How Much Should Website Maintenance Cost? 2020 Guide

Website Maintenance Costs

If you have a website, you may have run into problems or costs you didn’t expect. Domain registrations, software updates, the site getting hacked, and other needs can add up. So, you have decided to hire an expert to handle this for you. Great idea! But how much should your website maintenance cost?

There are many options for companies and individuals who can work on your website, and their range of pricing is wide, from $10-15 per year to thousands per month. You want your website to work well, but you also don’t want to waste your money. Picking the right option without some context is tough, so I have put together the guide below to help folks in this place.

So how much? The quick answer is: it varies. The cost of maintaining a website depends heavily on what the site is designed to do, and how it was built. It’s like asking, “How much does it cost to maintain a house?” Every house, and every website, has different needs. Ultimately it comes down to time: How much time from a professional does your site need to operate well?

Website Maintenance Cost Ranges

To find a good parallel for your website, I have broken the pricing into the common needs and ranges below:

Hobby/personal blog site: $5 to $30 per month

These websites are low key, low maintenance, and low traffic. That means even the very basic hosting plans and performance will work fine for what the user needs out of this type of website. Generally, these sites have only a few pages of content, small pictures, little functionality, and few people actively viewing the website.

Active blog, wide audience: $5 to $100 per month

These websites are the next step up. They usually have little functionality, but many pages of content and a large viewing audience. It is important for this type of website to have strong security to ward off malicious activity aimed at influencing the large audience that views the website. It is also important that the website host is strong enough and capable of handling the large influx of web traffic that can come from a viral blog or a highly shared article.

Company website (marketing only): $35 to $300 per month

These websites are generally for a small to medium sized business to have a domain and direct customers to their basic website. These websites are usually not built for performance and may have little content and functionality. Typically these websites are only used so a business can say they have a website, but do not actively utilize it online or run a small Pay-Per-Click campaign.

E-commerce website with no customizations: $100 to $400 per month

These websites are the next step up from a basic business website. With the included e-commerce functionality, there is consistent updating of product and reviewing orders, however they are generally not performance built or optimized. These websites are for businesses that do some e-commerce sales, but not a high volume and would not support a large increase in traffic.

Customized E-commerce platform: $150 to $1,500+ per month

These websites are for businesses that do a large amount of online sales. With a customized platform, the design and performance of the website is specifically optimized for visitor engagement and interaction. They usually have a top-tier website host and advanced website security, including a https (secure) domain to keep malicious activity away and secure transactions.

Custom-built web application: $300 to $2,000+ per month

These websites are custom built for their specific purpose and optimized for their target audience. Custom-built websites can vary from large research websites with custom search features, to optimized e-commerce websites with optional extras, to even custom feature websites like a mainstream review or rating website. They are built for large audiences, have a vast amount of content to display, top notch security, and typically require a dedicated team of developers.

Who to hire?

Ultimately, it’s about finding the right person or team for your website’s needs. Freelancers from UpWork or Craigslist are options, typically at the low-end. High-end work (e-commerce in particular) is usually served best by dedicated web agencies, including Maintaingo’s parent company New Theory.  For low to mid-level maintenance, Maintaingo offers solid pricing and expertise. Take a look at our pricing for more details, or call our office at 206-429-6060.