Website Care Plans: What's Included, What They Cost, and What's Usually Extra
A care plan is what many web designers and agencies sell after launch: a monthly fee to keep your site running and looked after. It covers more than technical maintenance, but how much more varies widely. What pure technical maintenance costs on its own is covered in What website maintenance really costs. This guide is about care plans.
Key takeaways
- Basic care plans cost $50 to $100 a month and cover updates, backups and monitoring.
- Mid-tier plans cost $100 to $250 and add support and faster response times.
- Full-service plans cost $250 to $500 or more and bundle hosting, priority support and development hours.
- Support and content changes are often extra, even on paid plans.
- The number to compare is what a change costs once the plan's hours run out.
The three typical tiers
| Tier | Usually includes | Per month |
|---|---|---|
| Basic | Software updates, backups, uptime and security monitoring | $50–100 |
| Mid-tier | Everything in basic, plus support and faster response | $100–250 |
| Full service | Plus hosting, priority support and development hours | $250–500+ |
For all the other monthly costs of running a site, see How much does a website cost per month.
What is usually extra
| Item | Often included | Often extra |
|---|---|---|
| Core, theme and plugin updates | yes | |
| Fixing what an update breaks | yes | |
| Backups | yes | restores, sometimes |
| Content changes | a few hours on higher tiers | billed hourly beyond that |
| New pages and blog posts | yes | |
| SEO work | yes | |
| Hosting and domain | on full-service plans | on basic plans |
More questions to ask before you sign, from contract terms to what you get if you leave: Questions to ask a web designer.
Why the basics matter
Even the cheapest tier does something important. The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency lists keeping software updated among the essentials for small organizations in its Cyber Essentials. On a WordPress site with a dozen plugins, that is exactly the work a care plan pays for. On a static site with no plugins, there is far less of it, which is why the choice of technology changes what care should cost.
A care plan without the hour counter
ShiftPress Care has no hour allowance: unlimited changes that we make for you, from €79 a month, with hosting, domain, SSL and daily backups included. We rebuild your homepage for free before you decide.
See website care ↗Is a care plan worth it?
- You rarely change anything and can apply updates yourself: a basic plan, or none, is enough.
- Your site needs regular new content: look for generous development hours or a plan without an hour counter, or every month costs more than planned.
- Your site runs on WordPress: maintenance is not optional. What the build costs: Hiring someone to build a WordPress website.
If your site is on a builder like Wix, the platform handles updates for you, and the plan you would pay for is mostly about content: How much does a Wix website cost.
Frequently asked questions
What is a website care plan?
How much does a website care plan cost?
What is included in a website care plan?
Is a website care plan worth it?
What is the difference between a care plan and website maintenance?
The bottom line
Website care plans cost $50 to $500 or more a month, but the monthly price is the smaller part of the story. What matters is what a change costs once the included hours run out, and whether fixes after an update are covered. Ask both before you compare prices.