Website maintenance pricing for a small business site

Begin with a one-time site audit. Check the CMS, plugin stack, hosting access, restore process and existing errors before accepting responsibility. A fragile legacy site may need a paid cleanup before routine care. Monitoring does not mean a solo freelancer is available at every hour.

Example: a bounded monthly care plan

Our illustrative scope reserves 4 delivery hours, 0.5 meeting hours and 0.5 communication/admin hours each month. At $75/hour and a 10% availability buffer, with no profit buffer or fees, the monthly estimate is $412.50 for 5 included hours. Choose your own overage rate and obtain approval before extra work. These hours and prices are our assumptions, not an industry average.

Included maintenance tasks

  • Scheduled CMS and plugin updates with basic testing
  • Backup and uptime checks for one existing site
  • Small compatibility fixes within the agreed hours
  • A monthly update report and scheduled client check-in

Not included in this plan

  • New templates, a redesign or custom feature development
  • Hosting, domain renewals and paid software unless separately itemized
  • Recovery of pre-existing malware without a separate assessment
  • Guaranteed 24/7 emergency labor

Public service context: WP Buffs care plans distinguishes maintenance from higher-service packages. A team-backed subscription is not a comparable promise for a solo freelancer; our example is hour-limited and does not copy their unlimited or 24/7 offer.

Quote the exclusions before the first renewal

Set an update schedule, backup responsibility, response window and approval process. Work through a care-plan quote and invoice or start with the general retainer fee calculator.

Frequently asked questions

How do I price a website maintenance plan?

Estimate update, testing, backup-check and small-fix hours, then add meetings, communication, reserved availability and fees. Audit existing problems separately rather than absorbing them into a routine plan.

Does the five-hour example include client calls?

Yes. Four delivery hours plus half an hour of meetings and half an hour of communication/admin total five included hours. Both non-delivery fields can be zero.

Is emergency recovery included?

Not by default. Define response times and whether diagnosis, recovery and after-hours labor need separate approval and pricing. Uptime monitoring is not a promise of 24/7 staffing.

Can I send only a monthly price and scope to my client?

Yes. Keep those results checked, edit their titles or values if needed, and uncheck internal breakdown items. Copy, PDF and Excel output only your selected current results.

Does Reset remove my saved calculations?

No. Reset restores the default care-plan inputs, placeholder results and checked boxes but keeps up to six retainer calculation records for this tab session.

Estimates for planning only. Not financial, legal, accounting or tax advice. A downloaded result is not a contract or an invoice.