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 hacked. Our website maintenance packages keep yours updated, backed up, monitored and fast, and you find out about problems from us rather than from a customer.
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 cheaper to prevent than to fix.
A plugin gets exploited
Vulnerabilities are published openly in the public CVE database, and bots scan for unpatched sites within hours. Most hacked WordPress sites in South Africa were 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 tested is the only backup that counts.
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.
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 without an 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.
PHP gets retired
Hosts eventually force an upgrade. Sites on old code hit a white screen with no warning, usually on the morning nobody is available to look at it.
Every one of these is preventable, and cheaper to prevent than to repair.
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.
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 firewall inward, plus daily scanning and a cleanup guarantee if something ever gets through.
Website security → SpeedWebsite performance
Core Web Vitals monitored and kept green, because speed is both a ranking factor and the thing that decides 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, with an alert to us, not just an email to you at 3am.
- Malware scanning and a security firewall, with cleanup included if anything gets through.
- SSL certificate management, renewed and monitored so it never silently expires.
- A monthly report in plain language: what was updated, what was blocked, how fast the site is.
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.
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 are currently paying a host separately, subtract that from the real cost. Sites we did not build are welcome after a once-off audit, priced at R2,500 and credited against your first three months.
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 backups, monitoring and any human being.
Do I really need a maintenance plan?
If the site earns you anything, yes. Website maintenance is insurance you use every month rather than once. If it is a hobby page, no. 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 portion of our website maintenance clients are exactly that. We do 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 just three invoices.
What if my site gets hacked while on a plan?
We clean it at no extra cost, restore from backup if needed, 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 list in your monthly report. If an update breaks something, we roll it back and tell you rather than leaving you to discover it.
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, not you.
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.
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.
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.
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.