Same analysis. Different person shipping it.
The platform does identical work on both plans. What changes is who takes the proposal and turns it into a published change, and roughly how many hours a month that costs you.
Should I choose askotter self-managed or managed?
The analysis is identical on both plans and the difference is who ships the change. Self-managed is $99/mo, priced on the compute used above that base: the platform runs the audits, the keyword research and the drafts, and the owner reviews and publishes them, which costs roughly two to four hours a month.
Read the full answerShow less
Managed is $600/mo, or $1,000/mo with Google and Meta ads run by askotter's team: the same analysis runs, a person reviews and publishes every change, and the owner approves by replying to a message, which costs roughly fifteen to thirty minutes a month. The break-even is about an hour of the owner's time: if three hours a month is worth more than $500 to the business, managed is cheaper in real terms. Self-managed also suits an owner who wants to keep their hand on the copy. Both plans are month to month, both include the website, hosting, the monthly SEO and the AI search visibility work, and the website transfers to the client after six months on a managed plan.
- askotter is for
- You have two to four hours a month and you would rather spend them than $500. You want to keep your hand on the copy, you are comfortable publishing, and you will actually do it in a busy month.
- Managed is for
- Three hours of your time is worth more than $500 to the business, or you know from experience that the website is the thing that slips when the week gets full. At that point managed is the cheaper plan, not the dearer one.
- askotter pricing
- $99/mo self-managed and compute-metered above the base, $600/mo managed, $1,000/mo managed with paid channels. Month to month.
- Ownership
- The business owns its domain, its content and its ad accounts from day one. The website transfers to the client after six months on a managed plan.
- Human involvement
- A person reviews every change before it publishes on managed plans, and nothing publishes on either plan without the owner's approval.
- Not for
- Neither plan supports online stores with cart and checkout, and neither replaces a CRM, a booking system or a sales process. Both are month to month, so choosing wrong costs a month rather than a contract.
Nine questions, answered for both.
The same nine attributes appear on every comparison on this site, in the same order, so two of these pages can be read side by side. Both columns here are askotter plans.
| Attribute | Self-managed · $99/mo | Managed · $600 to $1,000/mo |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | An owner who wants the analysis done and prefers to keep their hand on what actually gets published, and who has a couple of hours a month for it. | An owner whose hours are worth more in the business, who wants to approve work by replying to a message and otherwise not think about it. |
| What you actually buy | The builder, hosting, the platform, the monthly analysis, the drafts and the AI search work. You ship the changes. | All of that, plus a person who reviews and publishes every change and is accountable for the monthly work landing. |
| Pricing model | $99/mo base, then priced on the compute you use. More analysis and more ad channels watched raise the bill. No setup fee. | $600/mo flat for managed SEO, $1,000/mo with Google and Meta ads run by our team. Ad spend billed to you separately. No setup fee. |
| Setup effort | Identical: one URL or one sentence, first draft the same day. You review the launch yourself. | Identical, with a person walking the launch with you and handling the redirect mapping. |
| Human involvement | You are the review step. The platform will not publish anything without you, and there is nobody else checking the work. | A person reviews every change before it is offered for your approval, and nothing publishes without your reply either way. |
| Who owns the website | Your domain and content from day one. Self-managed has no six-month term attached to it. | Your domain and content from day one. The site itself transfers to you after six months. |
| Who owns the ad accounts | You do, in your own name. Paid channels are metered with the rest of your compute rather than priced as a tier. | You do, in your own name, including the history and the audiences, with our team operating them on your behalf. |
| Ongoing SEO work | The same research, audits and drafts are produced every month. Publishing them is your job, and skipped months show up in the results. | Roughly 12 to 16 hours a month, published by activity, shipped whether or not you remember to ask. The breakdown. |
| Visibility into changes | Every change logged with a timestamp. You made them, so the log is a record rather than an oversight tool. | Every change logged with who asked, who approved and when. This is the log that matters, because someone else is making the changes. |
The honest split.
Both plans are month to month and switching either way carries no penalty, so this decision costs a month rather than a contract.
You have two to four hours a month and you would rather spend them than $500. You want to keep your hand on the copy, you are comfortable publishing, and you will actually do it in a busy month.
Three hours of your time is worth more than $500 to the business, or you know from experience that the website is the thing that slips when the week gets full. At that point managed is the cheaper plan, not the dearer one.
Neither plan supports online stores with cart and checkout, and neither replaces a CRM, a booking system or a sales process. Both are month to month, so choosing wrong costs a month rather than a contract.
Published, and month to month.
No setup fee, no minimum term, and no penalty for cancelling. Ad spend is billed to you directly by Google and Meta rather than passing through us.
You drive the builder and ship the changes Whiskers suggests. The platform does the analysis.
| What is included | Self-managed$99/moWebsite, SEO and the platform. Compute-based after that. |
|---|---|
| Website and SEO | |
| AI web builder, unlimited edits | Included |
| Your site hosted on your own domain | Included |
| SEO: keywords, on-page, schema, rank tracking | Included |
| AI content recommendations, ready to publish | Included |
| Answer engine optimization | Included |
| askotter platform and data lake | Included |
| Paid channels | |
| Google Ads + Meta Ads, connected and tracked | Add per channel |
| AI bidding and budget recommendations | With each channel |
| True ROAS against your real revenue | With each channel |
| How it runs | |
| Who ships each change | You |
| A person reviews every change before it ships | Not included |
| Ad accounts | Yours, you keep them |
| What moves the price | The compute you use |
| Cancel anytime | Included |
| Start free | |
The $99/mo covers your website and SEO on the platform. After that the price is compute-based. Ask Whiskers to run more analysis, or to watch more ad channels for you, and the bill scales with how much you use.
No setup fee. Ad spend is billed to you by Google and Meta.
Want a person to run it for you?
Our team builds and runs it. A person reviews every AI recommendation before it ships.
| What is included | PopularManaged SEO$600/moWe build it and run the SEO. | Managed + Ads$1,000/moEverything in Managed SEO, plus Google Ads and Meta Ads run by our team. |
|---|---|---|
| Website and SEO | ||
| We build and host your website | Included | Included |
| Monthly SEO, done for you | Included | Included |
| Content written, reviewed and published | Included | Included |
| Answer engine optimization, run for you | Included | Included |
| One site refresh per year | Included | Included |
| askotter platform and data lake | Included | Included |
| Paid channels | ||
| Google Ads + Meta Ads management | Not included | Included |
| Monthly performance reviews | Not included | Included |
| Ad budget | Not needed | Under $10K/mo |
| How it runs | ||
| Who ships each change | Our team | Our team |
| A person reviews every change before it ships | Included | Included |
| Email marketing waterfall | Setup | Fully managed |
| Strategy calls | Not included | Monthly |
| Website is yours after six months | Included | Included |
| Get a free audit | Get a free audit | |
No setup fee. Cancel anytime. Ad spend is billed to you by Google and Meta.
Want to talk it through first? Book a 20-minute demo
Prefer to run it yourself?
Weighing something else.
askotter vs Wix
You like building the site, you have the hours, and you want software rather than a monthly service. At roughly $30 a month Wix is genuinely cheaper, and paying for a managed service you would not use is a bad trade.
askotter vs GoDaddy
You need a cheap, simple online presence and you are not buying marketing. GoDaddy at roughly $15 a month for domain, hosting and a basic site is hard to beat on price, and a managed service you will not use is money wasted.
askotter vs Thryv
The phone rings and the chaos is behind it: double-booked appointments, invoices going out late, customer details in three places. That is an operations problem, and a better website does not fix it.
askotter vs a local SEO agency
You need strategy beyond the website and search: positioning, partnerships, PR, events, or a market a national service will not understand. You have a complex multi-location structure. Or you simply work better with a person you can meet, which is a legitimate reason and not a soft one.
The services themselves: the website builder, managed small business SEO, AI search visibility, and running the site by text. The evidence behind the numbers is on the methodology page.
Questions about this comparison
What is the real difference between the plans?
How many hours a month does self-managed actually take?
Why is self-managed priced on compute?
Can I switch between them?
Is the SEO work worse on self-managed?
Start with the audit.
It reads the site you have now and shows you what is costing you work, whichever way you decide. Yours whether or not you sign up.
Self-managed is $99/mo and scales with the compute you use. Our team runs it from $600/mo.