Most WordPress maintenance plans cost about $30 to $150 a month. Plans that include a team for your website changes usually run $150 to $350 a month, and online stores or custom sites often pay $350 to $1,000 or more. The monthly price matters less than one question: what happens when you need something changed?
If you’ve shopped around, you’ve probably seen prices from $29 to well over $500 a month for what sounds like the same service. The plan names often sound alike, but the work behind them is very different.
Here’s what explains the gap, what each price level usually gets you, and exactly what we charge.
What drives the price
Four things account for most of the difference between a $30 plan and a $300 one.
How updates are done. Cheaper plans usually run updates automatically and move on. Better plans check your site after each round of updates, so a broken page or form gets caught before your customers find it. Some also test updates on a copy of your site first.
Backups. Look at how often backups run, where they’re stored, and how long they’re kept. A backup stored on the same server as your site doesn’t help much if that server fails or gets hacked. Busy online stores often need hourly backups, which cost more.
Whether hosting is included. Many maintenance plans don’t include hosting, so you pay your host separately, often $20 to $100 a month for a small business site. A plan that includes hosting can look more expensive at first glance and still cost less overall.
Whether any time for changes is included. This is the biggest difference, and the easiest to miss. Most maintenance plans cover upkeep only. When you need a new page, updated hours, or a fresh photo, you pay by the hour or do it yourself.
What each price level usually gets you
| Tier | Typical monthly cost | What’s usually included | Who it fits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Do it yourself with plugins | $0 to $50 in tools, plus your time | Backup, security, and update plugins that you set up, run, and fix yourself | Personal sites, and owners comfortable fixing what an update breaks |
| Budget automated plans | About $30 to $75 | Automatic updates, backups, and uptime alerts, with little or no checking by a person | Simple sites where a short outage isn’t a big deal |
| Maintenance with real support | About $75 to $150 | Updates checked afterward, off-site backups, security monitoring, and help when something breaks | Business sites that rarely change |
| Care plans with time for changes | About $150 to $350 | Everything above, plus a set amount of time each month for your website changes | Businesses that update their site regularly |
| Custom or store plans | $350 to $1,000 or more | More frequent backups, stronger security, bigger servers, more time, and faster turnaround | Online stores, membership sites, and custom builds |
Ranges are based on published 2026 pricing from WordPress maintenance providers. Entry-level plans we reviewed started at about $29 to $99 a month, and plans with time for edits ran from about $179 to $435 a month. Sources: eSEOspace and Superpress provider comparisons. Prices change often, so check current pricing pages when you compare.
Doing it yourself is the cheapest option on paper. The real cost is your time, plus the risk that an update breaks something on a day you can’t stop to fix it. If your website brings in customers, that risk usually costs more than a plan.
The hidden cost: changes
Most plans, even good ones, don’t include content changes. So the monthly price you’re comparing is only part of what you’ll pay. The rest shows up when you need something done.
Here’s a quick example using our own numbers. Say you need four small changes in a month: a blog post, a new team photo, updated hours, and a holiday banner. If each one takes about 30 minutes at our $85/hour rate, that’s $170 on top of your maintenance plan. With Website Care, 2 hours a month of changes are included for $100 more than Website Maintenance.
Don’t try to predict your hours to the minute. Most people have no idea how long a website change takes until someone does it. The bigger difference is how it works day to day: with time included, you never wait on an estimate or wonder whether a small change is worth paying for. You just send it.
That’s also the fairest way to compare providers. Instead of lining up monthly prices, ask what a typical month of your changes would cost on each plan.
What MaintainPress charges
Here are our prices, plainly:
- Website Maintenance: $99/month. Same-day WordPress core updates, plugin and theme updates twice a week with automated checks afterward, daily off-site backups kept for 30 days, security and uptime monitoring, malware cleanup while you’re on the plan, same-day technical support, and a monthly report. It fits sites that rarely change, or teams that handle their own content edits.
- Website Care: $199/month. Everything in Website Maintenance, plus 2 hours a month of website changes and requests handled by our team. Most requests are done within one business day.
- Advanced Website Care: From $349/month. For online stores, membership sites, custom features, or businesses that regularly need more than 2 hours a month. We quote it after a quick look at your site.
- One-off changes: $85/hour, billed in 15-minute increments, for Website Maintenance clients and for anything beyond your monthly time.
- Hosting: included for most small business sites. High-traffic sites and large stores may need a bigger server, and we’ll tell you up front if there’s a cost.
- No setup fee and no contract. Every plan is month-to-month.
Red flags at either end
When it’s too cheap. A very low price usually means automated updates with no one checking your site afterward. If an update breaks your contact form, you may be the one who finds out, from a customer. Also check where the backups are stored, and whether fixing a broken site costs extra.
When it’s too expensive. Some plans are built for large companies, with features like guaranteed response times, round-the-clock phone support, and dedicated account managers. Those are valuable for big organizations, but a small business often ends up paying for features it never uses.
Watch for these at any price:
- Long contracts. You should be able to change plans or leave.
- “Unlimited” promises. Someone pays for unlimited, usually through slow turnaround or a narrow definition of what counts as a small task.
- Vague answers about what’s included. A good provider can tell you exactly what happens each month, and what costs extra.
How to choose
Three questions point you to the right tier:
- How often does your site change? If it rarely changes, maintenance with real support is enough. If you update it every month, look at plans that include time for changes.
- Who fixes it when an update breaks something? If the honest answer is “probably me,” skip the budget automated plans.
- Would you rather pay for changes as you go, or get a set amount of time each month? Paying as you go suits sites with occasional edits. A set amount of time suits anyone tired of estimates and waiting.
Compare our plans
Every plan keeps your site secure, updated, and backed up. Website Care adds a team that handles your website changes.
Plans from $99/month
Hosting included for most small business sites. No setup fee, and every plan is month-to-month.
Compare Plans and Pricing → See What Website Care Includes →
FAQ
Is $99 a month too much for a small website?
For a business site, usually not. That $99 covers updates checked after each round, daily backups, security monitoring, same-day support, and hosting for most small business sites. Compare it with the cost of a hacked site: a one-time cleanup with us is $299, before counting downtime and lost leads. For a personal site or hobby blog, doing it yourself may be enough.
Is hosting included in maintenance pricing?
Often not. Many maintenance plans cover upkeep only, and you pay your host separately. Our plans include hosting for most small business sites. High-traffic sites and large online stores may need a bigger server at an added cost.
Are annual contracts cheaper?
Some providers offer a discount if you prepay for a year. The trade-off is that you’re locked in if the service disappoints you. We don’t offer annual contracts. Every plan is month-to-month, so we earn your business each month.
What does it cost to skip maintenance?
Nothing at first, which is why it’s easy to skip. The cost shows up later, usually as a hacked site, a broken form nobody noticed, or a Google warning that scares visitors away. Cleanup costs more than prevention, and lost business while your site is down can cost more than both. Here’s what to do if your site has been hacked.
