WaaS: Websites as a Service
Author
Jayant
Date Published
been thinking about this WaaS model for a while. everyone says its dying because Cursor and Lovable are making websites free to build. they're right about the $5k market. but the done-for-you $1k market for professionals who bill $200/hr and dont have time to touch webflow — that one feels untouched.
the model im testing: 50k cold emails/month via Resend, AI personalisation with Gemini, done-for-you delivery, $1k setup + $100/month. writing this down to see if the math actually holds.
The Funnel Numbers
at 50k emails/month, heres what the funnel looks like realistically:
Stage | Rate | Volume |
|---|---|---|
Sent | — | 50,000 |
Delivered | 98% | 49,000 |
Open | 25–40% | 12,250 – 19,600 |
Reply | 3–8% | 368 – 1,568 |
Close | 2–5% | 10 – 40 clients |
im using 20 new clients/month as my conservative number. if i cant hit 20, the whole thing falls apart.
Unit Economics
per client the numbers are actually decent:
Metric | New Client | Recurring |
|---|---|---|
Revenue | $1,000 | $100/month |
Cost | ~$200–$300 | ~$25–$35 |
Margin | 70–80% | 65–75% |
70-80% margin on setup is good. the recurring is what makes it interesting long term.
Who to Target First
the niche matters a lot. targeting the wrong people kills the economics.
tier 1 — the only ones to start with:
- psychologists / therapists
- lawyers
- dentists
- financial advisors
- consultants
all billing $100-$500/hr. $1k = 5 hours of their time. saves them 20-50 hours of trying to figure out a website. easy decision for them.
avoiding: barbers, retail, anyone low-ticket. not worth it.
9-Month Projection
20 clients/month, 5% monthly churn, Gemini costs baked in:
Month | Active | Revenue | Profit |
|---|---|---|---|
1 | 20 | $22,000 | $14,700 |
3 | 57 | $25,700 | $17,100 |
6 | 105 | $30,500 | $20,000 |
9 | 145 | $34,500 | $22,000 |
month 1 recurring = $2k. month 9 = $14.5k. the compounding is slow but real. break-even on recurring vs new revenue is around month 10-12 at ~200 clients.
Things That Can Kill This
- deliverability — 50k/month is a lot. one bad domain reputation kills the pipeline. need proper warming and rotation.
- churn — clients leave after setup if there's nothing keeping them. need a retention hook (monthly reports, lead tracking, something).
- AI builders — Lovable and Cursor keep getting better. the window where done-for-you is still worth $1k is shrinking.
not selling websites. selling leads and a done-for-you system. the website is just how it gets delivered.
30-day experiment. if it converts, scale to 100k and add upsells. if not, move on.
[Update 8 April 2026]
I got a database of psychologists by scrappign https://www.nzccp.co.nz/for-the-public .
I got around 562 psychologists and wrote a script to blast a personalized email to them offering a free website in exchange for a testimonial if they like the webiste, no setup cost, no fee, no commitment, i remove it if they dont like. All email was customized by claude and sent using resend.
Response:
8.5% bounced.
10% replied Unsubscribed
2% replied to me saying they are fully booked and cannot take more clients
0.2% (1 person) actually replied they need credibility before proceeding further but ended up ghosting me
Learning outcome
- Their Fees are insane
$250 / hr ? its like lawyer fees. But people are sick, relationships are sick and sick people always turn a blind eye to the doctor. Money is now secondary, and mental health takes precedance
- All the psychologists are fully booked.
Even until 1 year down the line. These people are printing cash, its basically a subscription model. Because anyone who is sick subscribes to 3 months or 6 months of weekly consultation. They pay in advance or monthly, thats predictable cashflow.
Decision
I am focusing on the wrong problem. Anyone can build a website. Heck, even my current client redesigned the site himself using claude and sent us the html to copy and paste into the site. He just needed someone professional enough to make the site ready for production and was ready to pay $3k for it. This means, even the lagard and old people can be able to make their own websites eventually and wont need my services anymore
But u see the market opportunity:
- The psychologists are fully booked. They need more psychologists, u can build halodoc there for mental helpline.
- U can build marriage counselling services, u can open up a clinic and take in $250/hr instead of websites for $100 or $1,000 with 20 hours of work put inside it.
- Become a psychologist, study for 1 year and charge $250 / hr, thats $40k / mo with a good marketing. honestly thats crazier than any website building agency can make in the first 1 year