What does website maintenance include?
In short: Maintenance keeps your website secure and online: updates with a check afterwards, daily backups, monitoring around the clock and help when something isn’t working. Hosting is the place where your website lives; maintenance is the care it gets there. A good contract says exactly what is included, and whether changes to your content are part of it.
What is part of maintaining a website?
Four things, each on its own schedule. Together they mean you don’t have to think about the technology behind your website.
Daily
Backups
A backup of your website is made every day. If something goes wrong, the last good version can be restored.
Around the clock
Monitoring
A service checks all the time that your website can be reached, and raises the alarm if it can’t.
Regularly
Updates
The system, the theme and the extensions get their updates, which mostly close security gaps. Afterwards, a check makes sure everything works as before.
When you need it
Support and changes
New opening hours, a new photo, a mistake in a form: you let us know, and the change gets done.
With us, all of this is part of hosting and maintenance, and so are changes to your content; you help decide how much time is included for them.
Hosting, maintenance and support: what’s the difference?
Three jobs that often come in one package but aren’t the same thing. Once you can tell them apart, quotes are easier to compare.
Hosting
The place where your website lives: the server, the domain and usually the email accounts.
Maintenance
The care it gets there: updates, backups and monitoring, so everything runs securely.
Support
Help when you need it: answers to your questions, fixing errors, changing content.
Some providers charge for the three separately, others together. Ask what exactly the price covers, especially for support and changes.
How much does website maintenance cost?
It depends on how much care your website needs, and that comes down to these points:
Website or shop
A shop has more moving parts than a website: payments, shipping, customer accounts. So it needs more care, and after every update the checkout has to work again too.
Less work: A website
More work: A shop
Extensions
Every extension gets its own updates, and some need an ongoing licence. The more there are, the more has to be checked after each update.
Less work: A few
More work: Many
Content changes
If you rarely change anything, a little time is enough. If new content comes every week, more time is planned for it.
Less work: Now and then
More work: Every week
Email
Email accounts are often part of hosting. How many you need and how large they should be affects the price. And so that your emails don’t end up in spam, the domain also needs the right settings.
Less work: One mailbox
More work: Many mailboxes
SEO
Maintenance keeps your website healthy. If you want it to grow on Google, monthly SEO comes on top, with new copy, checks and a report.
Less work: Technical care only
More work: Growing every month
We bill hosting and maintenance monthly or yearly, with no minimum term. Your website lives on our server in Germany or, if you prefer, on a server of your choice.
Should you maintain your website yourself or hand it over?
Doing it yourself means no invoice, but it takes your time, and someone has to remember to do it. Handed over, it runs by itself, and you have someone to turn to.
| Maintained by you | With maintenance | |
|---|---|---|
| Updates | You, with a check afterwards | The studio, with a check afterwards |
| Backups | You, by hand | Daily, by the studio |
| Staying online | You, from time to time | Monitored around the clock |
| Fixing errors | You, with help in an emergency | The studio |
| Content changes | You | The studio or you |
| Server and email | Your hosting provider | The studio |
You can still make changes yourself: if you want to manage your own content, we give you a system that allows it, such as WordPress with Divi. The technology underneath stays with us.
What happens if an update breaks something?
What counts then is noticing it early and having a good backup ready. With maintenance, three steps follow:
Noticed
The check after the update, or the monitoring, shows that something is wrong, often before your customers see it.
Restored
The last good version comes back from the backup, and your website is running again.
Fixed
The cause is found and fixed; then the update goes in again.
Without maintenance, a fault often only shows when enquiries or orders stop coming in.
What should a website maintenance contract include?
A good contract says exactly what you get and how you can leave again. These points belong in it:
Maintenance contract
What is included
Updates, backups, monitoring and support, each with what exactly it covers, and whether you get a report.
Whether changes are included
Whether changes to your content are part of it, how much time there is for them and what applies beyond that.
The backups
How often backups are made, where and for how long they are kept, and how a restore works.
How to get help
How you get support and when you can expect an answer.
Term and cancellation
How long you are tied in and how you cancel. A long minimum term isn’t a must.
Who owns what
The website, the domain and the files should belong to you, with the logins for them, so you can switch at any time.
Frequently asked questions
How much does website maintenance cost per month?
That depends on whether it’s a website or a shop, how many extensions and mailboxes it has, and how much time for changes should be included. For the price of looking after your website, use our form: we send it to you personally.
Is WordPress still worth using?
Yes, if it’s looked after. WordPress is widely used, has an extension for almost everything and is easy to run yourself. But it needs regular updates, or it becomes open to attack. Whether it suits you depends mainly on whether you want to manage your content yourself.
Why has my website suddenly stopped working?
Common reasons are an update that doesn’t fit with the rest, an expired domain or certificate, a full server, or an attack through an outdated extension. With maintenance, things like this show up early, and the last good version can be restored.
Do you also look after websites built by others?
Yes. We also take over the care of websites and shops we didn’t build, and move them from your current provider to us if you like.
Can my website stay on its current server?
Yes. We maintain it where it is today, or move it to our server in Germany, whichever you prefer.
Is there a minimum term?
Not with us. We bill hosting and maintenance monthly or yearly, with no minimum term.
Are email accounts included?
Yes. Email accounts and forwarding are part of our hosting.