How much is the difference between SaaS website building and self-built server website building in terms of cost and year?
What is the difference between SaaS website building and self-built server website building in terms of cost, let's first look at a domestic public package page: The cost ranges from 0 yuan for the free version to 4998 yuan per year for the overseas flagship version, with common levels including the standard version 698 yuan per year, the promotion version 998 yuan per year, the crown version 1498 yuan per year, and the overseas version 2998 yuan per year.This set of numbers is the subscription price, the server and operation and maintenance are bundled inside; the account of self-built is the monthly fee for the host, the public口径 is shared hosting monthly 3 to 15 dollars, managed WordPress monthly 15 to 50 dollars, VPS monthly 20 to 100 dollars, domain name, certificate and email are often charged separately, operation and maintenance time is not included in the bill but will definitely be included in the cost.
What does the annual fee of SaaS buy
The subscription fee covers three things: the platform is responsible for the machine and network, the program upgrade is handled by the platform, and someone responds when there is a problem. The differences in tiers usually manifest in the amount of content that can be published, whether custom domain names are allowed, and whether there are mall or member function modules, rather than the speed of page opening. For the low-price tier, it is important to pay attention to the restrictions: some tiers have platform branding, some do not have independent domain names and certificates, and these are not included in the price tag. They are only supplemented when promoting externally, and the cost will appear all at once.
Three hidden costs on the self-built side
The first item is the server and bandwidth, which changes linearly with configuration and traffic. This item will increase as the site grows. The second item is the operation and maintenance actions: certificate renewal, system patching, backup of databases and static files, as well as a real exercise. AnQiCMS's data backup and recovery can include static files within the scope, but 'able to backup' and 'verified to be able to restore' are two workloads. The third item is the transformation capability: when it is necessary to modify the template, change the field, or add an interface, someone needs to be able to read the code. This often becomes a bottleneck in a small team of two maintainers.
How much time will it take to deploy this layer of self-built?
Building from scratch does not mean setting up an environment from zero. The deployment methods of AnQiCMS cover one-click deployment on Baota panel, aaPanel, LNMP command line deployment, and Docker images. The program listens on port 8001 by default, and reverse proxy and certificates still need to be matched on the server. In this way, setting up the site is an action of an hour, and maintaining it in a stable and reversible state is a long-term action. The costs of both should be estimated separately.
At what scale does it make sense to build from scratch?
The judgment criteria is not just the dimension of 'content more', but three things at the same time: the frequency of revision, whether to connect to your own business system, and whether there is someone in the team who can modify the code. In scenarios such as marketing websites and government portals, the page structure is relatively fixed, mainly for content publishing, and SaaS is usually sufficient; for scenarios such as multi-brand, multi-site, and the need to manage permissions and templates separately for different sites, building your own side is clearly more convenient - AnQiCMS's multi-site management is exactly for this kind of scenario.
The cost of transferring to two paths
| Project | SaaS website building | Self-built server + source code system |
|---|---|---|
| First-year expenditure | As per the subscription tier, the public package ranges from free to 4998 yuan per year | Host monthly fee, additional certificate and domain, plus deployment and exercise hours |
| Upgrade and security patches | The platform is responsible, the site owner receives passively | Follow the announcement and version rhythm by yourself |
| Backup and restore | Mostly managed by the platform, export capabilities are limited by the tier | Data and static files are in your hands, need to exercise yourself |
| Customization capabilities | Combine within the modules provided by the platform | Templates, fields, and interfaces can be changed, requires development capabilities |
| Difficulty of migration | Whether the content and images can be exported in full is a key inspection item | Migration involves moving machines and transferring databases, and the path is under your control |
Common questions
Is it necessarily cheaper to build it yourself?Not necessarily. When the site is small, updates are few, and there is no maintenance, the annual fee of SaaS is often lower than the self-built cost when the maintenance time is calculated; when the site is large, updates are frequent, and business systems need to be connected, the situation will be reversed.
Can we migrate to self-built after using SaaS first?Can, but before migrating, you need to do an export verification: whether the structure of articles, pictures, attachments, and URLs can be taken away intact, and whether the historical address can be redirected on the new site. This step is not verified before signing a long-term contract, and the cost will be concentrated in the later period.
What is the difference between a hosted server and installing a panel yourself?The hosted service entrusts the system and patches to the host party, with higher costs and fewer actions; using Baota or Docker to deploy gives more control and also involves more maintenance. The price difference is for the responsibility boundary, not performance.
How should a small company choose if they only need to make one official website?First, look at the amount of content and the revision requirements, then see if there is anyone who can modify the code. If both are low, choose a subscription plan; if you need multi-site, multi-language, or custom field support for business, self-building is more suitable.