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WordPress maintenance can cost nothing but your time, or several hundred pounds a month. This guide explains what each option really includes, what published plans cost, what pushes the price up, and how to budget for a year without paying for work you do not need.
Updated: 12 November 2026. Published prices were checked on 12 November 2026 and change often; check the provider’s own page before you buy.
WordPress maintenance cost by option
| Option | Typical cost | What you usually get | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Do it yourself | Your time, plus premium plugin licences | Updates and backups when you remember them | Updates that break the site with no tested way back. |
| Managed hosting | Included in the hosting fee | Automatic core updates, server backups, sometimes plugin updates | Nobody checks whether the site still works after an update. |
| Freelancer retainer | $50–$150+ a month, or $25–$100+ an hour | Updates, backups, small fixes from one person | Cover during holidays and how fast they reply. |
| Maintenance service / care plan | From about £79 or $89 a month for a basic plan | Scheduled updates, backups, monitoring, a support allowance | What “unlimited” really covers, and whether updates are tested first. |
| Business care with staging | A few hundred a month | Updates tested on a copy of the site, manual checks, priority response | Make sure the extra checks match how critical the site is. |
| WooCommerce store care | Usually the highest tier | Checkout, payment and order checks on top of WordPress care | A WordPress-only plan may ignore the parts that take money. |
Sources: freelancer and agency ranges from WPBeginner’s guide to WordPress maintenance costs (December 2025), which puts freelance retainers at $50–$150+ a month, hourly rates at $25–$100+ and basic agency packages at $60–$100 a month. Plan prices are the providers’ own published prices, listed below.
What published maintenance plans cost
Two examples from providers’ own pricing pages, checked on 12 November 2026:
- WP Buffs (US): Maintain $89 a month; Protect $179; Perform $239; Custom $359. Higher tiers add website edits, security hardening, speed work and staging.
- WPMaintain (UK): £79 a month for brochure sites and £99 a month for WooCommerce and membership sites, excluding VAT, with hosting and one hour of development time included.
Notice what changes between tiers: not the update button, but how much human checking, support time and risk the provider takes on. That is what you are really paying for.
What a WordPress care plan should include
A WordPress care plan is a monthly maintenance service: reviewed updates, backups you can restore, monitoring and a record of what changed. A good plan covers:
- Reviewed updates
WordPress core, theme and plugins updated on a schedule, with someone checking that key pages and forms still work.
- Backups with a tested restore
Off-site backups of files and database, and a known process for getting the site back.
- Security and uptime monitoring
Alerts when the site goes down or something suspicious happens, and a person who looks at them.
- A support allowance
Time for small fixes or questions, with a clear limit so you know when extra work is charged.
- A monthly record
What was updated, what was held back and why, and anything that needs a decision.
What makes WordPress maintenance cost more
- Number and type of plugins: 15 well-known plugins are easier to keep updated than 60 plugins including abandoned ones.
- Custom code: a custom theme or plugin has to be checked after every core update.
- Selling online: WooCommerce adds checkout, payment and order checks. See what WooCommerce maintenance costs.
- Staging: testing updates on a copy of the site first takes more time, and is worth it for business-critical sites.
- Response time: next-working-day support costs less than a promised response within hours.
- Edits included: plans that include content edits or development time cost more than update-only plans.
Costs that are often not in the monthly fee
- Premium plugin and theme licences, which renew every year.
- Hosting, unless the plan includes it.
- Malware cleanup or recovery from a hack that happened before the plan started.
- New features, redesigns and migrations.
- Emergency work outside the agreed support hours.
How to budget for a year
Multiply the monthly fee by twelve and add the extras above. For example, a £120-a-month plan is £1,440 a year and a £280-a-month plan is £3,360 a year, before licences and any one-off work. If the site has not been maintained for a long time, budget for an initial clean-up before routine care starts; an audit of an inherited WordPress site shows what that involves.
7 questions to ask before you choose a plan
- Are updates tested before they go live?
On a staging copy, or straight on the live site?
- How often are backups taken, and has a restore been tested?
A backup nobody has restored is a hope, not a plan.
- Who checks the site after updates?
A person, an automated visual check, or nobody?
- What response time is promised, and is it 24/7?
Get working hours and escalation in writing.
- How much support time is included?
And what does extra work cost?
- Is a hacked or broken site covered?
Many plans exclude problems that existed before you joined.
- Who owns the accounts and backups if you leave?
Hosting, domain, admin access and backups should stay yours.
If you work with me
I maintain WordPress sites as an independent developer, so the person updating your site understands the theme and plugins it runs. Starter Care starts at £120 a month and Business Care, with staging-first updates and closer manual review, at £280 a month. Live WooCommerce stores need store care, from £440 a month. A short site review confirms which plan fits and whether anything needs fixing first.
Frequently asked questions
How much does WordPress maintenance cost per month?
Published plans start at around £79 or $89 a month for a simple site. Business sites that need tested updates and support time usually pay a few hundred a month, and online stores more. My plans start at £120 a month.
Is WordPress high maintenance?
Not unusually. A typical site needs regular plugin, theme and core updates, backups and a quick check that nothing broke. The work grows with the number of plugins, custom code and whether you sell online.
Does my hosting company already maintain my WordPress site?
Usually only partly. Managed hosts often update WordPress core and keep server backups, but they rarely check whether your pages, forms or checkout still work after an update, and they do not fix problems caused by your plugins.
Can I skip WordPress maintenance?
You can, but outdated plugins are a common route for attacks on WordPress sites, and long gaps make the next update riskier. If you maintain the site yourself, keep tested backups and update regularly.
How much should I charge for maintaining a WordPress website?
WPBeginner reports freelance retainers of $50–$150+ a month and hourly rates of $25–$100+. Price the hours a site really takes each month, the risk you take on and the response time you promise, rather than copying a competitor’s headline price.
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Maksut Maksutoğlu
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