How do you charge clients for subscription services?
For example, if you are building websites for clients and use Unbounce or Webflow.
Do you pass on the fee that you are charged from the provider?
Do you pass on the fee plus a mark up? How much do you mark up?
We did this at our agency for ~4 years and tried several directions. I think there's a couple ways that make sense.
# 1. Setup the service for the client, then make them the "owner" of the account.
A lot of services, like Squarespace, allow you to transfer ownership and sometimes even have an "add client" option. If not, make them the owner of the account, and have them enter their payment information. This makes them responsible for maintaining the account, and takes another thing off your plate.
# 2. Charge a monthly fee to maintain their account
It depends on your relationship with the client, but if you're actively paying and maintaining something for them, I'd definitely charge them a fee. Call it a subscription and mark it up whatever your time/resources are worth to you. This is a service you can provide to them that includes maintaining the software subscriptions. This is pretty common.