What website maintenance cost covers
Website maintenance cost is quoted per plan rather than as one figure, because a three page site and a site taking payments need different amounts of looking after. What you are paying for is the site staying online, staying secure, staying backed up, and somebody answering when you need something changed. What decides the number is how much the site does and how quickly you want changes made.
What a maintenance plan actually covers
Hosting, which is the thing that keeps the site on the internet at all. The security certificate, which is what stops browsers warning people away from you.
Monitoring, so somebody knows the site is down before your customers tell you. Updates to the things the site runs on, because software that never gets updated is how sites get broken into.
Backups, taken regularly and actually tested, so a bad day is an hour rather than a rebuild. And small changes, because prices move, hours change and staff come and go.
What moves the price
How much the site does. A site that takes bookings and payments has more moving parts than a site that takes enquiries, and more parts means more to keep an eye on.
How fast you want changes done. A plan where a text change happens the same day costs more than one where it happens this week, and which you want depends on how quickly your prices and hours move.
And how much changing you expect. A business with seasonal prices and a busy events page needs more hands on it than one whose pages barely move.
What happens when nobody is doing it
The first thing that usually goes is the certificate. It expires, and every visitor gets a warning screen telling them your site is not secure, which is a very expensive thing to find out about a week late.
The second is speed. Sites get slower as they fill up with images nobody compressed, and speed is the first thing Google measures on a phone.
The third is the one nobody sees coming. Software that never gets updated is how sites get broken into, because a fix that has been published and not applied is a door somebody already knows about.
Tell us what your site does and how quickly you want changes made, and a fixed monthly figure comes back with everything it covers written down.
What is not in a maintenance plan
New pages and new features. Adding a service page, a booking system or a whole new section is a project, and it gets quoted as one so you know what it costs before it starts.
The line we draw is simple. Keeping what exists working is maintenance. Building something that did not exist before is a build.
What you should expect for the money
A named person who answers, not a ticket number. Changes done rather than queued.
And the domain, the hosting account and the code in your name throughout, so a maintenance plan is a service you choose to keep rather than the thing holding your website hostage.
That last part matters more than the monthly figure. You should be staying because it is worth it, not because leaving would cost you the site.
How often the jobs actually happen
Monitoring runs constantly, so a site that goes down is noticed in minutes rather than when a customer mentions it.
Backups run on a schedule and get tested, because a backup nobody has ever restored is a hope rather than a backup. Updates go on as they are released, since the gap between a fix existing and it being applied is the window anybody gets in through.
The certificate renews automatically and is checked, and speed is looked at as the site fills up with new pages and new photographs.
Why it is a plan and not a job
The jobs themselves are the certificate, the updates, the backups and the speed, and none of them is hard. What makes them different from the rest of the work is that they have to happen on a schedule rather than when somebody remembers.
That is the whole reason a plan exists. These are the jobs that lose to a busy week, and a plan is what stops them losing.
Before you ask
How much does website maintenance cost in the UK?
It is quoted per plan, because a three page site and a site taking payments need different amounts of looking after. What sets the figure is how much the site does and how quickly you want changes made.
What is included in website maintenance?
Hosting, the security certificate, monitoring, software updates, tested backups and small changes. New pages and new features are quoted separately as projects.
Do I have to pay for maintenance to keep my website?
Not with us. The domain, the hosting account and the code are in your name from day one, so the plan is a service you keep because it is worth keeping.
Can I do website maintenance myself?
The jobs are the certificate, the updates, the backups and the speed, and none of them is hard on its own. What makes a plan worth having is that they happen on a schedule instead of losing to a busy week.