Every feature has a running cost
A feature is anything the site does beyond showing pages: a contact form, online booking, a shop, a map, a newsletter sign up, a chat button. Each one can add four kinds of cost:
- Money. Set up time, plus monthly fees for services such as booking or email marketing.
- Upkeep. Someone has to answer the chat, update the gallery or write the newsletter.
- Cookies. Embedded services may store information on visitors' devices, which affects your cookie notice.
- Personal data. Forms and accounts collect data, which you must explain and protect.
A feature is worth it when it does something for the site's main job that outweighs those costs.
Sort into three lists
The feature selector gives you sixteen features to sort into must have, later and not needed. Use these questions for each:
- Does the site's main job depend on it? If yes, it is a must have.
- Would it help, but the site can launch without it? Put it on the later list.
- Is it there because other sites have it? Mark it not needed for now.
Keep the later list. Launching with fewer features can get the site live sooner, and features can follow once you see how visitors use it.
Features that carry rules
| Feature | What to plan for |
|---|---|
| Contact form | A privacy notice explaining what is collected; spam protection |
| Online booking | Booking terms; the tool's cookies; where client data is stored |
| Card payments | Information duties for online sales; payment provider fees |
| Reviews | The 2025 fake review rules |
| Newsletter | Consent to receive emails; a mailing service and its cost |
| Embedded map or video | Cookies set by the provider; a plain link may do |
| Member login | Passwords and personal data held over time |
Cookies and embedded services
A feature that puts something on a visitor's device, or reads from it, falls under the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations. Consent comes first unless an exception fits, and the oldest exception is for storage a requested service cannot work without. The ICO sets this out in its guidance.
Two more exceptions arrived on 5 February 2026, when SI 2026/82 brought section 112 of the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 into force, and the ICO published its final guidance on 29 April 2026: one for collecting statistics about how a website is used in order to improve it, and one for adapting how the site looks or works to a visitor's preferences. Both come with conditions, including giving clear information and a simple, free way to object. Advertising and tracking across sites are not covered.
The practical step is simple: for each feature you keep, ask the provider what it stores on visitors' devices. Write the answer into your plan so the cookie notice can be accurate.
Reviews on your site
Showing reviews is a feature with legal duties. Since April 2025, UK law bans fake reviews and concealed incentivised reviews, and bans publishing reviews in a misleading way. A business that publishes reviews must take reasonable and proportionate steps to prevent and remove banned reviews, according to the CMA's guidance. The reviews guide explains what that means for a small site.
Selling and taking payments
If a feature takes money from consumers, such as a shop or paid booking, GOV.UK sets out the facts a buyer must see before ordering: the full price, any delivery charge, payment methods and more. Plan those details as content, not as an afterthought.
A worked example: online booking for a café
An invented café is deciding whether to add table booking. Running through the four costs:
- Money: the booking service charges a monthly fee and the builder needs a few hours to set it up.
- Upkeep: someone must check bookings each morning and handle cancellations.
- Cookies: the booking widget stores information on visitors' devices; the café needs to find out what and why.
- Personal data: names, phone numbers and party sizes, which the privacy notice must cover.
The café's goal is "help people nearby decide to visit". Walk-in trade fills the tables on an ordinary day, and phone bookings for groups work well enough. Booking goes on the later list, with a note to revisit if group calls start taking too much time. The decision avoided a monthly fee for something the goal did not need.
Questions to ask a builder
For each must have feature, write down:
- How will it be set up, and how long will that take?
- Which outside service does it use, and what does that service charge?
- Can I manage it myself after launch?
- What does it store on visitors' devices, and what personal data does it collect?
- What happens if the outside service changes its terms or closes?
The feature selector adds a question like these to each feature you keep, in the text file it produces.
Sources checked for this page