What should be included
- Updates applied weekly and checked afterwards, not applied blindly
- Backups taken off-site and restored to staging periodically
- Uptime monitoring with someone actually alerted
- Security scanning and prompt response to findings
- A monthly report saying what was done and what needs attention
The word “checked” is the important one. Automatic updates that break a page and nobody notices for three weeks are worse than no updates.
What is usually padding
- Generic SEO reports nobody reads or acts on
- “Performance optimisation” with no specifics
- Included hours that expire unused every month
- Dashboard access presented as a service
What you should still own
Your hosting account, your domain, your database and a copy of your backups. A maintenance provider should hold access, not ownership.
If leaving your provider means losing your site, the arrangement is wrong regardless of the service quality.
Reasonable cost
| Site | Typical monthly |
|---|---|
| Brochure site, few plugins | £40–£80 |
| Business site with forms and integrations | £80–£180 |
| WooCommerce store | £150–£400 |
Stores cost more because updates carry more risk and downtime costs money directly.
Staging is not optional for a store
Updating a live shop and hoping is a strategy that works until it does not, usually in December.
Any plan covering a store should include a staging environment and updates tested there first.