What Does a B2B Website Renewal Cost? The Truth Behind SaaS "¥500/Year": Cheap Is the Price, Expensive Is the Bill That Follows
Anyone in the export business has seen these ads: "B2B website for ¥500 a year, live in three days, free domain and email." The price is floor-level, and it's natural to be tempted. But hold off on ordering — finish the math first.
1. For ¥500 a year, what you're buying is "tenancy"
The formal name for this kind of package is SaaS subscription website building. The model is simple: the provider runs the whole system, you register an account, pick a template, fill in content, and your website runs on their servers.
The key point: the servers are theirs, the system is theirs, and the ¥500 you pay every year is rent — not a mortgage payment.
What's the difference between renting and owning? It's written in three places:
- Renewal terms: year one at ¥500 is a lead-in price; renewal is commonly ¥1,000–3,000. Stop paying and the site goes offline immediately — years of indexation, backlinks and content wiped out overnight.
- Migration limits: want to switch providers? Your data sits inside their system and won't export. You start from zero.
- Feature tiers: want an extra language, want to touch the code, want their ad out of your footer? Pay up — every feature has a price.
2. Do the five-year math — the cheap option can be the most expensive
A common quote, worked through:
| Item | SaaS subscription (¥500 yr 1 / ¥1,500 after) | Buy-out template site (¥2,999 once) |
|---|---|---|
| Year 1 | ¥500 | ¥2,999 |
| Years 2–5 renewal | ¥1,500×4 = ¥6,000 | ¥0 (domain + hosting ≈ ¥100/yr) |
| Five-year total | ≈ ¥6,900 | ≈ ¥3,400 |
| Who owns the site after five years | Gone the day you stop paying | Yours forever |
Export is a long-term business, and a website is an asset, not a consumable. Over five years, which one is expensive?
3. When is it OK to buy?
To be fair, SaaS subscription isn't all bad. Two situations make sense:
- You haven't decided whether an independent site is right for you and want to test the water cheaply — as a probe, fine.
- You only need a temporary campaign page, disposable after use, no accumulation needed — fine.
But the moment you intend to treat your independent site as a customer-acquisition channel for the next three to five years, don't build your asset on rented land.
4. Ask exactly one question before ordering
Whichever route you choose, SaaS or buy-out, ask this one sentence before signing:
"If I stop renewing, does the site keep running? Can I take the source code and data with me?"
If they dare put "yes" in writing, they're credible. If they start talking about "industry practice" or "we'll discuss that later" — move to the next provider. This sentence is worth thousands of yuan. Remember it.
Not sure where your own site stands? Send me the link — I'll record a free 3–5 minute diagnosis video: what state your site is in and whether it's worth saving, clear at a glance.
*Follow the WrenchSite WeChat official account: reply 【Audit】+ your industry + your website URL, and receive a diagnosis video within 48 hours.*
