How Much Does Website Maintenance Cost for UK Small Businesses?
Most people focus on the upfront cost of a website. The ongoing costs tend to catch them off guard. Here’s a breakdown of what website maintenance typically costs in the UK, and what you’re paying for.
What does website maintenance cover?
At minimum, maintenance means keeping your site live, secure, and up to date. Things like hosting, SSL renewal, and security patches.
Beyond that baseline, in practice, this ranges from a quick monthly check to fully managed support with updates, monitoring, and fixes handled for you. The cost difference between these two is significant. Before committing, it’s worth asking for a clear breakdown of what’s included.
How much do freelancers charge for website maintenance in the UK?
Most UK freelancers charge £50–£200/month for ongoing maintenance, or £300–£1,000/year for a basic managed retainer.
The lower end (£50–80/month) usually covers hosting, security updates, and being on call if something breaks. The higher end includes active management: performance checks, content updates, and backup systems.
If you’re paying more than £150/month for a simple brochure site, with no e-commerce and no regular content changes, it’s worth checking exactly what’s included.
What do Wix and Squarespace include in their ongoing fees?
Wix and Squarespace include hosting in their monthly subscription, but they don’t include any human support, and they don’t manage the site for you.
Plans start at £13–16/month. That covers hosting, which is generally reliable for most small business sites. What it doesn’t cover: someone to call if something breaks, help updating content, or any of the premium apps you’ll likely need for bookings, forms, or analytics.
Your headline monthly fee is the minimum. Your actual annual cost includes add-ons, premium apps, and the time you spend managing everything yourself.
How much does Duport charge for ongoing maintenance?
Duport charges £94/year for hosting, maintenance, and security updates — plus domain registration from £20.99/year.
This includes hosting, security updates, and human support for technical issues. You won’t have a monthly fee, no surprise invoices, and no platform to learn.
Duport’s website build starts from £360, mention this article when you get in touch and we’ll honour the £144 rate. Add the £94/year renewal and you know exactly what you’re paying for the site’s lifetime.
What should a fair maintenance package include?
Any legitimate maintenance agreement should specify: hosting provider, how often security updates happen, response time if something breaks, and what counts as an included fix versus a chargeable request.
Vague language like “ongoing support” or “website care” without specifics is a red flag. If a provider can’t answer what their standard response time is and what’s included in a content change, that vagueness will cost you later.
When are high maintenance fees justified?
High monthly maintenance fees (£100+/month) are justified for e-commerce sites, membership platforms, or any site with regular content changes. Not for standard five-page brochure sites.
If your website is a static brochure: home, about, services, contact, it doesn’t need active management. It needs hosting and security. A small business owner paying £80–£150/month for a site that hasn’t changed since it launched, in many cases, that level of spend isn’t necessary for a static site.
For the full first-year cost comparison including build options, see How Much Does a Small Business Website Cost in the UK?.
One area maintenance contracts rarely cover: legal compliance. Your privacy policy, cookie notice, and business footer information all need to stay accurate as your business changes. Most providers won’t flag when these are out of date.
Already have a website? Run it through our free compliance checker to see what’s there and what isn’t. Check your website now →
Duport’s website build starts from £360. Mention this article when you get in touch and we’ll honour the £144 rate. Hosting and maintenance included at £94/year renewal. See what’s included at duport.co.uk/related-services/website-design.
FAQs
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How much should website hosting cost for a small business in the UK?
Good quality hosting for a simple small business site costs between £20 and £100/year. Anything significantly above that should come with a clear explanation of what the extra money provides.
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Is website maintenance different from website hosting?
Yes. Hosting is the server your site lives on; maintenance is the ongoing work of keeping it secure, updated, and functional. Some providers bundle them; others charge separately.
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What happens if I stop paying for website maintenance?
If you stop paying for hosting, your site goes offline. If you stop a separate maintenance contract, security updates stop and the site becomes increasingly vulnerable over time.
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Do I need website maintenance if I have a Wix site?
Not in the traditional sense. Wix handles hosting and security updates within your subscription. The ‘maintenance’ is the time you spend managing updates and troubleshooting issues yourself.
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Is my Wix or Squarespace website legally compliant in the UK?
Not automatically. UK law requires your website to include a privacy policy, a cookie notice, clear terms and conditions, and specific business information (such as your registered company name and number if you’re a limited company). Most website builders include template pages for some of these, but they don’t check whether your content is accurate or complete. Use our free website compliance checker to see what your site has and what it’s missing.
