Subscription escape calculator
A website subscription never really ends — it just keeps charging. Put in what you pay each month and how long you’ll keep the site, and see the lifetime cost of renting it versus a one-time Pro Source payment.
At $29/mo for 5 years, you’ll pay
$1,740
…to rent your site. Owning the code with NorthLuma Pro Source is $297 once.
You’d keep $1,443 over those 5 years.
At your current rate, the one-time price equals about 10 months of what you pay now — after that, owning is pure savings.
| If you run it for… | Rented (your rate) | Owned ($297 once) | You keep |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 year | $348 | $297 | $51 |
| 3 years | $1,044 | $297 | $747 |
| 5 years | $1,740 | $297 | $1,443 |
Generate and preview my site free Pro Source download: $297 one-time.
Pay once, own it forever.
NorthLuma builds you a complete, modern website. Generate and preview your site free. Pro Source is one payment for the Next.js + TypeScript source code — no platform subscription.
Build my free website Rent vs own: how to think about it
- A subscription is a forever-bill. The math here is just your own monthly figure times the months you’ll keep the site — nothing inflated.
- Owning ends the meter. A site whose code you hold keeps working on any cheap or free host, with no platform fee attached to staying online.
- Watch the lock-in tax. If you can’t export your site, leaving means rebuilding — that switching cost is the real price of renting.
- Hosting still costs a little. Owning your code doesn’t mean $0 forever — basic hosting is cheap or free, but budget a few dollars a month for a domain and host.
- Decide on the long horizon. Most sites run for years. Look at the 5-year row, not the monthly one — that’s where renting really stacks up.
Every figure here is calculated from the numbers you enter — there are no hidden assumptions or invented vendor prices. The tool runs entirely in your browser, free and unlimited, with no account and no AI cost.