What website maintenance costs, in one table
Website maintenance cost depends on three things: what the plan includes, how many hours of changes you get, and how complicated the site is. Prices below are what the companies list, and all of them sell maintenance, so read them as asking prices and not as averages. This guide supports our website support and care plans.
| Source | Figure | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Websults (US agency) | $99, $199 or $349 a month | One WordPress site, with 30 minutes, 1 hour or 3 hours of work |
| WebFX (US agency) | $5 to $5,000 a month overall | Depends on site size, complexity and the support needed |
| GoDaddy guide, as quoted by UENI (second-hand) | $50 to $500 a month for small business sites | UENI’s article attributes this to GoDaddy, along with $5 to $75 for blogs and $300 to $1,000 for ecommerce. We did not open the GoDaddy guide |
| UENI (done-for-you site builder) | $24.99 a month after a $79 setup | A site it hosts, with hosting, security, domain and email included. Edits by its team are included for the first 30 days; ongoing editing is on higher tiers |
| Magnet Mint care plans | Support $149/month, Improve $299/month, Grow $499/month | Checks, updates, backups, connected tools and 1, 3 or 5 hours of changes |
Sources are in the list below the article. Websults’ prices are labeled “2026 pricing” on its page, and UENI’s article was last updated in September 2026. WebFX’s page states the $5 to $5,000 monthly range, though its summary gives a different yearly figure ($3,600 to $50,000), so treat it as a very rough range. Retrieved October 2026.
What is included in website maintenance
A maintenance plan is a promise that someone checks your site on a schedule. Most plans include some of these:
- Software updates. Core, plugins and themes if the site is on WordPress.
- Backups. Websults’ plans range from monthly full-site backups on Basic to daily backups with 30-day retention on Premium. The frequency matters when you need to restore.
- Uptime monitoring. Something checks that the site is live and tells a person if it is not.
- Security checks. Scans, firewall rules and fixes for known problems.
- Hours of changes. A set time each month for text, page or design edits.
- Reports. A monthly summary of what was done.
Our care plans cover uptime and form checks, updates, backups and care of connected tools, because a site that cannot send you a lead is not working even if it is online. Hours are for changes. Checks, updates and backups are not counted against them.
The three Magnet Mint care plans
All three are billed monthly. Terms are written down before a plan starts.
- Support, $149/month. Uptime and form checks, updates and backups, care of connected tools, up to 1 hour of changes. For a site that mostly needs to keep working.
- Improve, $299/month. Everything in Support, plus up to 3 hours of improvements by agreed priority and a monthly summary.
- Grow, $499/month. Everything in Improve, plus up to 5 hours, a results review and a monthly call.
Plans start after the first 30 days of help and fixes that come with every launch. Existing clients send requests through the support link we give them. Details are on the website support page.
Website maintenance cost per year and per hour
For a yearly figure, multiply by 12. A $99 plan is $1,188 a year. A $349 plan is $4,188. WebFX’s own yearly range is $60 to $60,000, which tells you only that prices vary enormously.
For cost per hour, divide the plan price by the hours. That is the fastest way to compare plans that look different. Websults lists support retainers of 10 hours for $800 a month, 20 hours for $1,500 and 40 hours for $2,800, which it prices at $80, $75 and $70 an hour, with a three-month minimum and extra hours at $130. Those are for active maintenance clients and cover larger amounts of work.
When you compare, check three things: how many of the hours go to checks and updates rather than your changes, whether unused hours roll over, and what an extra hour costs.
What makes the price go up
- The platform. A WordPress site with many plugins needs more updates and testing than a site on a builder that updates itself.
- Size. More pages mean more to check.
- Online sales. A store has payments, stock and orders to keep working. UENI, quoting a GoDaddy guide we did not open, puts ecommerce at $300 to $1,000 a month.
- Connected tools. A site with booking, a CRM, an assistant or automations has more that can break.
- Response time. Faster promised support costs more.
- Hours. More changes mean more hours, and hours are the main cost in any plan.
What is not in the price
Not included in any of our prices: domain and hosting, new photography, third-party software subscriptions (billed at cost), SMS carrier registration (A2P 10DLC) and message fees, and AI usage above the plan allowance. Prices are as of October 2026.
Other providers may bundle some of these. UENI, for example, includes hosting, a domain and email in its monthly price, so compare totals, not just the plan line.
Doing it yourself
You can keep a site healthy without a plan. You will pay for hosting and your domain, as with any approach. The rest is time. UENI estimates a few hours a month once a site is live, more when something breaks. That is the author’s own estimate, from a company that sells done-for-you sites.
DIY works if you will really do these on a schedule, and if you know how to restore a backup. WordPress’s own documentation says a site should be backed up before an upgrade, and that rolling back without a full backup of files and database is near impossible. How often should you do it? See how often to update your website.
Questions to ask before you pay
Prices are easy to compare. Terms are where plans differ. Ask each provider:
- What exactly is checked each month, and how do I see proof?
- How many hours of changes are included, and do unused hours roll over?
- What does an extra hour cost?
- Are hosting, the domain and any plugin or tool licenses included?
- How often are backups taken, and how long are they kept?
- Who do I contact, and how fast do you reply to a problem?
- How do I change or stop the plan, and is that in writing?
- Do you check my forms, booking and other connected tools, or only the site?
A provider that answers these plainly is easier to trust than one with a lower price and vague answers.
Who should pay for a plan
A plan makes sense when:
- Your site is on WordPress or has plugins.
- It connects to booking, a CRM or an assistant, so a break costs a lead.
- You would rather ask for changes than make them.
- You have no one on staff who will remember to check.
It is not worth it if your site is a few static pages that never change and you check it yourself every month. If you want to know whether your site needs more, ask for a free demo, or see our pricing and FAQ. To know what customers and AI assistants say about you after launch, read monitoring what AI says about your business.
Published . Updated .