What Does a School Website Really Cost?
A new website by TIDEFORCE costs €2,490 as a one-time purchase per website — a fixed price covering design, build and launch with booking and shop natively integrated.
Read full articleAsk what a website costs and the honest industry answer is usually: it depends. It depends on the scoping call, on the day rate, on how many revision rounds the estimate assumed, and on what the maintenance contract says in year two. We think a school deciding on a website deserves a number, not a process — so this article simply publishes ours, and explains what sits inside it.
Why website prices are usually vague
The classic path to a school website involves three parties: an agency that designs and builds it, a booking plugin or widget from a second provider, and a hoster that runs the server. Each has its own pricing logic — the agency quotes an estimate you learn after scoping, the plugin bills a subscription, the hoster bills monthly, and maintenance is its own line. None of that is dishonest; it's just structural. With three parties, nobody can tell you the full number upfront — and when something breaks, everyone points at the other two.
Our number: €2,490, one time
A new website by TIDEFORCE is €2,490 as a one-time purchase, per website. That covers design, build and launch of the complete site — with the TIDEFORCE booking engine and shop natively part of it, not embedded from a second provider. It's a fixed price (a fixum), not a day rate or an open-ended estimate: you know the full cost before the project starts, not after.
What about running costs?
From TIDEFORCE: nothing recurring. The booking engine, shop and checkout run on the TIDEFORCE platform, and those server costs are covered by the standard transaction-based pricing — 6.9% per processed transaction, payment fees included, with no mandatory setup fee and no fixed monthly cost. The one running cost that stays on your side is the website's hosting: the site lives on hosting you own, so your provider's fee is between you and them. We're not your hoster — though if you'd rather not touch servers, we can set up and manage the hosting for you, on an account that stays in your name. That hosting fee is the single number in this article we can't publish, because it isn't ours.
The two paths, side by side
| Cost line | Classic path | New website by TIDEFORCE |
|---|---|---|
| Build price | Estimate — known after scoping | €2,490 fixed — known before you sign |
| Website hosting | Monthly subscription from a hoster | A provider you own — we can set it up and manage it for you |
| Commerce servers | Part of the plugin subscription | Covered by the booking system's transaction fee |
| Booking & shop | Plugin or widget from a second provider | Native — part of the platform |
| Domain connection | Depends on the setup | €149 one-time add-on, booked separately |
| When something breaks | Agency, plugin and hoster point at each other | One team for site, booking and shop — hosting managed by us if you want |
The optional extras, spelled out
- Launch Package — €899 one-time, optional: a printer and starter labels, customer flyers, an initial TIDEFORCE setup, and founder-led onboarding on site at your school.
- Bring your own domain — €149 one-time, optional: we map your site or storefront to a domain you own, including DNS records and SSL certificate.
- Neither changes your platform pricing — the transaction-based model stays exactly as published.
If you don't need a new website
Then don't buy one. The website service is optional: you can keep your current site and embed the TIDEFORCE schedule widget, or link out to your branded storefront — both work without the €2,490 service. The new-website path is for schools that want one system, one design and one checkout without maintaining a separate site next to it.
01What does a new school website cost with TIDEFORCE?
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€2,490 as a one-time purchase, per website — a fixed price covering design, build and launch, with the booking engine and shop natively integrated.
02Are there hidden or recurring costs for the website?
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Not from TIDEFORCE — the €2,490 is one-time, and the commerce engine's server costs sit in the booking system's transaction fee. The website's hosting runs on an account you own and is billed by your provider; we can set it up and manage it for you. The platform's transaction-based pricing applies to bookings as published, with or without a website.
03What is not included in the €2,490?
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Domain connection — the separate bring-your-own-domain add-on at €149 one-time — and the website's hosting, which stays on an account you own (we can set it up and manage it for you). Platform pricing is separate too and stays unchanged: 6.9% per processed transaction, payment fees included.
04Do I have to buy the website to use TIDEFORCE?
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No. Most schools start with the branded storefront or embed the schedule widget on their existing site. The website service is an optional way to get a complete new site with the engine native inside it.
See how TIDEFORCE fits your school
In a short demo, we'll walk through your real workflows: services, booking, planning, team, guests, inventory, guidebook and shop.