A website care plan should cover hosting, backups, updates, monitoring and a small allowance for changes, with a named way to get help when something breaks. In the UK, plans range from around £20 a month for little more than hosting up to several hundred pounds a month for web applications. Ours is £70 a month for business websites.
Because plans are described vaguely, this guide shows what to look for.
Why websites need ongoing care
A website is not a printed leaflet. It runs on software that needs security updates, on a server that needs watching, and on a domain and certificate that expire. Left alone, sites slow down, break after a software update, or get hacked. A care plan puts someone in charge of preventing that.
What a good plan includes
- Managed hosting with SSL. Fast, secure and ideally UK-based.
- Daily backups with easy restore. Ask how long a restore takes.
- Software and plugin updates. Applied regularly, tested first.
- Uptime and performance monitoring. You should hear about a problem from your supplier, not your customers.
- A small allowance of content edits. Changing a phone number or a price should not need a new quote.
- A response time. Written down, even if it is “within one working day.”
- Security fixes when a vulnerability is found.
Typical UK price levels
- Around £20 to £50 a month: often just hosting and basic backups. Fine for a simple brochure site if you can do the rest.
- Around £50 to £150 a month: hosting plus updates, monitoring and some edits. This is where most small-business plans sit.
- £199 a month and above: web applications, where dependencies, bug fixes and security patching take real time.
For reference, our published plans are:
- Care Plan, £70 a month, for business websites: managed UK hosting and SSL, daily backups with one-click restore, updates, uptime and performance monitoring, up to 30 minutes of content edits a month and priority support.
- Webapp Care, £199 a month, for web apps, portals and internal tools.
- Webapp Care+, £499 a month, for apps still being developed, adding 4 hours of development a month and a named contact.
- Priority SLA, £999 a month, for apps the business depends on, with a written response commitment and 10 hours of development a month.
All are rolling monthly with no minimum term. Support runs Monday to Friday, 9am to 6pm UK time; there is no 24/7 human cover on any tier, and we say so up front.
Warning signs
- No written scope. “Maintenance” with no list of what it covers.
- Long minimum terms or exit fees. A good plan should be easy to leave.
- No mention of backups or restore testing.
- You do not own your site, so cancelling means losing it.
- Unlimited everything. Nobody can deliver that at a low price.
- No named contact. You are left with a ticket queue and no accountability.
Can someone else look after a site they did not build?
Yes. Many agencies, including us, take over sites and apps built elsewhere. A sensible provider starts with a review: what it runs on, the state of the code, where the data lives and what it will cost to hold. Be cautious of anyone who quotes without looking.
Do you need one at all?
If you are comfortable managing hosting, updates and backups yourself, you may not. If the site brings in enquiries or sales, an outage or hack costs more than a year of care. Compare the monthly fee with what one lost week of enquiries would cost.
Next step
Full details and what each tier covers are on our website and web app support page. If you are choosing a designer as well, read how to choose a web designer in the UK, or see what is included in a £999 website.