What do you pay for every year to keep a website running?

A domain is not bought once and kept forever; it is registered for a period of one to ten years and must be renewed before that period ends. When it expires, the site and the email addresses on that domain stop working at the same time. The domain is not deleted immediately: first comes a short grace period set by the registrar, then a period in which it can only be recovered for a higher redemption fee. For .com domains this redemption period is 30 days; periods and fees vary by extension and registrar. Once that period has also passed, the domain is released and anyone can register it.

Since September 2022, .com.tr and other .tr domains have been registered through the TRABİS system via accredited registrars. A trade registry or trademark certificate used to be required for .com.tr; today .com.tr, .net.tr and .org.tr domains are allocated to the first applicant without documents. Some extensions, such as .av.tr, .edu.tr and .k12.tr, still require documents.

The most important question is whose name the domain is registered in. If the domain sits in the web agency’s account and is registered in its name, moving your address and email becomes difficult when you want to change agencies. You can see the registrant in your registrar’s panel or with a whois lookup; if the details are hidden for privacy, ask the registrar in writing.

When hosting is not paid, the provider first suspends the account: the site does not open and email stored on the server cannot be received. If payment is made during the suspension, everything continues where it left off. If not, the account is closed after a set period and the files, database and email are deleted; the service agreement determines that period. Without a recent backup, the site may have to be rebuilt.

The main factors behind the hosting price are the space taken by the site and email, monthly visitor numbers, whether the server is shared with other sites, and whether services such as backups and monitoring are included. A shared package is usually enough for a corporate brochure site; e-commerce, user accounts or heavy traffic call for a more powerful server. Packages sold at a first-year discount can renew at a noticeably higher price, so check the second-year price when choosing.

For most sites, no. Free certificates from organisations such as Let’s Encrypt provide the same encryption as paid ones and show the same padlock in browsers. Paid certificates are chosen when the organisation’s identity needs to be verified separately, when some corporate or public tenders require them, or when the warranty and support offered by the provider are needed.

Paid or free, renewal matters more than the certificate itself. Since 15 March 2026, newly issued certificates are valid for at most 200 days; this drops to 100 days in March 2027 and 47 days in March 2029. So even a certificate paid for yearly has to be renewed at least twice a year. If the certificate is renewed by hand, the risk of it being forgotten is now much higher; ask whether it renews automatically.

Business email comes in two forms. The first is the mailboxes included in the hosting package; they cost nothing extra but can be limited in capacity, spam filtering and mobile use. The second is a service such as Google Workspace or Microsoft 365; it is charged per user monthly or yearly and in return offers calendars, shared files and stronger spam protection.

Whichever you choose, your email address depends on your domain. If the domain is not renewed, email stops too and messages your customers send you do not arrive. That is why the domain’s renewal date matters as much for email as for the site itself.

Maintenance covers updating the site’s software and plugins, taking regular backups, monitoring the site and its SSL certificate, responding to security vulnerabilities and, often, a set number of small content changes. Because the scope differs from one agency to another, "maintenance included" says little on its own; which tasks are done, and how often, should be in writing.

Maintenance is not required; your own team can keep the site up to date. When nobody does it, the outcome is usually the same: malware getting in through an outdated plugin, a contact form that stops working or an expired certificate. These problems are often noticed only when a customer mentions them. Platforms extended with plugins, such as WordPress, need updates more often.

There are three common reasons. First, domain and hosting packages sold at a first-year discount return to their normal price from the second year. Second, if the domain and hosting sit in the web agency’s account, the agency adds its own margin on top; that is not wrong in itself, but if the invoice does not show it you cannot tell what you are paying for. Third, maintenance, licences and email are bundled into a single line called "annual site renewal".

The way to understand the invoice is to ask for the items separately: domain, hosting, email, maintenance and any licences, each with its amount and renewal date. This breakdown shows which items are actually needed and which might be cheaper with another provider.

Changing web agencies does not mean taking the site offline. If the domain is registered in your name, it can be moved to a new registrar; for .tr domains the transfer is also handled through registrars. The site files and database are copied to the new server, email accounts are moved, and once everything is confirmed to work the domain is pointed to the new server. Done in that order, visitors and email see no interruption.

It is easiest to plan the move a few weeks before the renewal date: the new setup is tested before the old service ends, and you avoid paying for both services for long. If the domain is registered in the agency’s name, first ask for the registrant to be changed to you; the rest of the move depends on this step.

We host the sites we build on our own servers; the domain always stays registered in your name. If you wish, we also handle domain registration, SSL and email setup. On the renewal invoice, the domain, hosting, email and maintenance appear on separate lines, each with its amount and renewal date.

We take on maintenance under a yearly agreement covering updates, regular backups kept away from the server, monitoring of the site and its SSL certificate, and a set number of small changes. We also move sites, domains and email from other agencies in the order described above, without interruption.