Is Your Business Overpaying for Website Maintenance?

Your website is essential for protecting your brand, your customers, and your conversions. That is why it is essential to maintain a regular schedule for its upkeep. Security checks, tracking user experience, and regular updates all fall under website maintenance costs. Your typical plan should consider all these factors and include core software updates, cloud backups, performance monitoring, and access to technical support for your website maintenance.

Typically, businesses set up maintenance plans with the same freelance developer or web agency that originally built their website. But how much should it all cost? In the UK, basic maintenance packages can start from £30 to £80 per month, but more advanced plans can exceed £200+. It is important to understand the true website maintenance cost, which will help you know whether you’re getting value for your money. Here’s how to tell if your business is overpaying:

Sign #1: You’re paying for services you don’t actually use

Many providers combine additional services like analytics reporting, blog content updates, or marketing tools into their plans. If you’re only using your package for security updates and regular fixes, you shouldn’t be paying a premium for unused extras. To avoid additional charges, analyse what features are required for maintenance depending on your website type. This way, you can cut what you don’t need, which will reduce the overall cost.

Sign #2: Your package hasn’t changed, but the price keeps increasing

It’s totally normal for website costs to rise slightly each year because things like inflation and updates are inevitable. But if your provider keeps increasing prices without offering anything new, it could be a red flag. As your website needs grow, you can expect fresh features like additional features, better support, or faster performance over time.

Take a moment to compare what you paid last year with what you are paying recently. You should be able to trace the added value with the additional prices. If that is not the case, it might be time to ask questions or change your provider.

Sign #3: You’re charged for every small fix

Making quick changes to your website, like updating opening hours or replacing an image, shouldn’t cost you money every time you do it. These are the basic tasks that most businesses need to do regularly. If your provider charges you by the hour for every small update, it’s worth asking if you’re really getting value for your money.

Ideally, your website should be built with ease of use in mind. You should be able to make simple edits on your own without needing technical help. If that’s not the case, your current setup might have room for changes.

Sign #4: Your website still underperforms

If your website has slow loading speed, non-functional plugins or frequent downtime, the website maintenance isn’t doing its job. A good maintenance plan should keep your site running smoothly and catch issues before they impact your customers.

Sign #5: You can’t scale without another setup fee

If every time you want to add a new page or a feature and you’re charged with a “setup” or “add-on” fee, it means you’re likely tied to an overpriced plan. Growing UK businesses need maintenance that is flexible and scales automatically with time. Rigid contracts are designed to charge extra for every small update, which is not favourable from an efficiency perspective.

How to make sure you’re paying the right amount?

The first step to make sure you are not overpaying is to do a simple health check. It will help you list what support you actually need and compare your current spend to the average website cost for SMEs in the UK. Finally, shop around before renewing your contract and compare providers relevant to your industry to get the best packages for your website maintenance.