What a website, a funnel and an email list actually cost to run in 2026

Nearly every enquiry I get eventually arrives at the same question, usually asked slightly sideways: what is this going to cost me every month, forever, once you have gone?

It is a fair question and it is rarely answered honestly, so here are the actual numbers. Prices checked September 2026, and billed in dollars by most of these companies whatever country you are in.

The pieces you actually need

Ignore the software marketing for a second. To sell a service online you need four things: somewhere to be found, somewhere to capture an email address, somewhere to send emails from, and somewhere to take money. That is it.

A domain name is the only cost nobody escapes, and it is usually under twenty pounds a year. Everything after that is a choice.

Option one: separate tools, best of breed

The traditional route. Pick the best thing for each job and join them together.

• Website builder. Showit starts at $27 a month, or $22 if you pay annually. Add their basic blog and it is $34 a month.
• Email platform. Flodesk is $25 a month on Lite, $19 annually, based on up to 1,000 subscribers. Mailchimp Essentials starts at $13 a month at the smallest contact tier and climbs as your list grows.
• Checkout. ThriveCart sells a one off lifetime licence rather than a subscription, which is a real advantage over enough years. Otherwise checkout usually comes bundled with your email platform at a higher tier.
• Scheduler. TidyCal and similar tools sit in the small one off or few pounds a month bracket.

Call it roughly $40 to $60 a month before you have sold anything, plus whatever the checkout cost up front.

The cost that is not on the invoice

Four subscriptions is four logins, four support queues, four places for something to silently stop talking to another thing. The money is not the expensive part. The joins are.

Option two: one platform

Systeme.io puts the site, the funnels, the emails and the checkout in one account.

• Free. $0, 2,000 contacts, unlimited emails, 3 funnels, 1 blog, 1 course.
• Startup. $17 a month, 5,000 contacts, unlimited funnels.
• Webinar. $47 a month, 10,000 contacts.
• Unlimited. $97 a month, unlimited contacts, and migration done for you.

Annual billing takes two months off across the plans.

Option three: the premium all in one

Kajabi does the same job at the top of the market. Basic is $179 a month, $143 annually. Growth is $249, Pro is $499.

It is a genuinely good platform. It is also more than ten times the price of the equivalent tier elsewhere, and for a service business selling a handful of things, you will not use most of what you are paying for.

So what should you actually spend

If you are starting: nothing. Use the free plan, build the thing, prove people want it, then pay when a cap starts hurting. Paying for software you have not used yet is the most common early mistake I see.

If you are established and already have tools you like: do not migrate for the sake of twenty dollars. Migrate when the joins between your tools start costing you enquiries, which is a different and much more expensive problem.

If you are choosing now: pick the one platform. Not because it is cheaper, though it is, but because one bill and one place to look is worth more than best of breed when you are the person maintaining it.

Paying for software you have not used yet is the most common early mistake I see.

The number nobody puts on the comparison

An hour of your time. If your stack costs you four hours a month in fiddling, it does not matter what the invoice says. That is the real price, and it is the one I would optimise for.