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 | 4,990 CZK/month | a site that must run and stay safe: backups, updates, monitoring, small edits |
| Growth | 9,990 CZK/month | a site that should develop: more edit hours, content changes, evaluation |
| Premium | from 19,990 CZK/month | business-critical sites and e-shops: priority, development, regular consulting |
Packages arranged together with a new website carry a 12-month minimum term. The full scope of each plan is on the website management page.
The no-retainer alternative: emergency help at 2,000 CZK/h (phone 24/7, no commitment) — you pay only when something's on fire.
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. An emergency intervention costs 2,000 CZK/h; the Start plan is 4,990 CZK a month.
- 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: an hour of downtime costs more than a month of management — and more importantly, management prevents most outages. Here the retainer is the cheaper option, not the dearer one.
- 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. For most business sites it comes out above 12 × 4,990 CZK — it just never appears on a single invoice.
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 4,990 CZK a month (Start: backups, updates, monitoring, small edits), 9,990 CZK (Growth: more hours and development) and from 19,990 CZK (Premium: business-critical sites). Packages arranged with a new website carry a 12-month minimum.
What if I only need an occasional fix?
Then you don't need a retainer — that's what emergency help at 2,000 CZK/h with a 24/7 phone and no commitment is for. A retainer pays off once the site drives inquiries or revenue and downtime or ageing genuinely hurts.
Is hosting included in management?
Hosting is a separate item (with a modern stack it tends to be cheap or free), but running it and solving its problems belongs to management. What matters is that hosting and the domain are registered to you — not to the supplier.
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?
My plans run monthly; only packages arranged together with a new website have a 12-month minimum (they offset the discounted website price). 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 — the no-retainer alternative, 2,000 CZK/h