Do I really need a monthly maintenance plan?
When asked this question by clients my answer is always the same. Are you prepared to stop everything you are doing to grow your business to fix your website or pay someone in an emergency situation to fix it?
When you own a website you will inevitably run into issues and costs you just did not expect. Software updates, your site getting hacked, domain registration renewals and many other tedious administration tasks that will have you working on technical problems instead of growing your business.
The real question should be: How much should I spend on website maintenance?
Here is the best answer based industry standards and indexed by kind of website you have. Contact us to talk about your website and what fits best for your business.
Hobby/personal blog site: $5 to $30 per month
These websites are low key, low maintenance, and low traffic. That means even the very basic hosting plans and performance will work fine for what the user needs out of this type of website. Generally, these sites have only a few pages of content, small pictures, little functionality, and few people actively viewing the website.
Active blog, wide audience: $5 to $100 per month
These websites are the next step up. They usually have little functionality, but many pages of content and a large viewing audience. It is important for this type of website to have strong security to ward off malicious activity aimed at influencing the large audience that views the website. It is also important that the website host is strong enough and capable of handling the large influx of web traffic that can come from a viral blog or a highly shared article.
Company website (marketing only): $35 to $300 per month
These websites are generally for a small to medium sized business to have a domain and direct customers to their basic website. These websites are usually not built for performance and may have little content and functionality. Typically these websites are only used so a business can say they have a website, but do not actively utilize it online or run a small Pay-Per-Click campaign.
E-commerce website with no customization: $100 to $400 per month
These websites are the next step up from a basic business website. With the included e-commerce functionality, there is consistent updating of product and reviewing orders, however they are generally not performance built or optimized. These websites are for businesses that do some e-commerce sales, but not a high volume and would not support a large increase in traffic.
Customized E-commerce platform: $150 to $1,500+ per month
These websites are for businesses that do a large amount of online sales. With a customized platform, the design and performance of the website is specifically optimized for visitor engagement and interaction. They usually have a top-tier website host and advanced website security, including a https (secure) domain to keep malicious activity away and secure transactions.
Custom-built web application: $300 to $2,000+ per month
These websites are custom built for their specific purpose and optimized for their target audience. Custom-built websites can vary from large research websites with custom search features, to optimized e-commerce websites with optional extras, to even custom feature websites like a mainstream review or rating website. They are built for large audiences, have a vast amount of content to display, top notch security, and typically require a dedicated team of developers.