As the online world expands and evolves, so does the need for website maintenance services. Keeping a website up-to-date is essential to ensure it functions correctly and provides users with an enjoyable experience.
With the proper maintenance services, businesses can stay ahead of their competition by ensuring their site remains secure and has all the latest features.
I’ve worked as a consultant for many small business websites and seen first-hand the difference website maintenance services can have by running a website and maintaining site speed.
The Small Business Bonfire team and I have developed an in-depth guide to the best website maintenance services based on several factors, such as:
- Side-by-side features comparison
- Pricing plans flexibility
- Industry experts peer review
- Over a decade of personal use
What are Website Maintenance Services?
Website maintenance services are provided by third-party companies to ensure that a website is up-to-date and secure.
These services range from basic features like monitoring, backups, updates, security checks, and content generation to more advanced features, such as search engine optimization (SEO) and custom coding for unique design needs.
By using website maintenance services, businesses keep their “doors open” by avoiding as much downtime as possible, which increases profit and minimizes losses!
It’s also important to note that these services improve a website’s performance and help protect a business from costly incidents due to site vulnerabilities.
Common Cost of Website Maintenance
The cost of website maintenance services can vary depending on the needs of a business. Companies can expect to pay between $50 and $150 monthly for basic functions, such as monitoring, backups, updates, and content generation. Costs may be higher for more complex features such as SEO or custom coding.
The bottom line is that taking advantage of website maintenance services is a wise investment for any business owner who wants to get the most out of their online presence!
So if you’re looking to stay ahead of your competition in 2023 and beyond, focus on getting the best website maintenance services available!
What are the Benefits of Website Maintenance
Less Website Downtime
Website maintenance services help reduce the amount of time a website is down. This includes unplanned outages due to technical issues or downtime for updates and security checks.
Better Customer Service
Website maintenance services can often lead to improved customer service. Ensuring your website is always up-to-date and running smoothly allows customers to access the information they need quickly and easily. This helps reduce complaints and customer frustration, leading to more satisfied customers!
A New Web Partner
One of the most exciting benefits of website maintenance services is that businesses now have access to a new web partner. This partner can provide expertise and help keep your website running optimally, allowing you to focus on other aspects of your business.
Better Website Security
Another benefit of website maintenance services is that they can help a business better protect its website from cyber threats. By using regular security checks and updates, businesses can be sure that their websites are secure and running as efficiently as possible. This helps reduce the risk of costly breaches and minimize financial losses due to hacking or other malicious activities.
More Website Traffic
Website maintenance services can often increase website traffic. By ensuring that a website is up-to-date and running efficiently, businesses can attract more customers and get their message out to the world! This ultimately leads to increased sales and profits for the company.
What’s Included in Website Maintenance Packages?
Security Checks
Security checks are one of the most essential features of a website maintenance package. This ensures your website is secure against malicious activities and hackers by regularly checking for potential risks and vulnerabilities.
Daily/Weekly Backups
Website maintenance packages should also include daily or weekly backups of your website if anything goes wrong. This way, if an incident occurs, you can quickly and easily restore your website to its original state without starting from scratch.
Uptime Monitoring
Uptime monitoring is also a great way to ensure that your website is always running smoothly and efficiently. Uptime monitoring services check for potential outages or slow loading times, so you can quickly address any issues before they become more significant problems.
Security Checks/Audits
Website maintenance packages should also include security checks and audits. This ensures that your website is secure against malicious activities and cyber threats.
Security checks can help identify potential risks, vulnerabilities, and other issues so you can take the necessary steps to protect your website.
General Quarterly Reviews
Finally, website maintenance services should include general quarterly reviews. This helps ensure that your website has good customer retention and technical support. It also allows you to review any changes or updates that may have been made since the last review.
With these quarterly reviews, businesses can ensure they are always ahead of the curve in their web presence.
By including these key elements as a website maintenance service provider, businesses can benefit from improved customer service, increased website traffic, better website security, and a new web partner who can provide expertise and help keep your website running optimally. With regular checks and backup plans, you can ensure that your website is always up-to-date.
Our Top Website Maintenance Companies
In the ever-changing world of website maintenance, many companies provide quality service and help ensure your website is always running smoothly.
Keeping track of website maintenance services can feel overwhelming since the product constantly changes and adapts. No worries, we got your back, as we keep a close eye on the industry and update our list with the newest changes.
Here is our top picks for the best website maintenance services for 2023:
- GoWP
- Site Care
- Codeable
- WP Buffs
- Maintainn
Why We Picked Them
GoWP is at the top of our list for website maintenance services. They offer a comprehensive package that includes daily/weekly backups, security checks, uptime monitoring, and general quarterly reviews.
Additionally, they provide knowledgeable customer service support that can help address any issues quickly and efficiently. Plus, with their reliable backup plans and security audits, businesses can rest easy knowing their website is always secure and up-to-date.
Overall, GoWP offers an all-inclusive package for WordPress freelancers and agencies that ensures businesses can keep their websites running optimally at a price that fits any budget.
With its reliable service, helpful customer support, and comprehensive maintenance services, GoWP is one of the best website maintenance services.
Pricing
GoWP has several pricing plans depending on your needs.
These plans include the following:
- Maintenance Plan: This plan costs $39 a month per site and includes a maintenance dashboard, daily security scans and malware cleanup, and 90 days of off-site backups.
- Content Edits Plan: This plan costs $99 a month per site and includes everything in the previous plan, plus a white-label help desk, unlimited content edits, and a 24/7 team of WordPress experts.
- Landing Page Builds Plan: This plan costs $1,299 monthly and includes a dedicated WordPress developer to assist business owners to create a personalized website for their business.
Pros
- Decent pricing for Basic Plan
- Includes features like installing new plugins
- Team is available 24/7
Cons
- Aimed at WordPress freelancers and agencies, so learning curve for novice users
- Pay separately for tasks over 30 minutes
- Any content work is only available on more expensive plan
Why We Picked Them
SiteCare is another great website maintenance service. They offer several features, such as weekly backups, security checks and audits, uptime monitoring, and general quarterly reviews. Their knowledgeable customer support team can help address any issues quickly and efficiently.
Additionally, SiteCare offers a more personalized approach to website maintenance with their Concierge Services. This service includes custom development, website speed optimization, and content updates to keep your website running smoothly and up-to-date.
SiteCare is an excellent option for businesses needing additional help with custom development projects.
Pricing
SiteCare has plenty of different pricing plans at monthly and annual rates, plus a 30-day money-back guarantee. However, users who choose the annual plans will get two months free of the service.
Here are the plans that SiteCare offers users:
- Standard Plan: This plan is only available for the annual plan but includes audit logging, site restoration, WordPress plugin updates, and daily backups.
- Plus Plan: This plan is $299 monthly and includes real-time backups, version control, quality assurance testing, and more.
- Pro Plan: This plan is $499 a month and includes multisite support, 2 hours per month maintenance with fractional hour billing, and retainer rollover.
- Premier Plan: This plan is $1200 monthly and includes a dedicated account manager, site coach, and premier email and phone support.
Pros
- Has performance monitoring
- Discount for multiple WordPress websites
- Has regular maintenance
Cons
- One of the more expensive maintenance services company
- Does not have 24/7 support
- No link monitoring
Why We Picked Them
Codeable is an excellent website maintenance service for WordPress freelancers and agencies. It offers a comprehensive package that includes daily/weekly backups, security checks, basic website maintenance for your WordPress website, and general quarterly reviews.
Codeable has an experienced team of over 500 WordPress experts who can help address any issues quickly and efficiently. They also offer advanced services like custom development and site speed optimization.
Overall, Codeable is one of the best website maintenance services around. It provides a comprehensive package that ensures businesses can keep their websites running optimally at an affordable price.
Pricing
Codeable’s pricing plans vary on a sliding scale based on your needs. They have web maintenance services specifically targeting coding, and they have single estimates to help you find the right fit. The pricing plans can range anywhere between $420 and $15,900.
Pros
- Ability to specify exactly the type of maintenance plan you want
- They carefully vet the coding experts they work with to ensure website owners they're getting expert web maintenance
- You can use them for one-off support for a single maintenance service to your own website
Cons
- Tough for new WordPress website owners. Need to be able to tell web developers exactly what you need
- Pay an additional 17.5% to Codeable for fees
- Maintenance services cost isn't known until you start using it
Why We Picked Them
WP Buffs is one of the most comprehensive website maintenance services. They offer many features, such as weekly backups, security checks, and audits, website edits, performance optimization, and general quarterly reviews.
Their knowledgeable customer support team can help address any issues quickly and efficiently.
Additionally, WP Buffs offers several different pricing plans to meet all budgets. They also offer discounts for multiple WordPress websites and have many basic and advanced services.
WP Buffs is one of the most well-known website maintenance services available. With a personalized website maintenance approach and additional help with custom development projects, WP Buffs is the perfect choice for businesses looking for comprehensive and reliable website maintenance.
Pricing
The pricing flexibility for WP Buffs is extensive and allows options for different WordPress websites at annual or monthly rates.
These are the monthly plans offered to users:
- Maintain Plan: For standard WordPress site maintenance, this plan costs $79 a month and includes cloud backups daily, 24/7 emergency support, and google analytics integration.
- Protect Plan: This plan costs $159 monthly for WordPress sites needing edits and security. It also includes security optimization and 24/7 unlimited website edits.
- Perform Plan: This plan costs $219 monthly for advanced functionality WP sites. It includes mobile and tablet optimization, malware removal, and site speed maintenance.
- Custom Plan: This plan costs $347 monthly and is for custom-coded WP sites, and includes safe updates on custom sites, online marketing, and fixing broken links.
- Custom Pro Plan: This plan costs $447 a month and includes all the same features as the previous plans, plus access to more advanced features.
Pros
- Offer website maintenance plans for Ecommerce site
- 24/7 site monitoring of website performance
- Weekly reports giving updates on web maintenance service they've provided
Cons
- Malware removal only included on cheapest plans
- Plugin updates is only weekly
- Can be more expensive with more advanced features
Why We Picked Them
Maintainn is a comprehensive website maintenance service with top-notch customer support, advanced features, and affordable pricing.
They offer various services, including regular backups and security scans, plugin updates, site performance optimization, malware scanning, and removal.
They also make it easy to customize the website maintenance plan you need, so you can get precisely what you want without having to pay for services you don’t.
With Maintainn, website owners can rest assured that their websites are always running smoothly and securely with the help of their friendly customer service team.
Pricing
Maintainn offers monthly or annual plans with no contracts required to their users.
These monthly plans include the following:
- Core Plan: This plan is $99 monthly and includes weekly updates, 24/7 security monitoring, and daily secure offsite backups.
- Plus Plan: This plan costs $299 monthly and includes no fee for hacked website repair, a project manager, or production updates.
- Advanced Plan: This plan is $499 monthly and includes version control, a project workspace, staging updates, and a client review cycle.
Pros
- Live chat support available for all plans
- Pricing plans are cheaper than other website maintenance
- Has design and development services for web hosting
Cons
- You need the professional plan for malware removal
- Live chat is only available during business hours
- Ecommerce site owners can only choose the Professional plan or better
Conclusion
Choosing the best website maintenance service can be a difficult decision. After taking into consideration factors such as pricing, features, customer support, and more, WP Buffs and Maintainn stand out as two of the best.
Both companies offer comprehensive website maintenance services that provide top of the line security and performance monitoring at an affordable price.
While WP Buffs offers slightly more advanced features and custom development projects, Maintainn has the advantage of lower pricing without sacrificing quality. In the end, it’s up to you to decide which website maintenance service is right for your business.
Let us know in the comments what you thought of our list and if you have any experience with website maintenance that keeps your business efficient!
Frequently Asked Questions
The cost of website maintenance services will vary depending on your specific needs and the company you choose.
Some companies may charge by the hour or project, while others may have subscription-based plans that provide more comprehensive services. Generally speaking, hourly rates for webmasters typically range between $25-$50/hour.
Website maintenance services can include anything from content updates, security and performance monitoring, plugin updates, malware scanning/removal, SEO optimization, backups, and more.
It’s important to find a website maintenance service that provides the specific services you need in order to keep your website running smoothly to keep your customer service at its highest level.
The most common website maintenance issue is outdated software. Keeping your website’s software up to date with the latest security patches and performance updates is essential to keeping it running without downtime or unexpected maintenance cost.
A website maintenance service can help you stay on top of these updates so that you don’t have to worry about them yourself.
The person who does website maintenance is typically referred to as a webmaster. Webmasters are responsible for the upkeep and management of websites, including content updates, security patches, plugin updates, backups, troubleshooting issues, and more.
Webmasters can be found in-house or hired on a freelance basis. When hiring a webmaster, make sure to check their qualifications and experience to ensure they are the right fit for your company.
Yes, you can hire someone to manage your website. There are many webmasters available online that provide website maintenance services at an affordable cost.
Be sure to check their qualifications and experience before hiring them, as well as any reviews they may have from previous clients.
This will help ensure that the webmaster you hire is right for your website and can provide the website maintenance service you need.