If you buy a website from us, the optional care plan is $49 a month: hosting and SSL, backups, small edits to text, images and prices, uptime and form checks, and a monthly report.
Guide, updated 7 Nov 2026
How much does website maintenance cost in 2026?
Website maintenance for a small business usually costs $50 to $500 a month, according to GoDaddy's 2026 guide. We read six published maintenance plans to see what that money buys. All six cheapest plans cover backups and updates. Only two include a set amount of edit time, only two include hosting, and WebFX charges $150 for each extra hour.
By Ahmed Durić, founder of Worvik
- 6 published plans
- Checked 7 Nov 2026
- What each price includes
Small business website maintenance
- Published range$50 to $500 a month
- Cheapest plans we read$39 to $435
- Worvik Site Care$99 a month
Range from GoDaddy; plans opened on 7 Nov 2026.
Websites from $0 to buildHand-coded HTML, CSS and JavaScriptFull SEO and local SEOYou own the site and the domainUnlimited revisions within the agreed pages and featuresLive in 1 to 6 weeksEvery price on the page
01Short answer
The short answer.
From GoDaddy's 2026 guide and six providers' pricing pages, all opened on 7 Nov 2026. All of them sell hosting or maintenance, and so do we.
- Small business website
- $50 to $500 a month, says GoDaddy
- Cheapest plans we read
- $39 to $435 a month
- Edit time in the cheapest plans
- Only 2 of 6 include a set amount
- An extra hour of work
- $150 at WebFX
- Hosting on its own
- $5 to $15 a month, says GoDaddy
02Compared
Six maintenance plans, side by side.
What each provider publishes, cheapest plan first. The starting prices run from $39 to $435 a month for work that sounds the same.
Worvik Site Care
with a site we build for $0$99 a month
Hosting, domain and changes within 24 hours
GoWP
$39 / $99 a month, plus a free tier
AI edits; 5 human edits on the $99 plan
WP Buffs
$89 / $179 / $239 / $359 a month
Unlimited edits from the $179 plan
Websults
Clearwater, FL$99 / $199 / $349 a month
30 minutes, 1 hour or 3 hours of edits
FatLab
$99 / $199 / $349 / $599 a month
Hosting included; 0, 1, 3 or 8 hours of dev time
WebFX
$350 / $550 a month
Extra work at $150 an hour
SiteCare
$435 / $2,190 a month
Hosting, and 5 or 10 edits a month
Prices from each provider's own page, opened on 7 Nov 2026. GoWP also has a free tier with no backups. Prices change, so check the page before you compare.
03Included
What the cheapest plan includes.
We read the cheapest plan of each provider. Backups and updates are everywhere. Edit time and hosting are the two things you most often pay extra for.
Backups
6 of 6 providers
Site Care: Yes, backups and maintenance
Software updates
6 of 6 providers
Site Care: Not needed: the site is hand-coded, with no plugins
Security scans or protection
5 of 6 providers
Site Care: Not a listed item. The form is protected from spam
Uptime monitoring
5 of 6 providers
Site Care: Yes, uptime and contact form checks
A monthly or weekly report
2 of 6 providers
Site Care: Yes, a short monthly report
Hosting
2 of 6 providers
Site Care: Yes, with the domain and SSL
A set amount of human edit time
2 of 6 providers
Site Care: No set amount. Changes and additions within 24 hours
04Edit time
What edit time costs.
The part of maintenance you notice is getting things changed. Here is how much of it each plan includes.
| Plan | Price | Edit time included |
|---|---|---|
| Websults Basic | $99 a month | 30 minutes a month |
| Websults Standard | $199 a month | 1 hour a month |
| Websults Premium | $349 a month | 3 hours a month |
| FatLab Starter | $99 a month | None; other dev work billed by the hour |
| FatLab Professional | $199 a month | 1 hour of dev time |
| FatLab Business | $349 a month | 3 hours of dev time |
| FatLab Enterprise | $599 a month | 8 hours of dev time |
| WP Buffs Protect | $179 a month | Unlimited edits, not custom development or new content |
| GoWP Business | $99 a month | 5 human edits of about 30 minutes or less |
| SiteCare Gold | $435 a month | 5 edits and 5 quick fixes |
| WebFX WordPress | $350 a month | Amount not stated; extra work $150 an hour, $250 for next day |
From each provider's pricing page, opened on 7 Nov 2026.
05The price drivers
What makes maintenance cost more.
The platform
Every plan we read is built for WordPress, and a big share of the work is updating the core, plugins and theme. FatLab and WP Buffs do it weekly, Websults monthly on its cheapest plan.
How often you change things
Edit time is where the price climbs. Websults goes from 30 minutes a month at $99 to 3 hours at $349.
Hosting in or out
Of the cheapest plans, only FatLab's and SiteCare's include hosting. With the others it may cost extra: GoDaddy puts shared hosting at $5 to $15 a month.
How fast you need it
WebFX charges $150 an hour for extra work, and $250 an hour for a one business day turnaround.
The size of the site
WebFX's $350 plan is for WordPress sites of 500 pages or fewer, mostly static. Larger or more dynamic sites are $550.
An online store
GoDaddy says most ecommerce sites cost $300 to $1,000 a month to maintain.
06Before you sign
Five questions to ask before you sign.
Is hosting included?
Four of the six cheapest plans do not list it, so hosting may cost extra on top of the plan.
How much edit time, exactly?
Ask for minutes, hours or a number of edits. "Small changes" can mean anything.
How often are backups made?
Websults backs up monthly on its cheapest plan, WP Buffs four times a day. Ask how you get a copy.
How long is the contract?
FatLab, GoWP and SiteCare are month to month. Ours has a 12-month minimum, with the first month free, so compare that too.
What does extra work cost?
WebFX publishes $150 an hour, and $250 for next-day work. If a plan does not say, ask before you need it.
07Good to know
What maintenance costs with us.
With the $0 website, Site Care is $99 a month.
It adds the domain name, changes and additions within 24 hours, SEO and speed fixes, after a free first month and with a 12-month minimum.
Our sites are hand-coded in HTML, CSS and JavaScript, so there are no plugins to update or pay licenses for.
08Sources
Sources
- godaddy.com
GoDaddy: how much does it cost to maintain a website in 2026
Page date: 13 Apr 2026Sells hosting and website plans
- webfx.com
WebFX: website maintenance pricing
Page date: 19 Dec 2025Sells maintenance
- websults.com
Websults: website maintenance pricing
Page date: not shownSells maintenance
- fatlabwebsupport.com
FatLab: pricing
Page date: not shownSells hosting and maintenance
- wpbuffs.com
WP Buffs: pricing
Page date: not shownSells maintenance
- gowp.com
GoWP: pricing
Page date: not shownSells maintenance
- sitecare.com
SiteCare: pricing
Page date: not shownSells maintenance
Every page opened on 7 Nov 2026. "Not shown" means the page carries no date. All of these companies sell hosting, websites or maintenance.
09Questions
Straight answers.
01How much does website maintenance cost per month?
GoDaddy puts a small business website at $50 to $500 a month. The cheapest plans we read run from $39 to $435 a month, and what they include varies a lot.
02How much does website maintenance cost per year?
At $50 to $500 a month, that is $600 to $6,000 a year. Add the domain, which GoDaddy puts at $10 to $20 or more a year, if your plan does not cover it.
03What does website maintenance include?
In all six of the cheapest plans we read: backups and software updates. In five: security scans and uptime monitoring. In two each: hosting, and a set amount of time for edits.
04Can I maintain my own website?
Yes, if you have the time. GoDaddy lists shared hosting at $5 to $15 a month, a domain at $10 to $20 or more a year, and SSL from free to about $100 a year. The real cost is your hours.
05Are these companies Worvik clients?
No. They are providers that publish their prices, and we compared them from their own pages.
06How did you pick the plans?
We took US providers that publish maintenance prices and came up in search on 7 Nov 2026. We left out one that prices in Australian dollars, and Valet, whose pricing page did not load.
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