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# What it really costs

## The worry

A website rarely costs what it seemed to. The build is one bill; after that come the small changes, the updates, the plugins, the hours of someone who knows how it works. You end up paying to keep it the way it was.

## What you pay for

The design and the build: a brand and a website [made by hand](/principles/creative-freedom), then handed over with the rules your agent works within. [A licence per site](/licence), for signed updates and support. [Your own assistant](/byoa) — the one you already use, at its own price. And a place for the site to run.

## What you stop paying for

The small changes. A new page, a corrected price, an event, a translation — you say it, your agent does it, and you publish. No plugins or page builders to license, [no dashboard to train people on](/principles/no-dashboards), and no hours to book for what is now a sentence.

## No lock-in in the bill

Your site is a folder of plain files. It keeps working without a licence — it just stops receiving new features — and it moves to any server that meets loam's few requirements. You pay for what you use, not for the right to leave.

## What it costs

The cost of AI is not included: you bring your own agent, and its subscription is yours. Bigger changes to the design itself are still design work. [Ask us what your site would cost](/get-loam#interest) — usually we answer within two working days.