Website maintenance packages for people who never want to think about it.
A website is not a thing you buy once. It is software connected to the internet, and software left alone gets slow, gets broken and eventually gets compromised. Our website maintenance packages keep yours updated, backed up, monitored and fast, and you hear about problems from us rather than from a customer.
Website maintenance packages from R1,250 a month, hosting included, cancel on thirty days.
All systems normalMonitored every 60 seconds
What happens without website maintenance
Not theory. These are the six things we get called about most, and every one of them is dramatically cheaper to prevent than to fix after the fact.
A plugin gets exploited
Vulnerabilities are published openly in the public CVE database, and automated scanners find unpatched sites within hours. Almost every hacked WordPress site we clean was running a plugin with a fix already available.
The backup was never real
Plenty of hosts back up to the same server they are hosting on. When that server fails, both copies go together. Off-site, and restored as a test rather than assumed, is the only backup that counts as one.
The SSL certificate lapses
Browsers stop showing your site and show a red warning instead. It takes minutes to fix and costs you every visitor who arrived while it was down, including the paid ones.
Speed drifts downward
Every added image, plugin and tracking script costs milliseconds. Nobody notices month to month, then Core Web Vitals fail and rankings slide with no obvious cause.
Forms stop delivering
The most expensive silent failure there is. A mail setting changes, enquiries stop arriving, and nobody finds out for three weeks because the form still says thank you. We test forms monthly for exactly this reason.
PHP gets retired
Hosts eventually force an upgrade. Sites on old code hit a white screen without warning, usually on the morning nobody technical is available to look at it.
Every one of these is preventable, and cheaper to prevent than to repair.
Why cheap website maintenance packages are not cheaper
You will find website maintenance packages at R350 a month. This is the comparison that matters, because that number is almost never the number you end up paying once the missing pieces are bought separately.
| What you actually need | R350 update-only plan | Our Essential at R1,250 |
|---|---|---|
| Hosting | Billed separately | Included |
| Off-site backups | Separate service | Daily, 30 day retention |
| Restores actually tested | No | Yes |
| Updates applied on staging first | Straight to live | Staging, then live |
| Uptime monitoring | Separate service | Every 60 seconds |
| Security firewall and scanning | Plugin licence you buy | Included |
| Cleanup if you get hacked | Quoted separately | Included |
| Forms tested monthly | No | Yes |
| A person who knows your site | Ticket queue | Yes |
Add hosting, a backup service and a security plugin licence to the R350 plan and you are close to our number, without the staging environment, without tested restores, and with cleanup billed as an emergency at the worst possible moment. The honest comparison is not R350 against R1,250. It is three invoices and your own hours against one.
What our website maintenance packages cover
Website maintenance splits into three specialisms, worked every month, each with its own page if you want the detail behind it.
Managed hosting
Fast, isolated hosting with staging, daily backups and someone who answers when something is wrong. Not a R60 shared account with four hundred neighbours.
Managed hosting → ProtectionWebsite security
Six layers from the edge firewall inward, plus daily scanning and cleanup included if anything ever gets through.
Website security → SpeedWebsite performance
Core Web Vitals monitored and kept green, because speed is both a ranking factor and the thing deciding whether people wait.
Website performance →Included on every plan, from the cheapest upward
- WordPress core, plugin and theme updates, applied on staging first so an update never takes your live site down.
- Daily off-site backups with 30 day retention, and restores we actually test rather than assume.
- Uptime monitoring every 60 seconds, alerting us rather than emailing you at three in the morning.
- Malware scanning and a security firewall, with cleanup included if anything gets through.
- SSL certificate management, renewed and monitored so it never silently expires.
- Form delivery tested monthly, because a form that stopped sending is the most expensive silent failure on any site.
- A monthly report in plain language: what was updated, what was blocked, how fast the site is.
What happens the day something goes wrong
Nobody buys website maintenance packages for the monthly report. You buy them for one bad morning that has not happened yet. This is exactly what that morning looks like on a plan.
Monitoring alerts us
The site goes down or starts behaving oddly. Our monitoring notices within sixty seconds, and it tells us rather than waiting for you to find out from a customer.
We look before you call
Someone who already knows how your site is built opens it. No ticket queue, no asking you to clear your cache first.
Restore or repair
If it is faster to roll back to last night's off-site backup, we do that immediately and investigate afterwards. Getting you trading again comes first.
Find the entry point
A site that was cleaned but not closed gets hit again within a fortnight. We find how it happened and shut it, which is the actual work.
Written up, no invoice
You get a plain explanation of what happened and what changed. Cleanup is included, because charging extra to fix what we were paid to prevent would be indefensible.
We maintain sites across Johannesburg, Sandton, Midrand, Centurion, Pretoria, Cape Town, Durban, Gqeberha, Bloemfontein and Polokwane, and remotely anywhere in the country. Regional clients in Zimbabwe, Kenya and Botswana are quoted in local currency.
Website maintenance packages and pricing
Four website maintenance packages. All month to month, all cancellable on thirty days, all including hosting so you are not paying two suppliers for one website.
Essential
For brochure sites that need to stay standing, updated and backed up.
- Managed hosting included
- Weekly updates on staging
- Daily off-site backups
- Uptime monitoring
- Security firewall and scanning
- Monthly report
Growth
The usual choice. Maintenance plus the content and search work that keeps the site earning.
- Everything in Essential
- One content page monthly
- Google Business Profile managed
- Rank tracking and SEO reporting
- Performance tuning quarterly
- 2 hours of changes monthly
Performance
For sites where search traffic is a serious revenue channel and downtime is expensive.
- Everything in Growth
- Multiple content pages monthly
- AI search optimisation
- Conversion tracking and testing
- Monthly strategy call
- 5 hours of changes monthly
Critical
For e-commerce and lead-critical sites where an hour offline is measurable lost revenue.
- Everything in Performance
- One hour response, business hours
- After-hours emergency line
- Staging environment maintained
- Quarterly security audit
- 10 hours of changes monthly
- Named account contact
Plans include hosting, so if you currently pay a host separately, subtract that before comparing. Sites we did not build are welcome after a once-off audit at R2,500, credited against your first three months. Build pricing sits on website design packages and the campaign work on SEO services.
Website maintenance questions we get asked
What do website maintenance packages cost in South Africa?
Ours run R1,250, R3,450, R6,500 and R12,500 a month, all including hosting. Across the market you will see R350 a month for update-only plans up to R20,000 for managed e-commerce. The number that matters is what is actually included, because the cheap plans usually exclude hosting, backups, monitoring and any human being.
Do I really need a maintenance plan?
If the site earns you anything, yes. If it is a hobby page, no, and we will say so. The honest test is what happens if it goes down on a Friday afternoon. If the answer is nothing much, skip it. If the answer is lost enquiries or lost sales, the plan costs less than one incident.
Can you maintain a website you did not build?
Yes, and a good share of our website maintenance packages clients are exactly that. We run a once-off audit at R2,500 to see what state it is in, fix anything urgent, then take it on. That fee is credited against your first three months, so if you stay it costs you nothing.
Does the plan include hosting or is that extra?
Included on every plan. That trips people up when comparing us to a cheaper quote, because a R450 maintenance plan plus R300 hosting plus a backup service is not cheaper. It is three invoices, three suppliers, and nobody accountable when something breaks between them.
What if my site gets hacked while on a plan?
We clean it at no extra cost, restore from backup if that is faster, find the entry point and close it. Cleanup is included on every plan including Essential, because charging a client extra to fix something we were being paid to prevent would be indefensible.
How many changes can I request each month?
Essential is maintenance only, with changes billed at R850 an hour. Growth includes two hours, Performance five, Critical ten. Unused hours do not roll over, which keeps the plan honest rather than turning into a bank of credit nobody tracks.
Will you update plugins without telling me?
We apply updates on a staging copy first, check the site still works, then push to live. You get the full list in your monthly report. If an update breaks something we roll it back and tell you, rather than leaving you to discover it from a customer.
Am I locked into a contract?
No. Thirty days notice, any time, and we hand over everything including backups and hosting access. A twelve month lock-in protects the agency and not you, which is why we do not use one.
What happens if I cancel?
You get a full backup, your hosting either migrates to your own account or we help you move it, and there is no exit fee. The site is yours and always was, which is the standard every one of our website maintenance packages is built on.
How quickly do you respond when something breaks?
Same business day on Essential and Growth, within four hours on Performance, and within one business hour on Critical, which also has an after-hours emergency line. Site-down alerts reach us automatically through monitoring rather than waiting for you to notice.
Do you maintain sites that are not WordPress?
Hosting, monitoring, backups and security we can handle on most platforms. Deeper work like plugin management and performance tuning is WordPress and WooCommerce specific, because pretending to be expert in every platform helps nobody and shows up the first time something goes wrong.
Can I upgrade or downgrade later?
Any time, effective the next billing month. Most clients start on Essential and move to Growth once they see what regular content does to their traffic. Moving down is equally easy and we will not make it awkward.
The rest of what we do
Website maintenance is one part of what we do. Start from website design company in South Africa for the overview.
Send us your web address. We will tell you what is wrong with it.
A free health check covering updates outstanding, backup status, security exposure, SSL, speed scores and whether your forms are actually delivering. Written in plain language, and yours to keep whether or not you take a plan.