Plain-English guide
Website maintenance cost in the UK: what should you pay?
Maintenance is the least glamorous line on any website budget and the one that decides whether the glamorous lines survive. Here is what it costs across the UK market, what a proper plan includes, and how to spot the plans that are just hosting with a mark-up.
By Matt Rooney · 23/08/2026 · T19 Digital
The market, honestly
UK maintenance runs from £10 a month (hosting wearing a maintenance hat) to £500+ retainers (an agency answering emails about it). The useful middle for a small business is £30–£150 a month depending on what the site is — a shop window needs less than a booking system that takes money. Ours run £39 to £220 by build type, small changes included.
What a real plan must include
Five things, and if any is missing you are buying hosting with extra steps: monitoring that notices problems before you do; security updates applied as they land, not quarterly; backups that are restore-TESTED, because an untested backup is a hope; small content changes done same-week without an invoice each time; and a named human who answers. The test question for any provider: “when did you last test restoring my backup?” Watch the pause.
The £40-to-edit-a-sentence trap
Plans that exclude content changes turn every price update into a ticket and an invoice, which is how a cheap plan becomes an expensive relationship. Small changes — words, prices, photos, opening hours — should be included, defined in writing, and done within days. It is why ours include them: charging £40 to edit a sentence is how this industry earned its reputation.
Can you just do it yourself?
For a simple builder site, largely yes — that is half of what you are paying the builder for. For WordPress or custom builds, DIY maintenance means updates, compatibility breakage, backups and security fall to whoever in the business drew the short straw. It works right up until the week it matters. The honest question is not “can I” but “will I, every month, including August”.
Sites we did not build
Most providers only maintain their own work, which strands everyone whose developer vanished. Our route in is a rescue first — from £900 to get the site to a state we are willing to be responsible for — then the care plan takes over at £49 a month. Nobody should be uninsurable because their last builder disappeared.
Questions we get on this
How much should a small business pay for website maintenance?
£30–£150 a month is the honest middle for most UK small businesses; ours are £39–£220 depending on the kind of build, with small content changes included and no fixed term.
What is included in website maintenance?
A real plan covers monitoring, security updates, restore-tested backups, small content changes and a person who answers. Anything less is hosting with a mark-up.
Can I get maintenance for a site you didn’t build?
Yes — after a rescue brings it to a supportable state. We don’t take on mystery codebases blind, because that’s how maintenance promises get broken.
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