How much does monthly website maintenance cost
Many monthly website maintenance fees I see at new clients contain exactly one real activity: nothing. The invoice arrives, the website does not change and nobody notices for two years.
What website maintenance means when someone takes it seriously
Maintenance has three layers and most offers describe only the first. The technical layer keeps the website alive: updates, backups, the SSL certificate, uptime monitoring and speed checks. Without it the website slowly ages and one morning it goes down, usually on a Friday afternoon.
The content layer means the page changes. New references, current prices, new photos, a seasonal update of the homepage. This decides whether the website feels alive or like a brochure from years ago. Customers feel the difference within seconds.
The third layer is performance. Someone looks at the measurement, sees that only a tiny share of visitors sends the form, and tries a different headline. This is the only layer that earns money, and it appears least often in typical plans.
What a plan must contain so you are not paying for air
Every contract should contain a number: how many hours or edits a month and what happens to unused time. Without a number a monthly fee is insurance you pay for a feeling. If a supplier will not give a number, they show they do not plan to do much work.
The second thing is response time. The website breaks on a Sunday evening while your campaign is running. The difference between a reply within two hours and within two working days can mean real lost sales for an online store. Response time belongs in the contract just like the price.
The third thing is ownership. Domains, hosting, access to measurement and the code must be in your name. If you end the plan and everything is registered to the supplier, you do not have a website, you have a rental.
- A specific number of hours or edits per month, stated as a number
- Daily backups and a tested restore at least once a quarter
- System and plugin updates including a test after deployment
- Uptime monitoring with an alert within a minute
- A response time for outages, ideally within 4 hours
- A monthly or quarterly report with traffic and enquiries
- Access and domains registered to the client
Hourly rate or monthly fee: when each pays off
An hourly rate is fair for a website where almost nothing happens: a static presentation without a content system that you edit three times a year. You pay only for actual work and have no monthly commitment.
The downside is the queue. If you are not on a plan, you come after those who pay regularly. A small edit that would take an hour on a plan can wait weeks for a free slot. For a seasonal business that means the new offer goes live when the season ends.
A monthly plan pays off once you have at least two or three edits a month or your income depends on the website. For similar money as a few hours at an hourly rate, a plan gives you the work plus uptime monitoring, backups and someone watching even when you report nothing.
Price overview by level
I use three levels, each for a different stage of the business. Upkeep is for a website that mainly needs to exist and not go down. Care is for a business that actively uses the website as a sales tool. Growth is for a project where the website brings enquiries and we want more of them.
| Level | What it includes | Monthly price |
|---|---|---|
| Upkeep | Hosting, domain, backups, security updates | CZK 990 |
| Care | Upkeep plus ongoing edits and performance monitoring | CZK 2,990 |
| Growth | Care plus ad campaigns on Meta and Google, tests and optimisation | From CZK 14,900 plus 15 % of ad budget |
If someone charges you several thousand a month and delivers neither reports nor edits, you are paying a premium for hosting worth a fraction of that.
Want a website that brings enquiries?
Tell me in two minutes what you need. I reply within 24 hours with a free homepage design and a fixed price in writing.
Get a free proposal →How to tell you are paying for nothing
Open the last three invoices and a list of changes on the website. If you cannot name what changed on the page in that time, you have your answer. The second test is the report. Ask how many enquiries came from the website last month. Someone who manages a website properly answers within a minute, because they track that number.
The third test is speed. Open your own website on a phone on mobile data, away from wifi. If the main content appears after more than three seconds, nobody has looked at performance. On websites I take over, the biggest improvement in the first month is usually right here, by compressing images and removing scripts nobody wanted.
The last test is backups. Ask your provider to send you last week's backup. A reply within an hour with a link means the system works. A reply asking which backup you mean means there is none.
- No visible change on the website in three months
- Nobody knows the number of enquiries from the website
- The website takes more than three seconds to load on mobile
- You do not get a backup within 24 hours
- You do not have access to the measurement
- The invoice has a single item with no description
What I do in the first month of maintaining a website I take over
The first week is an audit: speed, security, forms, mobile display and measurement. I almost always find a form that sends nowhere or measurement that counts the owner's own visits. Those two things alone change the numbers the business makes decisions by.
In the second week I set up backups and monitoring and transfer access to the client. By the end of the month I tune speed and adjust the homepage so that the first thing people see on mobile is a clear message and a button, not a slider with five photos.
From the second month it is about content and performance: collecting references, adding case pages and testing wording. With proper measurement we see exactly which page brings enquiries, and the running budget stops being guesswork.
Want a website that brings enquiries?
Tell me in two minutes what you need. I reply within 24 hours with a free homepage design and a fixed price in writing.
Get a free proposal →Frequently asked questions
Do I need maintenance when my website is finished?
A static presentation without a content system can run without a plan, you just need hosting and to watch the domain renewal. Once you have a content system, plugins or an online store, an unmaintained website becomes a security problem within a year. The minimum sensible option is Upkeep at CZK 990 a month for hosting, backups and security.
Can I maintain the website myself?
Content, definitely. Most clients add references and change texts themselves, that is the intention. Leave the technical part, updates, backups and speed, to someone who can tell when an update breaks a booking form. Your own content plus external technical care is usually the cheapest working option.
What if I end the maintenance plan?
With me you leave with everything. Domain, hosting, source files and access are in your name from the first week, so a transfer takes one afternoon. Before signing with anyone else, have this point written into the contract, because withheld access is the most common reason businesses stay with a supplier they no longer want.