Someone searching for a “news site script” usually wants one thing: a news site that is live tomorrow. There are three separate products on the market answering that wish and they are not the same thing. If you buy one while expecting the other, you learn the difference six months later on a server invoice or during a regulatory inspection. This guide puts the three options side by side, opens up what the prices do and do not cover, and explains how Node.js-based platforms change the picture.
“News script”, “ready-made news site” and “news software” are not the same
The three terms are used interchangeably in everyday speech, but what you buy differs. The difference can be drawn roughly like this:
- News site script: you buy a file package and install it in your own hosting account. The server, updates, security and backups are your responsibility. It is usually written in PHP and sold for a one-off fee.
- Ready-made news website: the script plus a theme plus a setup service. The site is stood up on your behalf; operating it is still yours.
- News software (a platform): you buy not the software itself but a working publishing system. The server, updates, security patches and backups sit with the provider.
Why is PHP news software so widespread?
The great majority of ready-made news site products on the market are written in PHP, and there are good reasons for it. PHP is installed on every shared hosting account; the buyer can upload the files and run them without doing anything else. The cPanel ecosystem, the theme market and the pool of freelance developers are very large. When a problem arises, help is easy to find.
The purpose of this guide is not to disparage PHP. PHP 8, together with OPcache and FPM, is a fast runtime; some of the world’s largest sites still run on PHP. The sentence “PHP is slow” is therefore not true today. The real distinction is not in the language but in the architecture and the delivery model: when you download a package and install it on your own server, that server’s performance and security become your job.
Ten questions to ask before buying a ready-made news website
A demo screen looks good on everyone’s product. The difference emerges in these ten questions; ask the vendor for written answers.
- How do updates arrive? When a new version is released, who installs it, and do my theme customisations break?
- Am I informed when a security patch is released, or is following that up my job?
- What happens when breaking-news traffic arrives? Is there a cache layer, how many concurrent readers does it carry?
- Do the first publication and update dates of content appear fixed on the story?
- Can published content be retained for two years in a way that proves it was not altered afterwards?
- Are the masthead fields ready, and directly reachable from the home page?
- Are the reporter, editor and responsible editor permissions separated? Does who published what leave a trace?
- How quickly is a new story notified to search engines?
- Is my data mine? In what format can I take the content when I want to leave?
- Who provides support, at what hours and through which channel?
The commonest mistakes when choosing a news site script
- Deciding on the theme. The design can be changed; the data model and the permission system cannot.
- Testing with demo data. Every system is fast with twenty stories. Ask what happens to search and category pages on an archive of thirty thousand.
- Mistaking the number of plugins for features. Every plugin is an update burden and a security surface.
- Not counting the operating cost. The one-off licence fee is usually a small part of the three-year total.
- Leaving the legal items for later. When the masthead, date stamp and archive are added afterwards, every story page has to be touched.
What does news software running on Node.js change?
Node.js is an environment that runs JavaScript on the server and is known for its event-driven, non-blocking I/O model: it serves a large number of concurrent connections efficiently on a single thread. A news site is the textbook example of that model, because news traffic is not flat — it runs calmly through a normal day and multiplies tenfold within minutes on a breaking story.
In practice it produces three concrete differences:
- Concurrency. When thousands of readers connect at once, a separate process is not opened per request; connections are managed in the same loop.
- Real-time publishing. Live blogs, instant front page changes and push notifications are a natural part of the architecture rather than a module added later.
- One language. The same language runs in the panel and in the reader’s browser; the team moves in the same codebase and the development cycle shortens.
It is worth being honest here too: using Node.js is not by itself a guarantee of speed. What is decisive is the layers around the application — the cache, the separation of databases, the delivery network and the search engine notification regime. In KEYDAL the application runs on Node.js; on the data side PostgreSQL is used for records, Valkey for fast access and ClickHouse for reports that count many rows; deployment is done with Kubernetes and new stories are notified instantly to search engines with IndexNow.
A script on your own server, or a managed platform?
| Subject | Script (on your own server) | Managed platform |
|---|---|---|
| Software fee | One-off, low | Licence or subscription |
| Server and hosting | Bought separately, managed separately | Usually included |
| Updates | You install them | The provider installs them |
| Security patches | Following them is yours | Following them is the provider’s |
| Traffic peaks | Growing the package is yours | Capacity planning is included |
| Customisation | Unlimited, you hold the code | As much as the provider allows |
| Long-term cost | Variable, depends on personnel | Predictable |
| Dependence | Low, the code is in your hands | On the provider |
The last two rows are the essence of the decision. A script is more independent, but the price of that independence is having the technical capacity to carry it. If someone on your team manages servers, a script can make sense; if not, the “cheap” option usually turns out more expensive.
News site prices: what do you pay for, item by item?
A search for “news site prices” produces a very wide range, and the reason is that the figures cover different things. To be able to compare, break the price into its items:
- Software: a one-off licence or a monthly usage fee?
- Hosting or server: included in the price or separate? If included, up to what capacity?
- Setup and design: a ready theme or a bespoke design? Is there a right to revisions?
- Data migration: is transferring your existing archive included?
- Updates and support: free for the first year and chargeable after?
- Panel users: how many people? Are extra users chargeable?
- SSL, domain, email: small items, but their total is visible.
When you fill in the same items on both offers, the difference usually turns out the opposite of what you expected.
Costs not written on the label
The items publications that buy a script pay three years later, which do not appear on the first invoice, are these:
- Server growth. As the archive and traffic grow, shared hosting is not enough.
- Developer hours. A theme broken after an update, a conflicting plugin, a bug to be fixed.
- A security incident. Cleaning up a compromised news site and repairing the reputation can be a multiple of the annual software fee.
- Archive storage. The two-year content retention obligation produces disk cost over time.
- Migration cost. The cost of reversing a wrong choice is higher than the price of the right one.
The legislation: the part nobody mentions when selling a script
If you run an online news site in Turkey, the obligations Press Law No. 5187 lays down for periodicals apply to you too. Some of them are items the software itself has to meet:
- The six masthead items, directly reachable from the home page (Art. 4(3))
- The first publication and update dates of content appearing on the content in a way that does not change on each access (Art. 4(4))
- Published content retained with its accuracy and integrity assured for two years (Art. 10)
The full division between what software can and cannot solve is set out item by item in the legal compliance checklist. If you are starting from scratch, see the setup guide to get the order right from the beginning, and the masthead template for preparing the masthead.
Which is right in which situation?
There is no single right answer; it depends on your team and your goal.
- A script suits you — if you have a technical team, will do bespoke development in the code and can take on server management.
- A ready-made news site package suits you — if you want to start quickly and will spend the first year learning to operate it.
- A managed platform suits you — if you want your team to do journalism while the server and the legislative side stay with the provider.
Where does KEYDAL stand in this table?
Let us be clear: KEYDAL is not a news script. We do not sell a PHP package you download and install in your own hosting account, and we are not a ready-made site product listed in a theme market. What we sell is a working publishing system: the application runs on Node.js, the server and distribution side stays with us, and updates and security patches do not become your job.
That is not the right choice for every publication. If you want to own the whole codebase and develop freely on it, a script is a more suitable model; we see no harm in saying so. But if you want your newsroom to spend its time on the news rather than on managing servers, what you are looking for is most likely a platform rather than a script.
Summary
A news script, a ready-made news site and news software are three different purchasing models. The script is the most independent and, at first sight, the cheapest, but it leaves the operating burden with you. A platform offers predictable cost and delegated responsibility, and takes part of your independence in return. When deciding, look not at the one-off fee but at the three-year total cost, ask about the thirty-thousand-story scenario rather than the demo, and see the trio of masthead, date stamp and two-year archive with your own eyes before buying.
The full software selection framework is in the news software guide.