Maintenance is two different budgets
Keeping a site running — hosting, patching, backups, monitoring, security — is a relatively predictable baseline. Improving it is an entirely separate, elastic budget. Retainers that blur the two tend to consume the improvement budget on upkeep without anyone noticing.
What a credible retainer includes
Ask for these explicitly, with response expectations attached.
- Software and dependency updates with regression checking
- Security monitoring, patching and a defined incident response
- Backups with periodic restore testing
- Uptime and performance monitoring with alerting
- A named support channel and a stated response time
- A separate, visible allowance for change work
Thinking in total cost of ownership
Over a three to five year horizon, maintenance frequently exceeds the original build cost. Planning for that from the start produces better platform decisions than optimising the build price alone.
Put a number on it
Use the matching calculator to produce a range for your own scope.
Open the Website Maintenance Cost Calculator