The general consensus is that the pursuit of an online university degree is cheaper than the alternative to choose to learn physically at a university. As a general rule, this is very true. One can see, thanks to the courses developed and adapted for the internet age, that more and more universities are offering distance learning course which are typically cheaper and sometime even free. Nothing is better than free, right? An online education is free, but a traditional university can be better than free. This is a purely financial argument, so forget the time and geographic flexibility.
What does better than free mean? Is it possible to receive more help in the form of grants or scholarships than the cost of the course? I anticipate you asking. Better than free means that a person receives more money than he paid out. And this is very possible. The reason that this is possible is that further education institutions understand that some costs go beyond the mere cost of tuition. They understand that a student may need to move, and find his own accommodation. Support for these is often provided. Grants for college can also be supplied to aid with other expenses such as food. Some institutions, such as Oxford University, discourage their students for taking on part-time work, and do so by providing additional grant money. The total aid in the form of grants and scholarships can therefore be enough to help a person with their living costs, and leave some money left over.
So as you can see, online degree programs can be the more expensive alternative, not due to the fees, but the resulting aid which is lost compared to the pursuit of a course at a university.