What does website maintenance cost per month?

Website maintenance is everything a site costs after it goes live: the hosting, the domain, the certificate, the software updates, the fixes, and the time someone spends keeping the hours and prices current. Owners ask what it costs per month because the build price is only the first bill. This guide gives the 2026 vendor estimates and says who published them, then prices each line item. It shows how the bill changes with the way you got the site, and what FreeWebGuy’s $15 a month does and does not cover. For the build-price side of the ledger, start with what a small business website costs in 2026.

What counts as website maintenance?

Website maintenance covers 7 recurring jobs, and the cost depends on who does each one:

1. Hosting. The server the site lives on, billed monthly or yearly.
2. Domain renewal. Your address, billed yearly by the registrar.
3. SSL certificate. The padlock in the browser. Most hosts now include one.
4. Software and security updates. On WordPress that means core, theme and plugin updates. On a builder or platform, the provider does it.
5. Backups and monitoring. Copies of the site, and something that notices when it goes down.
6. Fixes. A broken form, a layout that shifts after an update, a plugin that stops working.
7. Content edits. New hours, a new service, a price change, a photo of last week’s job.

The first 5 are mostly fixed costs. The last 2 are labor, and labor is where the estimates spread apart.

How much does website maintenance cost per month?

Three vendor guides published in 2026 give a range for a small business site, and they agree on the shape more than the numbers.

Website maintenance cost estimates from three vendor guides, read October 14, 2026.

Source	Small business website	Online store	What the range includes
WebsiteSetup, March 2, 2026	$30 to $250 a month ($360 to $3,000 a year)	$500 to $2,500 a month	Hosting, domain renewal, basic security and routine upkeep
GoDaddy, April 13, 2026	$50 to $500 a month ($600 to $6,000 a year)	$300 to $1,000 a month	Domain, hosting, SSL, security tools, updates and developer time
Ueni, September 22, 2026	$50 to $500 a month, citing GoDaddy	Not given	Hosting and domain if you do it yourself; professional plans across the same band

Read these as the market describing itself. GoDaddy sells hosting, Ueni sells done-for-you websites, and WebsiteSetup reviews hosts. None of the 3 is a survey of what owners paid. The ranges are wide because “maintenance” stretches from a $10 domain renewal to a developer on retainer, and the guides fold both into one number.

What does each maintenance item cost?

The line items behind those ranges, from the same guides:

Website maintenance line items, 2026 vendor figures.

Item	Typical cost	Source
Domain renewal	$10 to $25 a year for a standard domain	WebsiteSetup, March 2026
Domain privacy	$2 to $15 a year	WebsiteSetup, March 2026
Shared hosting	$5 to $15 a month	GoDaddy, April 2026
Managed hosting	From $25 a month (WebsiteSetup); $20 to $150 or more a month (GoDaddy)	Both, 2026
SSL certificate	Free with most hosts; paid certificates $10 to $200 a year	WebsiteSetup, March 2026
Premium plugins	$30 to $200 a year each; $100 to $500 a year for several	WebsiteSetup, March 2026
Security tools and firewall	$5 to $50 or more a month	GoDaddy, April 2026
Malware scanning and removal	$50 to $200 or more per incident or subscription	GoDaddy, April 2026
Backups	$0 to $20 or more a month	GoDaddy, April 2026
Uptime monitoring	$0 to $30 or more a month	GoDaddy, April 2026
Developer, hourly	$50 to $150 or more (GoDaddy); $30 to $200, with most US developers at $45 to $80 (WebsiteSetup)	Both, 2026
Developer retainer	$100 to $1,500 or more a month	GoDaddy, April 2026
Content creation	$50 to $200 a month	Ueni, September 2026

The arithmetic for a self-hosted WordPress site: $10 a month for shared hosting, about $1.50 a month for the domain, and $20 a month for 2 premium plugins comes to roughly $32 a month with nobody paid to touch it. Add 2 developer hours a month at $80 and the bill is $192. Add a $300 retainer and it is $332. The fixed items stay under $40; the people decide the rest.

How does the cost change with the route you chose?

How you got the site decides who does the 7 jobs, and that decides the monthly bill:

• A DIY builder. On Wix, Squarespace or Hostinger, the plan is the maintenance bill. Wix Light costs $17 a month billed yearly, Squarespace Basic $19 a month billed yearly or $25 monthly, and Hostinger Premium $2.99 a month on a 48-month prepay of $143.52, renewing at $10.99 a month (their pricing pages, October 14, 2026). The plan covers hosting, SSL and software updates. WebsiteSetup puts builder maintenance at $220 to $700 a year once the domain is counted (WebsiteSetup, March 2026). Edits, fixes and checks are your time.
• A freelancer or agency build. You own the files and the bills. Hosting runs $40 to $250 a year (WebsiteSetup, November 2025), and every change is either your evening or a developer’s hour. Hiring a web designer compared with FreeWebGuy counts the years after launch, not just the build.
• A done-for-you subscription. Maintenance is inside the fee, with limits that differ by provider. Hoot Host’s $15 a month plan notes that update limitations apply and that some updates incur an hourly rate. UENI’s $24.99 Website Launch plan includes 30 days of done-for-you edits, and its $59 Plus plan includes unlimited done-for-you edits. Jottful’s $65 Let’s Go plan includes a self-serve editor, with content updates by Jottful for $90 a month more. B12’s $399 Advanced plan includes monthly website updates (all from their pricing pages, October 14, 2026). What website as a service costs compares the whole model.
• FreeWebGuy. $15 a month, covered next.

What does FreeWebGuy’s $15 a month include?

FreeWebGuy’s hosting plan costs $15 a month, billed through SMBcrm, and it starts only when you approve the preview and go live. Included in the $15:

• Hosting with SSL
• Your domain connected
• A layout built for phones first
• SEO basics: page titles, descriptions and structure
• A contact or request form that emails you
• The AI builder for your own edits
• The platform’s 24/7 chat support

After launch you make edits with your site’s AI builder and get help from the platform’s 24/7 chat support. Email hello@freewebguy.com about your design and we reply within one business day. The hosting, platform access and platform support come from SMBcrm, whose support agreement provides live support inside the platform 24 hours a day, 7 days a week (SMBcrm legal pages, effective November 7, 2025, read October 14, 2026). Your first year costs $180 for hosting, plus a domain if you need one at about $10 to $25 a year, paid to the registrar, in your name. The pricing page lists each item.

What is not included in the $15?

5 things cost extra, and only if you need them:

• A new domain, about $10 to $25 a year, paid to the registrar
• Payment-processing fees if you take payments online
• Usage-based text, email and AI charges if you turn those features on
• New pages, a redesign or a large catalog after launch, quoted and approved before work starts
• Optional SMBcrm plans from $97 a month

Two more lines belong here because the Terms state them. FreeWebGuy makes no separate uptime, hosting, backup, security or support promise of its own; those platform commitments come from your SMBcrm plan and its terms. And work outside the confirmed scope, such as custom software, complex integrations or migrations, needs a separate agreement, which we explain and you approve before anything is billed. The practical advice that follows from both: keep your own copies of your text and photos, whoever hosts your site.

How can hosting cost only $15 a month?

FreeWebGuy is a brand of Leads 365 LLC in Gilbert, Arizona. Leads 365 LLC also operates SMBcrm, the platform that hosts and bills your site. One platform hosting many small sites keeps the per-site cost low. SMBcrm plans from $97 a month are optional; they add CRM, email marketing, automation and a booking calendar. The $15 a month and those higher plans are how FreeWebGuy makes money, which is why the build itself can be $0. The other reason is speed: we use AI to build fast, and a person checks every first version before you see it. Is a free website really free? answers the rest of that question.

How do you keep maintenance costs down?

6 habits cover most of the avoidable spending:

1. Register the domain in your own name and turn on auto-renew. When a domain lapses, the site and the email on it stop working, and auto-renew costs nothing to switch on.
2. Price the renewal, not the promotion. Hostinger’s $2.99 becomes $10.99 at renewal, and Wix’s 50% discount on Core, Business and Business Elite covers the initial term only (their pricing pages, October 14, 2026).
3. Take the free certificate. Most hosts include SSL at no charge (WebsiteSetup, March 2026), so a paid certificate at $10 to $200 a year is rarely needed on a small business site.
4. Keep one list of logins for the registrar, the host, the Google Business Profile and the email, and a second person who can reach it.
5. Batch edits. A monthly 30-minute pass on hours, prices and photos costs less than 6 separate requests to a developer.
6. Get the hourly rate and the cap in writing before anyone touches the site, whether that is a freelancer, Hoot Host’s hourly updates, or Jottful’s $90 a month update plan.

If you would rather not run the routine at all, that is what a done-for-you plan is for. Send your website brief and we build the site for $0, you approve it, and the $15 a month starts when it goes live. To compare first, the cost calculator shows the 3-year total for each route.