What if the client only wants the site and no monthly plan?

Then you hand over the site and explain clearly what they now own: hosting renewals, domain renewal, backups and edits. Many clients come back once they face that list alone. Offer the plan again at handover, in writing, with the price.

Should hosting be in my name or the client's?

The domain should always be in the client's name. Hosting can be managed by you, but the cleanest setup is an account the client owns that you operate. If you part ways, nobody has to untangle who owns what.

How many care plan clients do I need for a stable income?

It depends on your fee and your costs. Divide the monthly income you want by your plan fee and you have the number. The useful part is that each new client adds to the total instead of replacing last month's project.

Can I raise the monthly fee later?

Yes, with notice. Put in the contract that the fee is reviewed once a year and give at least 30 days of warning. Raising it out of nowhere is what makes clients leave.

Web designers: turn one site into monthly income

Rafaell Sousa

updated Oct 5, 2026 · 5 min

The short answer

You turn a site into monthly income by selling the site and a care plan together, in the same proposal, before the project starts. The care plan covers what the client would otherwise have to figure out alone: hosting, domain, email, small edits, updates and a monthly check. Price it as a fixed monthly fee with clear limits, bill it automatically, and the client keeps paying because the site keeps working.

Why one-off projects keep you on a treadmill

A typical freelance web designer's year looks like this: sell a site, build it, deliver it, start over. Every month begins at zero. A slow month for sales is a slow month for income, even if you have built forty sites that are all still online and still need someone.

That last part is the opportunity. Every site you deliver needs hosting, a domain that renews, email that keeps working, small text changes, new photos, a page for a new service. Today the client either does it badly, pays someone else, or calls you and asks for "a quick favor". A care plan turns those favors into a line on your monthly income.

What a care plan should include

Keep it concrete. Clients pay for things they understand, not for "maintenance".

A solid base plan usually includes:

Hosting and SSL, renewed without the client thinking about it
Domain renewal, with the domain in the client's name
Professional email on the domain, for one or a few people
Small edits each month: text, photos, prices, hours (define a limit, such as up to an hour or a set number of requests)
Backups and a monthly check that forms work and pages load
A short monthly note: what you changed, what you noticed

Then optional add-ons for clients who want more: social media posts, an email newsletter, a booking page, a new landing page per season.

How to price it

There is no universal number, and anyone quoting one without knowing your market is guessing. A practical way to calculate:

Add up your real costs per client: hosting, domain, email, any tools.
Estimate your time: how many hours a month a typical client actually needs, including the back and forth.
Multiply the hours by your hourly rate and add the costs.
Round to a clean number and set limits on what is included.

Most designers end up with two or three tiers. The difference between them should be visible (more edits, more mailboxes, social posts), not just a bigger number.

Two rules that protect you: never sell "unlimited changes", and always say what happens when the client goes over the limit (billed per hour, or moved to the next tier).

Sell it in the proposal, not after delivery

The worst moment to offer a care plan is after the site is done. The client has just paid, feels finished, and every extra cost looks like a surprise.

The best moment is the proposal itself. Present the site and the monthly plan side by side, as one decision:

Site: the one-time price for building it.
Monthly plan: what keeps it running, with the list of what is included.
Domain: registered in their name, included or listed separately.

When the client sees that a website is a living thing that needs a home, the monthly fee feels like part of buying a site, not an upsell.

Make billing automatic

A monthly income you have to chase every month is not really income. It is a collection job. The plan should renew on its own on the client's card, with an invoice sent every time.

Also important: separate the services. If hosting, the domain and your fee are all bundled in one charge and the client cancels one part, you do not want everything to go down with it. Each service with its own renewal makes cancellations clean.

Keep clients long term

Clients cancel care plans when they stop seeing value. They stay when they notice you are there.

Send the monthly note, even when nothing broke. "All checked, forms working, updated your holiday hours" is enough.
Answer requests inside a predictable time, and say what that time is.
Suggest one improvement per quarter: a new page, better photos, a seasonal offer.
Review the price once a year, with notice, as written in the contract.

What to do with clients you already have

You probably have past clients whose sites you still touch now and then, for free or for a small invoice when you remember. They are the easiest place to start.

Make a list of every site you built that is still online.
Note who pays for the hosting and domain today, and when each renews.
Send each client a short message: what their site needs to keep running, what you would take care of, and the monthly price.

Some will say no. That is fine: now it is clear that the favors are over, and you can point them to the hourly rate.

How to do it on Basely

This is the flow Basely was built around. In Sales, you create one public proposal for the client with the site, the platform plan (hosting, with domain and email included in the first year on 12 and 24 month terms), the domain and your own monthly fee. The client opens the link, reads it, signs the contract and pays by card on the same page.

From there, each service renews on its own subscription, so canceling one does not take down the others. Basely keeps 15% of the site price only. Your monthly fee is yours. The site moves into the client's account with their own login, the domain is registered in their name, and you keep taking care of it from your panel, alongside the rest of your client portfolio.

Small edits are where your hours go, and that is where the AI Builder helps: change a text, a photo or add a page by chatting or clicking on the page, instead of opening an editor and hunting for the right block.

If you already have clients whose sites you look after informally, start with one: write the plan, put it in a proposal, and see how it feels to start a month above zero.

Try it on Basely

The first AI site is free with a confirmed email.

See how it works

Questions

What if the client only wants the site and no monthly plan?: Then you hand over the site and explain clearly what they now own: hosting renewals, domain renewal, backups and edits. Many clients come back once they face that list alone. Offer the plan again at handover, in writing, with the price.
Should hosting be in my name or the client's?: The domain should always be in the client's name. Hosting can be managed by you, but the cleanest setup is an account the client owns that you operate. If you part ways, nobody has to untangle who owns what.
How many care plan clients do I need for a stable income?: It depends on your fee and your costs. Divide the monthly income you want by your plan fee and you have the number. The useful part is that each new client adds to the total instead of replacing last month's project.
Can I raise the monthly fee later?: Yes, with notice. Put in the contract that the fee is reviewed once a year and give at least 30 days of warning. Raising it out of nowhere is what makes clients leave.