Website maintenance cost depends on three things: how many parts the site has that need updating, how much it earns or loses when it is down, and how many hours of changes you want each month. Most business sites are well served by a plan at $149 to $299 a month.
What a monthly plan covers
- Updates, tested first. The platform, themes, plugins and libraries are updated on a copy of the site, checked, then released. The test is what you pay for, not the click.
- Backups kept off the server. A backup on the same server dies with the server.
- Monitoring. Someone is told when the site goes down or a page breaks, before a customer is.
- Hours of changes. Small edits, fixes and tweaks, so you are not billed for every email.
- A plain-English report. What was updated, what was found, what is next.
How the price compares
| Option | What you pay | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly plan | $149 or $299 a month | Updates, backups, monitoring, changes, one developer who knows the site |
| Pay per fix | $50 and up per repair | A fix after something breaks, with no protection before |
| Do nothing | $0 until it breaks | Outdated software, no backups, a bigger bill later |
Extra developer time on an existing project is $25 an hour. All prices are in US dollars.
What pushes the cost up
- Many plugins or third-party services, because each needs testing after updates.
- An online store, because the checkout must be tested after every update.
- Several sites on one account.
- A site already hacked or broken, which needs a repair before a plan starts.
How to compare quotes
Ask what is tested before an update goes live, where backups are kept, how fast urgent problems get a reply and who owns the logins. A low price that skips the testing is not cheaper, only later. See website maintenance services for the plans, or website repair if the site is broken today.
Common questions
How much does website maintenance cost a month?
My plans start at $149 a month for tested updates, daily off-site backups, monitoring and one hour of changes, and $299 a month with three hours of changes and a monthly speed check. You get the price in writing before anything starts.
Is a monthly plan cheaper than paying per fix?
Usually, once a site is live for a business. One broken checkout or one hack costs more than a year of a plan. A plan also means someone already knows the site when it breaks.
What is not covered by a maintenance plan?
New features, redesigns and clean-up of a site that was already hacked are separate jobs. Hosting and domain renewals are paid to the host, not to me.
Does maintenance cost the same on every platform?
No. A site with many plugins needs more update testing than a hand-built one. I quote after I look at how the site is built.
Written by Sakib Islam, a WordPress developer who builds and looks after sites for businesses and agencies. About my work
