Free is a business model, not a trick
Modern hosting costs pence per site. At £1.99 a month, hosting pays for everything over time — so the build itself can, and should, cost nothing.
The website itself should cost nothing. We design and build yours for £0, host it for £1.99 a month, and register your domain at cost plus a small, stated markup. That is the entire commercial arrangement, printed here in full.
§1
The argument
Six reasons this worksSet by hand, not by template
Each site is composed by a designer around your business — your type, your photographs, your voice. Nothing off the shelf.
Printed on fast paper
Sites are served from a global edge network with SSL, backups and monitoring included in the £1.99. They load quickly everywhere.
Corrections are complimentary
Opening hours, prices, a new photograph — send the correction and we typeset it into the live site at no charge.
The domain is yours
We register domains at cost plus a small markup, quoted per ending before purchase — and always in your name, not ours.
You may cancel the subscription
No minimum term. Cancel, receive your content in full, and point your domain wherever you please. No exit fee is charged.
We would rather earn £1.99 a month for years than £2,000 once.
— The GRATIS position on pricing
§2
The process
Brief to press in four stepsThe brief
Ten minutes, by form or phone. What you do, who it's for, plus your logo and photographs.
The proof
We design and build the site — free — and send a private proof link, usually within five working days.
The corrections
Mark up anything you'd like changed. We revise until you approve; nothing is published without your sign-off.
The edition
Your site goes to press. Hosting begins at £1.99 a month from publication day — not a day sooner.
§3
The tariff
Complete & unabridged| Item | Price | Terms |
|---|---|---|
|
Website, designed & built Up to five pages, composed by hand. Responsive, accessible, unlimited revisions before launch. |
£0 | One-off. Payable never. |
|
Hosting, care & corrections Global edge hosting, SSL certificate, daily backups, monitoring, and small content edits on request. |
£1.99 /month | Flat rate. No minimum term; cancel any time by email. |
|
Custom domain (optional) Registered in your name. A .co.uk is typically about £12 a year all-in; a .com about £15. Exact price quoted per ending, renewals included, before you commit. |
At cost + markup | Annual. You own it outright; already-owned domains connected free. |
| Set in Fraunces & Libre Franklin. Errors and omissions: there are none — that is the point. | ||
§4
Letters
From the correspondence fileYour proof arrived on Thursday; we launched on Monday. I have paid more for a round of sandwiches than I paid for this website.
I asked three agencies for quotes and framed the cheapest one as a warning. Then GRATIS built ours for nothing, and it is the best of the four designs by a distance.
Eighteen months of £1.99 invoices and not one surprise. When we moved premises, the address was corrected on the site within the hour.
§5
Notes & queries
Anticipated objectionsIf the build is free, where is the profit?
In patience. Each site costs us pence per month to host; the £1.99 covers it many times over. A client who stays three years is worth more to us than a build fee — and they only stay if the work is good. Our incentives point at your satisfaction.
Will the £1.99 rise once we are committed?
No. The rate is flat and does not rise with traffic, time or attachment. Should the price ever change for new clients, existing clients keep the rate they joined at.
What precisely is the domain markup?
A few pounds a year above the registry's wholesale price, disclosed per ending before you buy. We publish the renewal price at the same time, so year two holds no surprises.
And if we wish to leave?
You cancel by email. We provide your text and images in full, and re-point your domain at your instruction. No exit fee, no minimum term, no correspondence entered into other than a polite goodbye.
Do you build shops or web applications?
We do not. GRATIS composes brochure sites of up to five pages, and does that one thing to a very high standard. If your needs run further, we shall say so at the brief and recommend you elsewhere.
§6 — Commissions now open
Commission a website. Pay nothing for it.
Write to us with a line or two about your business. We reply within one working day with a plan, a timetable, and no invoice.
Write to desk@gratis.example