What website maintenance actually costs
Ongoing website maintenance from an agency typically runs $60 to $350 a month, usually a flat fee with a set hours allowance. Doing it yourself costs no invoice but one to two hours a month. The most expensive option is no maintenance at all: wrong details cost enquiries, and nobody ever finds out how many.
The cheapest part of maintenance
Free for one website: DustOff tells you where something is out of date. Fixing it usually takes two minutes.
No account, no credit card. Takes a minute.
The three common pricing models
Maintenance retainer: a fixed monthly fee covers updates, backups and a set number of content changes. Typically $60 to $350, depending on size and response time.
Hourly billing: $80 to $180 an hour, only when something needs doing. Cheap when demand is low, unpredictable when it isn't.
Do it yourself: no invoice, but one to two hours a month — and the risk that it slides down the priority list during a busy stretch.
What's usually missing from the retainer
Most maintenance contracts cover the technical side: updates, backups, uptime, sometimes a security scan. Content accuracy is almost never part of it — simply because nobody outside your business can know that your summer offer expired last week.
That gap produces the situation many owners recognise: the maintenance contract is active, everything shows green, and the homepage still advertises last year's promotion.
The bill almost nobody adds up
Say a wrong price or an expired offer costs you three enquiries a month that never arrive. At an average deal size of $500 and a one-in-three close rate, that's roughly $500 a month in lost revenue.
Against that number, any form of maintenance looks cheap. The case for maintenance is rarely the agency's invoice — it's what quietly disappears without one.
What to check before signing a contract
Three questions separate a workable maintenance agreement from a vague catch-all:
- What happens to unused hours in the monthly allowance — do they roll over or expire?
- Who checks content accuracy, and on what schedule?
- Who owns the login access, domain, and backups if the relationship ends?
The cheaper hybrid that works well in practice
The setup that holds up best: technical upkeep through a small maintenance contract or the platform's own tools, content changes handled in-house — but with something reminding you where to look. Making the edit takes two minutes. Finding it is the actual work.
That's the part DustOff takes off your plate: free permanently for one website, from $9 a month for more.
The content-only alternative
Not every business needs a full maintenance retainer. If the platform is modern and rarely needs manual updates, the technical risk is already low. What's usually missing isn't technical cover — it's someone checking that the offers, prices and dates on the site are still correct.
That's a narrower, cheaper problem to solve than a full contract, and it's worth pricing separately rather than bundling it into a larger agreement you may not need in full.
Häufige Fragen
- What does a website maintenance contract cost per month?
- For small business sites, typically $60 to $180. For larger sites or online stores, $180 to $350 and up. Most include updates, backups and a set allowance of changes.
- Is website maintenance worth it for a small site?
- Full-service contracts often aren't, if the platform rarely needs updates. Basic technical upkeep plus a reliable reminder for outdated content is usually enough.
- Can I do website maintenance myself?
- For content, almost always yes. The hard part isn't making the edit, it's noticing the problem in the first place — that's the part worth outsourcing.
- Do free website builders reduce maintenance cost?
- They reduce the technical portion, since the platform handles updates and backups. Content accuracy still needs the same regular attention regardless of platform.
- Is a one-time redesign a substitute for ongoing maintenance?
- No. A redesign resets the design, not the discipline of checking prices, offers and dates. Sites drift out of date again within months of any launch.