Every website needs some sort of maintenance whether it’s a static website or the most advanced content management system (CMS) in the world.
There are pieces of maintaining a website that you absolutely can’t do without, such as hosting. Without hosting there is no website.
Then there are things that you can do without but absolutely shouldn’t. I’m going to mainly focus on these things.
The things you can do without but absolutely shouldn’t are things like
- Security monitoring
- Updates
- Uptime monitoring
- Backups
- Renewing premium plugins
- etc.
Your website can still exist without these things but the results will be horrible. That’s why we include everything you could possibly need in every affordable website we build.
Now to get into what you should have and how much it will cost you to maintain each of three types of websites.
First up, open source content management systems.
Website Maintenance Costs For 3 Types of Website
This is how much it costs to maintain a website for three different types of websites.
- Open source content management system
- Proprietary content management system
- Static HTML/CSS
I’m going to break down a few pieces of information on what is needed for the different systems and the price approximations for each of them.
Open Source Content Management Systems
With the wonderful territory of the openness and possibilities for open source CMS’s comes responsibility too. These platforms are things like WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal. WordPress being the absolutely most popular and widespread of them.
All of these platforms need a high level of maintenance so the expense may be a little higher than other platforms. You also get the most from these platforms though and the possibility for what you can do with them are amazing.
- Here’s what you’re likely to need for maintenance
- Realtime security
- Offsite backups (or at the least onsite backups)
- Core updates
- Plugin & theme updates
- Premium plugin renewal
These are the minimums of what is needed and they are centered mostly around WordPress because it’s the most popular. So what’s the cost of maintaining them?
The cost of maintaining an open source content management system can range from $50 per month all the way beyond $300+ per month.
If your website is small and simple then on the low end, a huge corporate website is likely to cost significantly more. There are many services out there which you can pay to maintain your website, there are plenty of WordPress maintenance services including our fav which we just linked.
Maintenance Price Range: $50 – $300+
Hosting Price Range: $36/year to $1,000+/year (recommended cost: $240 minimum per year for a good host)
Proprietary Content Management System
Most of these systems while significantly more limited than their open source counterparts are much cheaper for the user.
You have a great deal more limitations and for most of these platforms, you’re going to end up doing all the work yourself. For some businesses, they’re the right choice though.
I’m sure you’re already familiar with some of these platforms because you see them advertised everything. These are things like Wix, Weebly and Squarespace.
Each one is unique and each one varies in pricing and features. The best part about these is that hosting and maintenance is included in the single price. There are no separate hosting and maintenance prices just like our affordable web design.
Here are some of the starter prices for businesses on each of these platforms. Keep in mind that you may end up paying a lot more than this because every features you need may cost an additional amount. That’s one good part about our website plans, they all come with everything and we build the website for you, completely custom.
Without further ado, proprietary CMS starting prices.
- Wix – Starting at $11/month for personal, $14/month for business.
- Weebly – Starting at $12/month for a useful website (no ads, etc.)
- Squarespace – Starting at $12/month for personal, $18/month for business.
Last but not least are the static HTML/CSS websites.
Static HTML/CSS Website
This option is going to be the cheapest option for website maintenance but the cost for a well built static website may be financially out of reach for most people.
Either the price puts it out of reach or you’re going to end up with a far inferior website than with a proprietary CMS.
The static HTML/CSS website is going to be a different beast than the other two types of websites. Why? Because it’s highly technical and there’s no easy way for you to make any changes to it.
That means for every minor change you may need to your website, you’ll either have to dig around in code or pay an expert to make the update.
Yes there are no maintenance costs involved with a static HTML/CSS website aside from hosting. No they aren’t cheap and they won’t be easy to update.
Maintenance Cost: $0
Hosting Costs: $36/year to $1,000+/year (recommended for basic hosting: $240/year)
The Best Website Maintenance Option
There is one clear winner in all of these options and it doesn’t fit neatly into any one category. Of course we are biased because we build custom affordable websites and we also make sure they’re always maintained for you.
That also means you have to pay to have them maintained and somebody looking after your website constantly. Just to be sure it’s an amazing deal that you really shouldn’t pass up, we go far beyond the static HTML/CSS website because all minor changes are included.
That’s right, no messing around in code. No paying for an expensive specialist to make changes for you. If you have a minor updates just email us and we’ll make it for you. If you’re adventurous then you’re welcome to try it yourself too as you always have open access to the system.
Now doesn’t that sound like the best website maintenance options?
I know, it’s not always possible to take advantage of the best website opportunity. In any case I hope this was helpful for you and you now understand the ins and outs of how much it costs to maintain a website.