Website maintenance packages are a popular tool for agencies to stay connected with their clients. For clients, these plans offer peace of mind, ensuring that their websites remain healthy and secure.
The offerings from different providers can sometimes be confusing. They often blend together with website hosting services. If you’re already paying for hosting, why should you spend a few dozen or even hundreds of dollars more?
These costs, however, bring extra value to your website. This guide will help you break down the components of website maintenance packages, compare them, and choose the right one for your needs.
Comparison in a Nutshell
Don’t have time to read the whole article? Check out the following table for an easy comparison.
Before we dive into the comparison, let’s clarify a few terms. What exactly is website maintenance? How does it differ from website hosting?
Website hosting allows your website to exist on the internet. It stores the assets of your website, like files and images, which together make up your site.
Website maintenance adds an extra layer of services. These services ensure that your website doesn’t degrade over time.
Website hosting might include some extra functionality, like daily backups or uptime monitoring. This is where the line between hosting and basic maintenance often blurs.
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Many agencies also resell hosting. They customize their maintenance packages based on the tools available from the web hosting provider.
For example, uptime or performance monitoring tools may be part of the hosting infrastructure. So, they often show up in maintenance plans as well.
Another scenario is when a provider has purchased an unlimited version of a plugin. Adding this plugin for each customer doesn’t cost extra. But buying it individually could be too expensive for you.
Main Characteristics of Website Maintenance Packages
As we mentioned, providers adjust their packages based on their hosting, tools, and expertise. This creates a wide variety, making it harder to compare website maintenance plans.
To simplify this, we identified some common package traits. These will help with the comparison.
Website Types
Some providers only offer WordPress maintenance. Others support various CMSs, eCommerce sites, and more.
Plan Tiers
Most providers have several plans to fit different budgets and needs. Basic plans offer essential features. Advanced plans include extra services and faster turnarounds. For example, basic plans might only have security updates. Advanced plans could also offer SEO services.
Plan Hourly Range
Lower-tier packages usually include fewer hours dedicated to website content updates. These hours typically don’t roll over to the next month.
Think of a package as a combination of automated tools and actions, along with dedicated hours for manual tasks like updating website content.
Plan Price Range
Different plan levels determine a provider’s price range. Some providers offer plans from a few dozen dollars to hundreds of dollars per month, while others venture into the thousands.
The price range gives you a basic idea of the offers available on the market. The next parameter provides a better understanding of a provider’s pricing.
Plan Hourly Rate
The hourly rate within a plan is not something providers often advertise. When they do, it’s usually the price for additional website updates. We calculated this rate based on the plan price and the hours included. It is a good indicator of how expensive a provider’s website maintenance services are.
Updates
Performing all necessary updates to the underlying software of your website is a basic function of website maintenance plans. Typical examples include updates to the WordPress core and plugins. Running these updates fully automatically can be risky, as they may lead to conflicts.
Audits
Audits help identify the biggest problems on a website and determine where to focus efforts for improvement.
Common audits include:
Security
Performance
SEO
More advanced audits include:
User Experience (UX) audit
Conversion Rate audit
Reports
Reports provide a quick overview of what was done during a particular month. They can also include the outcomes of audits.
Services
Services go beyond regular updates, focusing on improving design, SEO, and other key aspects of your website.
The range of services is typically built around the agency’s expertise.
Terms
The majority of providers allow website maintenance cancellation at any time or with one month’s notice.
Support
Support determines how you communicate with the provider. Typically, it’s done via phone and email. Some providers have systems to manage requests, while others, like Xfive, provide you with a dedicated project manager.
Categorization of Website Maintenance Plans
We can divide website maintenance packages into two main categories based on the attributes discussed:
Upkeep Website Maintenance Packages: These plans focus on keeping your website healthy and stable. They handle essential tasks to ensure that everything runs smoothly.
Enhance Website Maintenance Packages: These plans aim to improve and optimize your website. They take a more proactive approach to growth and enhancement.
In practice, many agencies mix these two approaches. Their lower-tier packages focus on upkeep. The higher-tier plans combine upkeep and enhancement.
The criteria for listing a provider under one category or the other are its emphasis on one approach over the other. Some offerings aim to maintain your website’s health. Others also seek to make your website more successful.
The higher FM Enterprise packages include more monthly requests and support hours, shorter turnaround times, and support for eCommerce sites. The service covers a wide variety of CMSs and eCommerce platforms.
Brilliant Digital’s Website Maintenance packages are small, upkeep-focused plans that emphasize extra security. They’re a good choice if you don’t need major website improvements but want peace of mind.
White Box Create packages are focused on security and performance. The higher-tier plans also include small jobs and tickets. However, the main purpose of these packages is to keep your website healthy and stable rather than to make significant improvements.
This Australian-based offer sits between the upkeep and enhance categories, with website consulting and marketing strategy calls. The main focus is on keeping “your website working at its best.”
This offer is very similar to the previous one. Although it promotes extra services like marketing and design, the default hourly range likely doesn’t allow for significant improvements.
Aarav Infotech doesn’t list their package prices upfront, but they start at $69 per month. The packages focus on various, mostly technical tasks related to website maintenance.
This is an offer from a small digital marketing agency that covers basic website maintenance tasks. The higher plans also include a small number of hours that can be used for additional needs.
Care & Growth plans are Xfive’s own take on website maintenance packages, with a strong emphasis on making websites more successful.
Our Standard care plan is ideal for website and e-commerce owners who need essential maintenance and support for smooth operation. It offers instant updates, regular audits, and expert support in technology, design, and marketing to maintain a healthy digital presence.
Our Advanced growth plan is perfect for those looking to both maintain and grow their business. It includes all the features of the Standard care plan, plus advanced strategies like UX/UI audits, in-depth SEO analysis, and marketing consulting to maximize visibility and drive growth.
Studio Barn Creative focuses on WordPress website maintenance. Their higher packages support eCommerce sites (likely WooCommerce) and have priority website support. They provide a detailed website care report.
Authentic Web Solutions offers one of the most elaborate website maintenance services. Customers benefit from shared plugin licenses. The middle plan includes advanced integration support. The top plan also assists with digital marketing planning and implementation.
On The Map agency offers website maintenance plans that are more focused on SEO and content creation. Their offer differs from typical maintenance packages, which is why we don’t list all the usual characteristics.
Emily Journey & Associates takes a different approach than most competitors on this list. They don’t advertise package details but instead emphasize the uniqueness of their professional approach. It’s likely that each client receives a customized plan.
Toast Design is a typical representative of the “Enhance” category in website maintenance. You can use the time included in the plan for anything—design, development, and more. The higher-tier plans also offer faster response times, access to premium plugins, and more frequent reports and audits.
Website types
Various
Price range
£40 – £500 – Custom
Hourly range
40 – 500 minutes
Price per hour
£60
Time rollover
No
Updates
Core, Plugins
Audits
Yes
Services
SEO, Design, Content, Social Media, Digital Marketing
This UK-based agency’s website maintenance packages offer a larger than average range of monthly hours. This makes them suitable for websites that need more frequent updates. Additionally, there is a 3-month time rollover.
These plans include strategy calls to discuss website opportunities, placing them in the enhance category. Another key feature is homepage visual monitoring. This likely refers to visual regression testing, which detects unplanned changes to the website design caused by errors or hacks.
These website maintenance packages are on the more expensive side. They allow unused hours to roll over, and you get a dedicated project manager to handle your requests.
Website types
Various
Price range
£99 – £1,099
Hourly range
0 – 10
Price per hour
£100
Time rollover
Yes
Updates
Core, Plugins
Audits
Yes
Services
Security, Performance, SEO, Design
Monthly report
Yes
Support
Project manager
Terms
Cancel Anytime
Conclusion
Almost every website needs constant maintenance; otherwise, it starts to degrade. This isn’t just due to outdated software but also because of regular editorial activities like adding new content.
As a result, you may encounter performance and security issues or lose track of key metrics. At a minimum, we recommend starting with an upkeep-style website maintenance plan.
If your website is older and nearing the end of its life cycle (typically 3–4 years), it might be wise to invest in an enhanced plan. This will help you address bigger issues and test ideas for an eventual redesign.
