a few thousand a year, SSL usually free with hosting, and a maintenance plan if you take one — commonly ₹15,000–30,000 a year for a small site.
How should I split my website budget?
Roughly two-thirds to the build and one-third to reach over the first three months, with the yearly infrastructure figure known before you commit. The common error is spending everything on the build and having nothing left to bring visitors.
