Website hosting and maintenance - so it keeps working when you're not thinking about it
The technical monthly plan: server, SSL certificate, backups, updates, monitoring and small changes. The plan is optional, and we set its scope around your needs. The website belongs to you either way, and you can move it whenever you like.
What hosting and maintenance covers
Hosting and maintenance is the core of the monthly plan. It covers the server, SSL certificate, backups, technical updates, uptime monitoring and small content changes. The website remains your business's property the whole time.
- Hosting on a fast server with an SSL certificate
- Backups and the option to restore an earlier version
- Technical updates and security
- Uptime monitoring - we know about an outage before a customer calls
- Domain and mailbox management
- Small content changes - phone number, opening hours, prices, swapping a photo
- Technical checks: speed, how the site works on a phone, errors in search engines
What hosting and maintenance doesn't cover
We say this upfront to avoid misunderstandings on the first invoice. You can add some of these to your plan, which we put together to fit:
- New pages and rebuilding existing sections
- New features, integrations and a shop
- Writing articles and running social media - you can add them to your plan
- Running ad campaigns - you can add this to your plan. You always pay the ad budget separately, directly to Meta and Google
We can do any of these. One-off jobs, such as new pages or features, are quoted separately. Ongoing services, such as blog articles or social media, are added to the monthly plan. That keeps hosting and maintenance on its own cheap and predictable.
The website stays yours
Once the project is paid for, the domain, code and content belong to your business. The monthly plan pays for the services you choose: maintenance and, if you want them, content or social media. It's never a fee for using the website itself.
That's the fundamental difference from the model where a business pays every month for years and, after cancelling, is left with no website and none of the search rankings it built up in that time. You pay to maintain a business asset, not to rent it.
What it costs
The fixed monthly fee depends on what we maintain: a simple business website needs different care from a site with a dozen or so local pages, and a shop with payments and integrations needs something different again. We give you the amount with the project quote, so you know the cost three years ahead from the start, not just at launch.
When you don't need the monthly plan
The plan doesn't pay off for everyone. Three cases:
- You have your own IT person. We hand over the files and access, and they host the website themselves.
- The website doesn't change and doesn't collect data. A simple brochure site without a form can sit on free hosting for years.
- You know how to do it yourselves. Updates, backups and monitoring are specific tasks, not magic. We'll show you how to do them.
You pay so you don't have to think about it, not so that the website works at all. That's the fundamental difference from subscriptions where cancelling means the site is switched off.
Where the plan fits in the overall pricing
Hosting and maintenance is the smallest version of the monthly plan, which is the second part of working together, after the one-off fee for the build.
The one-off fee covers the audit, strategy, a logo if you don't have one, a website or shop with SEO, AEO and GEO built in, and tidied-up social media profiles. The monthly plan only starts after that.
To hosting and maintenance you can add social media management, monthly content and, for a large shop, monitoring and technical on-call support. None of these is compulsory.
Common questions about hosting and maintenance
Is the monthly plan compulsory?
No. The monthly plan is optional, and we put it together around what you need each month. If you don't take it, we move the website to your own accounts once the project is finished, and the cost of that transfer is already included in the price of the website. The website is your property and always keeps running. That's how we differ from subscriptions where cancelling means the website is switched off.
What happens if I cancel?
You can cancel at any time. We then move the website to your accounts or to a server of your choice and hand over the code repository, the domain and all access details. The website keeps running: nothing disappears and nothing stops displaying. The transfer is a separate, paid service, outside the website build and the monthly plan, charged once when you cancel. We state the amount upfront in the quote, so there are no surprises.
How is this different from a subscription with a website builder?
There, you pay rent: after years you own nothing, and cancelling usually means losing the website along with the Google rankings it has earned. With us, you pay for the upkeep of something that already belongs to you.
Does the monthly plan include changes to the website?
Yes. Hosting and maintenance covers small changes: a new phone number or opening hours, adding a photo, replacing a piece of text. You can add regular new content, such as monthly blog articles, to your plan. New pages, rebuilding sections and new features are one-off jobs, quoted separately.
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