Website maintenance costs $350 to $900 per month for a marketing site and $1,500 to $3,000 per month for a web application. Plans should include dependency and security updates, uptime and error monitoring, backups with tested restores, and a defined block of hours for changes.
Maintenance is easy to skip because nothing visibly breaks for a while. The cost of skipping it is not linear — it compounds, and it arrives at the worst possible moment.
Marketing site / month
Application / month
Of build cost per month
Restores, not just backups
Monthly dependency updates with critical advisories handled immediately rather than at the next window.
External uptime checks and error tracking with alerts to a human, not a dashboard nobody opens.
Automated backups plus periodic restore drills. An untested backup is an assumption, not a safeguard.
Core Web Vitals tracked from real visitors, with fixes when a metric drifts out of range.
An agreed monthly block for copy edits, new sections and small features — usually 2 to 20 hours.
A monthly summary you can forward to leadership without translating it first.
| Tier | Monthly | Change hours | Response |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basic marketing site | $350 – $500 | 2 hours | 2 business days |
| Growth site | $600 – $900 | 8 hours | 4 hours |
| Ecommerce store | $900 – $2,500 | 8–15 hours | 4 hours |
| Web application | $1,500 – $3,000 | 15–25 hours | 2 hours |
| Business-critical platform | $3,000+ | 25+ hours | 1 hour, escalation path |
As a rule of thumb, budget 1–3% of the original build cost per month. A $10,000 site is $350–$600; a $50,000 application is $1,500–$3,000.
| Unmaintained for | What typically happens | Cost to fix |
|---|---|---|
| 3 months | Dependencies drift, small errors accumulate | Minimal |
| 6 months | Known vulnerabilities present, performance degraded | $1,000 – $3,000 |
| 12 months | Updates become a project, integrations silently break | $3,000 – $8,000 |
| 24 months | Framework upgrade path is difficult | $8,000 – $20,000 |
| 36 months+ | Effectively a rebuild | Original build cost or more |
If the site generates revenue or handles data, yes. If it is a static brochure that changes once a year, an annual update session may be enough — and we will tell you that rather than selling a monthly plan.
If they know the framework, yes. General IT teams are usually excellent at infrastructure and less comfortable with application dependency management. A hybrid — them on infrastructure, us on the application — works well.
With us, one month. They do not accumulate indefinitely, because reserved capacity is what makes fast response possible. Be wary of plans that promise indefinite rollover.
Site down, checkout or forms failing, or an active security incident. Those are handled immediately under priority plans rather than waiting for the next scheduled window.
Indicative ranges in USD. Every engagement is quoted to a written scope before work starts, so the number you approve is the number you pay.
$350 / month
Rolling monthly
Best for: Marketing sites
$900 / month
Rolling monthly
Best for: Sites driving real revenue
from $2,000 / month
Rolling monthly
Best for: Applications with users depending on uptime
How we think about this work, in more depth.
Cost guide
A 30-minute call, then a written proposal with scope, price and timeline within two to three working days. No retainer required to get a real number, and no obligation if the answer is that we are not the right fit.