Website management is the hardest service to compare offers on, "maintenance" can mean anything from automatic updates to genuine care with measurement and development. Here's what a retainer must include, what it costs with me, and how to tell whether you need it, or whether on-call fixes are enough.
Quick answer: what website management costs
| Plan | Price | Who it's for |
|---|---|---|
| Start | €200/mo | a site that must run and stay safe: backups, updates, monitoring, small edits |
| Growth | €400/mo | a site that should develop: more edit hours, content changes, evaluation |
| Premium | from €800/mo | business-critical sites and e-shops: priority, development, regular consulting |
Management has a three-month minimum term. A new website is separate, starting at €800. The full scope of each plan is on the website management page.
The no-retainer alternative: regular edits cost €40/h, billed in half-hour blocks, a small change costs from €20, not a full hour. Urgent faults are handled through website and e-shop repair at €40/hour, minimum one hour. Submit requests anytime; availability and budget are confirmed before paid work.
What monthly management must include
Compare any offer against this list, not just mine:
- Backups someone has actually restored. A backup nobody ever restored is just hoping. Ask the provider when they last ran a test restore.
- Updates with a post-deploy check. An automatic update without verification can take a site down just as well as no update.
- Uptime and speed monitoring. You should learn about an outage from your admin, not from a customer.
- Expiry watch, domain, certificate, integrations. Banal, and still the most common cause of "mysterious" outages.
- Edit hours, clearly stated how many and what happens to unused ones.
- A report of what was done. Not "all OK", but what changed, what was handled and what's recommended next.
If an offer can't answer points 1 and 6, it isn't management, it's a standing order.
Retainer, or on-call fixes?
The maths is simple. A one-off edit costs €40/h (30-minute minimum, i.e. €20); the Start plan is €200 a month with edits already included.
- A card-style site that hasn't changed in years and whose downtime doesn't hurt: a retainer isn't worth it. An occasional check and the emergency number for when something breaks are enough.
- A site that brings inquiries, or an e-shop: compare downtime impact, preventive scope and the price of care. Management can reduce risk, but does not guarantee uninterrupted operation or a return on investment.
- A site you want to develop: a retainer with edit hours beats ordering each change separately, and the changes actually happen, because they don't wait for "when there's time to ask".
A decision aid from the other side: add up what the last year of fixes, outages and postponed changes cost you. Compare that figure with the annual cost and scope of a specific plan. The same package will not suit every website.
What happens to a site without management
Nothing dramatic, which is exactly why it's treacherous. An untended site doesn't crash immediately; it ages: updates get postponed until applying them is risky; the form stops sending and nobody notices for three weeks; the certificate expires on a Friday evening; speed slowly worsens and rankings with it. By the time it shows, the fix costs more than years of care would have. The acute-situation procedure is in my website is down, what to do.
Frequently asked questions
How much does website management cost per month?
With me from €200 a month (Start: backups, updates, monitoring, small edits), €400 (Growth: more hours and development) and from €800 (Premium: business-critical sites). Management has a three-month minimum; a new website is separate.
What if I only need an occasional fix?
Then you don't need a retainer, I do one-off edits at €40/h, billed in half-hour blocks (€20 minimum), with no commitment. For a fault, submit a website repair request anytime at €40/hour, minimum one hour. Work starts subject to confirmed availability, not guaranteed on-call coverage. A retainer pays off once the site drives inquiries or revenue and downtime or ageing genuinely hurts.
Is hosting included in management?
The listed management plans include hosting, a domain and SSL within the agreed scope. We confirm the plan, limits, access and any additional costs upfront. Building a website and ongoing management are separate services; an existing agreement does not automatically incur a new fee.
How do I know the admin actually manages the site?
By the report and by the questions. An admin who genuinely works on the site can tell you when they last tested a backup restore, what changed since last time, and what they recommend next. A monthly "all fine" with no detail is a warning sign.
Can I cancel the management?
The minimum term is three months. After that, the agreement continues monthly with 30 days' notice. The terms are written upfront, with any supplier, ask before signing, not after.
Sources and links
- Website management, full plan pricing, canonical prices and scope
- Emergency website help, requests anytime, start by agreement, €40/hour, minimum one hour