Short answer: published 2026 guides put small-business website maintenance at roughly $30–$250 a month, including hosting and domain renewal, and a UK provider puts the typical small-site figure at around £50 a month. Bare hosting costs less. Plans with edit time, an online shop or fast emergency help cost more.

Those ranges are wide because “maintenance” means very different things to different providers. A £10 hosting plan and a plan that includes updates, backups and someone making your changes are both sold as “website maintenance”. So this guide starts with the numbers, then shows what moves them, so you can compare quotes like for like.

What published price guides say

Source	What they measured	Monthly figure
WebsiteSetup (US, updated March 2026)	Small business website, including hosting, domain renewal, basic security and routine upkeep	$30–$250
WebsiteSetup	Mid-size business or marketing site	$250–$750
WebsiteSetup	Ecommerce website	$500–$2,500
Website Helper (UK provider, last updated May 2024)	Typical ongoing maintenance for small to medium websites	around £50

Two things to keep in mind. These are published estimates, not a survey of every provider, and Website Helper sells maintenance itself. And the figures mix in hosting and the domain, which some quotes include and others bill separately. Use them as a sense check, not a price list.

The four levels you’ll be quoted

Most offers fall into one of these, whatever they’re called:

Hosting only. Server space, often an SSL certificate, sometimes automatic backups. Nobody updates or checks your site.
Updates and backups. Software updates, backups and uptime monitoring. Changes to your content are extra or not offered.
Care plan. Everything in level 2, plus security monitoring, speed work, support when something breaks and content changes on request.
Store or business-critical plans. Everything above, plus checks on checkout, payments and stock, more frequent backups and faster response when something goes wrong.

For what each task involves and how often it should happen, see our checklist of what website maintenance includes.

What drives the monthly price

The platform. A WordPress site has three layers of software to keep current: WordPress, the theme and the plugins. A custom-built static site has far less to update. Our comparison of custom-built websites and WordPress explains the difference.
The number of plugins. Each plugin is something to update and check, and a possible conflict. Many WordPress vulnerabilities sit in plugins: Patchstack found 96% of the 7,966 new WordPress vulnerabilities reported in 2024 were in plugins.
An online shop. Orders arrive daily, so backups need to be frequent and updates need testing on checkout and payments before they go live.
Edit time. Whether changes to text, images and prices are included, capped at a number of hours, or billed separately. Website Helper, for example, bills extra work at £30 an hour on top of its plan.
Response time. “We’ll look at it this week” and “we’ll look at it within an hour” are different products.
Hosting quality. Cheap shared hosting is often what makes a site slow; better hosting costs more each month.

Hidden fees worth asking about

The monthly price is only half the story. Ask what these cost:

Emergency fixes outside the plan, such as a site that goes down after an update
Malware clean-up if the site is hacked
Restores from backup, and how far back backups go
Premium plugin and theme licences, which renew yearly on many WordPress sites
Domain renewal, if it isn’t included
Leaving: is there a fee to get your files, a database export or the domain?
Minimum term and notice period

Care plan, maintenance plan or hosting: what’s the difference?

The names overlap, but as a rule of thumb:

Hosting keeps your site online.
A maintenance plan keeps the software updated and backed up.
A care plan looks after the whole site: hosting, updates, backups, security, speed, support and your changes.

When comparing, ignore the name and list what’s actually included.

WordPress vs custom: does upkeep cost the same?

Not usually. WordPress maintenance takes regular hands-on time: check for updates, back up, update, test the pages that matter, repeat. A custom-built site with no plugins and no database mostly needs renewals, backups and the occasional update to its build tools.

That doesn’t make WordPress the wrong choice: for shops and content-heavy sites it’s often the right one. It does mean a WordPress site should have a real budget for upkeep, whoever does the work.

What B63’s monthly plan includes

For comparison, here is our own offer, so you can hold it against the ranges above. B63’s monthly plan is €150 per month excl. VAT for 24 months, and it includes the website itself: the design and build cost €0 upfront. The fee covers:

secure hosting and SSL
domain renewal
security, monitoring and software updates (WordPress, theme and plugin updates on WordPress sites)
daily backups
speed optimisation and technical support
changes on request: you send a message, we make the change
professional SEO, plus AI search optimisation and the setup of Google Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools, Google Business Profile and analytics

After 24 months you renew, or the files, content and domain are transferred to you. The plan is built around a site B63 designs and builds for you; details are on the website maintenance page. If you’d rather pay once and look after the site yourself, our one-time builds start from €550 incl. VAT, and the monthly plan vs a one-time build works out the difference over two years.

Questions to ask any provider

Is hosting included? Is the domain renewal included?
How often are updates applied, and does someone test the site afterwards?
How often are backups taken, where are they stored, and are restores tested?
Are content edits included? Is there a cap?
What happens, and what does it cost, if the site is hacked or goes down?
How quickly do you respond, and how do I reach you?
Is there a minimum term? What does it cost to leave?
Who owns the domain and the files? (Our guide to who owns your website lists the clauses to check.)

FAQ

Is $30 a month enough to maintain a website?

For a simple site on a hosted builder, or a static site with nothing to update, it can be. For a WordPress site with plugins, $30 usually buys hosting with some automation, not someone checking the site after updates or making your changes.

Can I maintain my website myself?

Yes, if you follow a routine every month and know how to restore a backup. The work isn’t difficult; the risk is that it quietly stops being done. The maintenance checklist shows what’s involved.

Why does an online shop cost more to maintain?

Because more can go wrong and it costs more when it does. A broken checkout loses sales immediately, so updates need testing on the payment flow and backups need to be frequent enough not to lose orders.

Does maintenance include SEO?

Sometimes. Many maintenance plans cover only updates and backups. On B63’s plan, professional SEO and speed work are included. Ask any provider to list what “SEO” means in their plan.

Comparing the full cost of a website, not only the upkeep? See our guide to small business website costs or the pricing page.

How much does website maintenance cost per month in 2026?