The Five-App Tax
What does running your business on five apps actually cost you a year?
Tick what you pay for today, put in rough monthly takings, and see the yearly total next to one system. It is your numbers and simple arithmetic, nothing else. No email needed to see the answer.
Prices checked 2 September 2026 against each vendor's UK pricing page. Every figure has its source listed below the calculator.
Add it up
Most makers I know run a website on one app, a shop on another, a mailing list on a third, bookings through a marketplace that takes a cut, and a course somewhere else again. Each one looks small on its own. Here is what they add up to.
Tick what you pay for and your totals appear here. The adding-up needs JavaScript; every price and its source is listed below regardless.
Prices checked 2 September 2026. Vendor UK pricing pages where they would load; a 2026 UK write-up where they would not (marked *). USD-only vendors converted at 0.74. If a figure is out of date, tell me and I will fix it.
How the sums work: subscriptions are the vendor's monthly-billed price (paying yearly is usually cheaper; the source notes say by how much). Percentage fees are applied to the monthly takings you typed, per-sale pence to takings divided by your average order or ticket. Course platforms are charged their percentage only. Card processing is counted on both sides: a marketplace's bundled rate on theirs, your own Stripe account at the standard UK card rate on the WebDeck side, on the same takings. Most vendors quote ex VAT and so does this page. Offsite-ads charges, domains, premium plugins and paid themes are not counted.
Where every figure comes from (19 sources)
- Squarespace Core: £24 a month Core is the cheapest plan with 0% store transaction fee. £17/mo on the annual plan. Squarespace Payments UK cards 2% + 25p on Core. source, checked 2 September 2026 (Squarespace's UK price table renders in the browser only; figure taken from a UK write-up verified August 2026 whose store-fee row matches the vendor page)
- Wix Core: £19 a month Core is the cheapest Wix plan with a working store. Wix Payments UK cards 2.1% + 20p. source, checked 2 September 2026 (Wix's UK plans page would not load; wix.com/plans shows USD only. GBP figure from a UK write-up verified August 2026)
- WordPress + managed hosting: £23.99 a month SiteGround GrowBig is £3.99 a month on the first-term promotion and renews at £23.99. A domain, a premium theme and paid plugins are on top and not counted here. WordPress.com Business is £40 a month (£25 paid yearly) if you would rather not run your own hosting. source, checked 2 September 2026
- Etsy: 10.98% + 35p a sale No subscription. Transaction fee 6.5% (on price including postage), payment processing 4% + 20p, UK regulatory operating fee 0.48%, listing fee 15p per listing or renewal (counted once per sale here). Offsite Ads at 12% to 15% of attributed sales are not counted. Etsy adds 20% VAT to its fees unless you give it a UK VAT number. source, checked 2 September 2026
- Shopify Basic: £25 a month + 2% + 25p a sale Basic £25 a month billed monthly, £19 a month billed yearly. Shopify Payments UK online cards on Basic 2% + 25p. source, checked 2 September 2026
- WooCommerce (free) + WooPayments: 1.5% + 25p a sale The plugin is free. WooPayments UK cards 1.5% + 25p (plus 2% for international cards, plus 20% VAT on the fee unless VAT registered). Needs the WordPress hosting from the Website row. source, checked 2 September 2026
- Mailchimp Standard (500 contacts): £14.87 a month Standard £14.87 a month at 500 contacts on the UK price page; Essentials £9.67. At 1,500 contacts the USD price is about $45 (roughly £33). source, checked 2 September 2026
- Brevo Starter: about £6.70 a month Starter from $9 a month (5,000 emails), Business from $18. Converted at 0.74. source, checked 2 September 2026 (Brevo's UK pricing page would not load for the checker; the USD figure comes from two 2026 write-ups that agree)
- Kit Creator (1,000 subscribers): about £24.40 a month Creator $33 a month billed monthly, $32.50 billed yearly, at 1,000 subscribers. Kit's free Newsletter plan covers up to 10,000 subscribers with fewer features. USD only; converted at 0.74. source, checked 2 September 2026
- Obby marketplace: 20% of each booking Marketplace commission 17.5% on the free and Lite accounts (12.5% from Standard at £24 a month), plus 2.5% payment processing. No subscription on the marketplace-only account. source, checked 2 September 2026
- ClassBento marketplace: 20% of each booking Marketplace commission 20%, no upfront fee. Their own-website booking tool is 3.9% + 25p a booking instead. source, checked 2 September 2026 (ClassBento's pages refused the checker; figures from the vendor's own page text as shown in search results)
- Acuity Scheduling Starter: about £14.80 a month + your card fees Starter $20 a month billed monthly, $16 billed yearly. USD only, converted at 0.74. Acuity takes payment through your own Stripe, Square or PayPal, so their card rate is added on top. source, checked 2 September 2026
- Eventbrite (paid tickets): 6.95% + 59p a ticket UK organiser fee 6.95% + 59p per paid ticket including payment processing. Passed to the buyer by default, which is still your price being higher. source, checked 2 September 2026 (eventbrite.co.uk served the US fee table to the checker; UK figure from a July 2026 UK write-up that several others agree with)
- Kajabi Kickstarter: about £51 a month Kickstarter $69 a month billed monthly, $55 yearly, one product and 250 contacts. Not on Kajabi's public price page; figure from an April 2026 pricing analysis. USD only, converted at 0.74. source, checked 2 September 2026 (the Kickstarter plan is not on Kajabi's public page; figure from an April 2026 write-up)
- Kajabi Basic: about £132 a month Basic $179 a month billed monthly, $143 yearly. USD only, converted at 0.74. Kajabi Payments 2.9% + 30c on top, not counted. source, checked 2 September 2026
- Teachable Starter: about £28.90 a month + 7.5% of sales Starter $39 a month billed monthly, $29 yearly, with a 7.5% transaction fee; Builder $89 with 0%. USD only, converted at 0.74. source, checked 2 September 2026
- Thinkific Basic: £46 a month Basic £46 a month billed monthly, £34 yearly. Thinkific Payments 2.9% on top, not counted. source, checked 2 September 2026
- A help-desk seat (Help Scout Standard): about £18.50 a month Help Scout Standard $25 per user a month billed monthly (about $21 yearly); Zendesk Support Team £15 per agent a month billed yearly; Freshdesk Growth $19 billed yearly. USD converted at 0.74. source, checked 2 September 2026
- WebDeck side, card processing: 1.5% + 20p (Stripe, standard UK cards) source, checked 2 September 2026
Want this as a proper breakdown?
I will email you the breakdown above, line by line, and then a short walk-through of what your own business would look like running on one system: your shop, your bookings, your list and your customers on one screen. That is three emails over a week. One click stops them.
Why I built this
I run a shop, a barn full of workshops and an online business. For years that meant a website on one app, a shop on another, bookings through a marketplace that took a fifth of every place, a mailing list on a third, and the accounts done by hand from all of them. The till customer and the online customer were two different people to my software. The rebuild that fixed it went from sixty-four plugins to eleven, and then to one system, and that is what WebDeck is: the thing I built for my own business, sold to people who run one like it.
The calculator is deliberately plain. It does not know your business and it does not pretend to. If the numbers say your stack is cheaper, believe the numbers.
CP52 WebDeck
See the system the arithmetic is about.
One website with the shop, card till, bookings, courses, contacts and support desk built in. Presence is £35 a month at the launch price, £49 list, hosting and support included, no setup fee, payments to your own Stripe.
