Every year, thousands of Singapore businesses receive renewal invoices for their websites — and many pay without fully understanding what they're renewing or whether they're getting a fair deal.
Here's a plain-English breakdown of every renewal fee you might see, what it covers, and what a fair price looks like.
Domain Renewal
Your domain name (e.g., yourbusiness.com or yourbusiness.sg) is registered for one or more years at a time. When it expires, it needs to be renewed or it becomes available for anyone to register.
Fair prices:
- .com: $15–$25/year
- .sg: $25–$50/year
- .com.sg: $25–$45/year
Watchout: some agencies register domains in their own account name and charge you 2–3x the market rate at renewal. Always verify your domain is registered under your personal or business name at a reputable registrar.
Hosting Renewal
Hosting is the server where your website files live. Without active hosting, your website goes offline.
Fair prices:
- Basic shared hosting: $60–$150/year
- Managed WordPress hosting: $200–$600/year
- Static site hosting (Cloudflare Pages, Netlify): $0–$100/year
Watchout: agencies that lock your files into their proprietary hosting have leverage over you at renewal time. If you want to leave, you may need to rebuild your website from scratch.
SSL Certificate
The padlock in your browser that marks your site as secure (https://). Necessary for trust and required by Google for ranking.
Fair prices:
- Free (Let's Encrypt): available from most modern hosts
- Paid SSL: $80–$200/year
Watchout: if your host doesn't include free SSL and charges you separately, you're overpaying. Most quality hosting providers include Let's Encrypt SSL at no extra cost.
Maintenance Retainer
Some agencies charge a recurring monthly or annual fee to 'maintain' your website — covering plugin updates, security monitoring, uptime checks, and sometimes content changes.
Fair prices:
- Basic WordPress maintenance: $100–$200/month
- Simple static site maintenance: $30–$80/month
- Breakfast Studios model: $365/year all-in (includes all of the above plus content updates)
Watchout: many maintenance retainers charge the base fee AND then bill separately for content changes. Clarify before signing.
The All-In Alternative
Breakfast Studios charges $365/year. That covers your domain, hosting on Cloudflare Pages, SSL certificate, all maintenance, and unlimited content updates via WhatsApp. There are no hidden fees.
For most Singapore SMEs — a simple contact and portfolio site — this is everything you need at a price that makes sense.
Adding It All Up
A typical Singapore business website's annual cost breakdown:
- Domain: $25–$50
- Hosting: $150–$300
- SSL: $0–$100
- Maintenance: $0–$2,400
- Content updates: $0–$600
Total range: $175 – $3,450/year
Where on that range you land depends on your provider, your platform, and your contract. Understanding each line item lets you negotiate or shop around with confidence.