Frequently Asked Questions

Choose Website-as-a-Service if you need a brochure or lead-generation site for a local service business—$0 upfront, $350 per month. Choose Storefront-as-a-Service if you sell products on Shopify and want checkout, catalog, and conversion work managed for you—$0 upfront, $550 per month (you register and pay Shopify separately). If you need a non-Shopify store, a complex migration, or features outside subscription scope, book a free consult for a custom engagement scoped after discovery.

There is $0 upfront for custom design, build, and launch. Website-as-a-Service is $350 per month (USD), billed automatically each month, with a 24-month initial term starting when your first payment is processed. That fee covers your on-call web team: unlimited in-scope content updates, premium hosting and CDN, security and daily backups, ongoing technical SEO care, quarterly performance reviews, accessibility and privacy tooling, plugin and theme updates, lead-form optimization, priority support with a 24-hour response assessment, and a full visual redesign you may request after each 24 consecutive months subscribed. See our pricing page for the full Website-as-a-Service checklist.

There is $0 upfront to design, configure, and launch your managed Shopify storefront. Storefront-as-a-Service is $550 per month (USD), billed automatically, with a 24-month initial term starting when your first $550 payment is processed. That fee covers the same outsourced-web-team model extended for e-commerce: in-scope content and standard product or inventory updates, premium hosting and CDN for the managed storefront, security and database backups every 24 hours, e-commerce and technical SEO maintenance, quarterly reviews (including checkout and funnel metrics), accessibility and privacy tooling, core and app integration management, conversion and checkout tuning, priority support with a 24-hour response assessment, and a biennial visual storefront refresh you may request after each 24 consecutive months subscribed. Shopify platform fees, transaction fees, and paid App Store extensions are paid by you directly to Shopify and vendors—not included in our monthly fee. See our pricing page for the full Storefront-as-a-Service checklist.

A custom engagement is for work that does not fit our fixed subscription tiers. There is no published monthly rate until we agree on a written scope of work after a free consultation. Typical examples include e-commerce on WooCommerce, Magento, or other non-Shopify platforms; platform migrations; headline custom features (complex apps, integrations, or multi-location logic); or one-time or hybrid projects such as an audit plus rebuild. Custom work only includes the capabilities we put in your SOW—it is not automatically the same ten bundled items as Website-as-a-Service or Storefront-as-a-Service unless we specify them there.

You always own the content you provide—text, photos, logos, branding, and (on storefront plans) your product and inventory data. Starbyte owns the custom code, layouts, integrations, styling, and technical structure we build. While your subscription is active and in good standing, you have a license to use the live site or storefront. After you complete the initial 24-month term on Website-as-a-Service or Storefront-as-a-Service, you may buy out for $2,500 flat and receive deployment files to move off our hosting—proprietary plugins, integrations, server tools, and some third-party app scripts are not included. Ask us what is in the buyout package before you decide.

Subscription plans are not cancel-anytime from day one. The initial term is 24 months for both tiers. Within the first 30 days after your first payment—or before your site or storefront goes live in a public domain, whichever comes first—you may cancel during the evaluation period and owe nothing more on the remaining term. After that, leaving early requires 30 days' written notice and an Early Termination Payout: on Website-as-a-Service, remaining unbilled months × $175; on Storefront-as-a-Service, remaining unbilled months × $275. Your site or shop goes offline and files are not delivered on early exit. After you complete 24 months, you may continue month to month, cancel, or buy out as described in your agreement. Accounts more than 15 days past due may be temporarily suspended until paid.

New clients on Website-as-a-Service or Storefront-as-a-Service start with a 24-month term when the first monthly payment ($350 or $550) is processed. Billing continues automatically each month. This is not month-to-month from day one—see cancellation answers above for leaving early. After 24 months, your signed agreement describes what happens next (usually continued monthly billing until you cancel or buy out). Custom engagements follow the term and billing in your separate scope of work—not the standard subscription PDFs unless we amend them in writing.

Most local business websites and Shopify storefronts launch within about 4–6 weeks after kickoff, depending on how quickly you provide content, product data, photos, and approvals. We will give you a realistic timeline during your discovery call. Delays on your side do not pause monthly billing once onboarding has started and the 24-month term has begun.

On Website-as-a-Service, included updates are everyday business changes: editing copy, swapping images, updating hours or services, adding staff profiles, and similar content work—requested through support, without hourly billing. On Storefront-as-a-Service, that also includes standard product and inventory updates within scope. New functionality—custom apps, major new sections, non-Shopify e-commerce, complex integrations, or substantial redesigns outside the biennial refresh—may need a separate scope or custom engagement. When in doubt, ask us before you assume; we would rather clarify upfront than surprise you later.

You register, own, and pay Shopify directly—platform subscription, transaction fees, and payment gateway fees. Starbyte does not pay Shopify's bills. Premium Shopify App Store extensions (shipping tools, reviews, subscriptions, and similar) are also paid by you to Shopify or the app vendor. At launch we configure store architecture, checkout visuals, conversion testing, and up to 25 core products (including standard variants such as size, color, and SKU). Additional products are usually added by you; we can guide you on Shopify bulk import. Checkout and payment processing run on Shopify; we are not liable for Shopify-side processing issues, frozen accounts, tax collection gaps, or chargebacks.

Storefront-as-a-Service is Shopify only—standard themes, headless Shopify, or Shopify Buy Button. WooCommerce, Magento, BigCommerce, and other platforms are outside that subscription tier. If you need another platform or want to move off Shopify, we can discuss a custom engagement after a free consult with a written scope and quote—not the standard $550/month storefront plan.

DIY builders put the work on you—templates, updates, SEO fixes, and broken forms or checkout become your problem. Starbyte subscriptions are like hiring an outsourced web team: we design and launch your custom site or Shopify storefront, then stay on for a predictable monthly fee (from $350/month for websites or $550/month for storefronts) to handle changes, hosting, security, and upkeep—without $150/hour fix tickets.

Yes. We regularly help local businesses move off WordPress, Squarespace, Wix, GoDaddy, or older custom sites—or refresh an existing Shopify store. We will review what you have, what to keep, and whether a fresh build or selective migration makes sense on your strategy call. For Shopify storefront plans we configure architecture, checkout, and up to 25 core products to launch. Domain and email transitions are planned to limit downtime surprises.

After each 24 consecutive months of active Website-as-a-Service or Storefront-as-a-Service subscription, you may request a full visual redesign at no additional cost—fresh look and layout while we keep your business information current. It is not applied automatically; you request it when you are ready. This is separate from routine content or catalog edits included every month.

Priority support requests go to our engineering queue. Per your service agreement, we provide response assessments within twenty-four (24) hours—not a guarantee that every issue is fully resolved in that window, but that your request is reviewed and routed with priority. For urgent outages, contact us through your agreed support channels as soon as you notice a problem.

Hosting is included on enterprise-grade cloud infrastructure with a global CDN for speed. Security includes SSL/TLS, firewall protection, scheduled scanning, and full-system or database backups every 24 hours—with restore at no extra cost while your subscription is active and in good standing. SEO care covers structural basics: indexing setup, sitemaps, broken-link fixes, and performance-related tuning—not a promise of specific Google rankings or overnight traffic spikes. Services are provided on an as-is basis; no provider can guarantee unbreachable security or 100% uptime during global outages.