The true cost of a DIY school or academy website

DIY website builders look free until you count staff hours, half-finished pages, and the applicants who bounced while someone "meant to update tuition." The true cost is not the monthly theme fee. It is desk time plus staleness.

Where DIY actually spends

- Evenings learning the builder instead of calling families - Rework when a volunteer admin leaves and nobody knows the login - Too many form add-ons for forms that still email PDF chaos - Brand drift when every page was designed on a different Saturday - Lost enrollments while the Register button is broken on mobile - Board meetings about the site instead of the mission

If your admissions person is also your webmaster, you are paying teacher or director wages for square-pushing.

Stale risk is a line item

A pretty site that still lists last year's calendar trains parents to distrust you. DIY sites go stale because updates require the same scarce human who already runs carline. Done-for-you rental flips that: you send photos and facts; we keep the public door current.

CCCM working site math (plain)

- **$149 first month, then $99/month** - **Three-month minimum** - We build and run the public Register / Book site - Families pay **your** school, academy, or club direct — CCCM never holds tuition - Checkout: https://www.getcccm.com/checkout - Clubs: https://www.getcccm.com/sports

Compare that to twenty hours of DIY at your real hourly cost — once — before maintenance season forever.

What you are not buying

You are not buying Academy OS attendance software in this rental. Ops desks are a separate, talk-first product: https://www.getcccm.com/academy-os (no public OS price). Do not expect the working site to take roll.

Invented sample (not a client)

"Maple Parish School (invented) spent a summer on a free builder. September still had 'Coming soon' on tuition. They switched to a CCCM working site rental so Register and fees stayed current without training teachers on a website builder." Invented — not a live school.

Honest cancel story

If you cancel the rental, you keep content/contacts export per our terms; the design system stays with CCCM. We say that up front so DIY fantasies about "owning every pixel" do not become surprises. Ask hello@getcccm.com if you need detail before you start.

How to decide this week

Track one week of site-related desk time. If it exceeds a few hours — or if mobile Register fails a real parent test — DIY is already expensive. Rent the door; spend staff time on families.

Mobile test you can run today

Hand a friend your current URL on a phone and ask them to find tuition and start enrollment without coaching. Time it. If they fail or bounce, DIY "savings" already cost a seat. Fix the door before another admissions cycle teaches parents to email instead.

Plain next step

https://www.getcccm.com/checkout or https://www.getcccm.com/sports. Email hello@getcccm.com with school or club name, city, and what is broken online. For staff-desk ops instead, https://www.getcccm.com/academy-os — conversation first, no public OS price here.