Most service business owners think about the cost of building a website. Fewer think about the cost of keeping it running.
Then the renewal notices arrive, the maintenance invoices come in, and they are not sure whether what they are paying is reasonable or whether they have been on the wrong plan for two years without realising it.
This post gives you the actual numbers, what each cost covers, and what you should and should not be paying for at different stages of your business.
The Three Ongoing Costs Every Website Has
Once your website is live, three categories of costs recur every year regardless of how much or how little you update the site.
Domain registration. Your domain name, the URL people type to find you, needs to be renewed annually. The cost is typically between $10 and $20 per year for a standard .com domain through registrars like Namecheap or Google Domains. If you are paying significantly more than this, you are likely on an overpriced registrar or have add-ons you did not knowingly choose.
Web hosting. This is the server where your website files live. Without it, your site does not exist online. Hosting costs vary significantly based on the type of hosting and the provider. More on this below.
SSL certificate. The padlock in the browser bar that makes your site show as secure. Most reputable hosting providers include this for free now. If you are being charged separately for an SSL certificate, switch providers.
What Hosting Actually Costs and What You Get
Hosting is where most of the variation in ongoing costs lives. Here is what each tier actually buys you.
Shared hosting: $3 to $15 per month
Your website shares a server with hundreds or thousands of other websites. This is the cheapest option and the most common entry point for small business websites.
The upside is cost. The downside is performance. Shared hosting servers can be slow, particularly during peak traffic periods, because resources are divided across many sites. For a small service business with moderate traffic, shared hosting from a reputable provider like SiteGround or Bluehost is often sufficient.
Avoid the very cheapest shared hosting options, typically under $3 per month. The performance and reliability at that price point create more problems than the savings are worth.
Managed WordPress hosting: $25 to $100 per month
This tier is built specifically for WordPress sites. The host handles WordPress updates, security monitoring, daily backups, and performance optimisation automatically. You pay more and get a faster, more secure, more reliable site with less ongoing management required from you.
Providers like WP Engine, Kinsta, and Flywheel sit in this category. For a service business that relies on its website to generate leads, the additional cost is usually justified by the improvement in speed and reliability alone.
VPS and dedicated hosting: $50 to $300+ per month
More server resources allocated exclusively to your site. Relevant for high-traffic sites, e-commerce operations, or sites with complex functionality. Almost certainly not what a service business website needs at this stage.
What Website Maintenance Actually Covers
Maintenance is the category most business owners are least clear on, which makes it the easiest one to overpay for or to skip entirely and regret later.
A website maintenance plan typically covers some combination of the following:
WordPress core, theme, and plugin updates. WordPress and its ecosystem of plugins release updates regularly. Keeping these current is important for security and performance. Skipping updates for months is how websites get hacked or develop compatibility errors.
Security monitoring. Scanning for malware, suspicious activity, and vulnerabilities. A hacked website costs significantly more to fix than the monthly fee to prevent it.
Backups. A recent backup means that if something goes wrong, your site can be restored quickly. Daily backups stored off-server are the standard to look for.
Uptime monitoring. Alerts if your site goes down, so you know about it before your clients do.
Content updates. Some maintenance plans include a set number of hours for making changes to your site each month. This is optional and worth having only if you regularly need updates you cannot make yourself.
What You Should Expect to Pay
For a WordPress service business website, a reasonable annual budget for hosting and maintenance looks like this:
Minimal setup, managed yourself:
– Domain: $15 per year
– Shared hosting: $100 to $150 per year
– Security plugin with basic monitoring: $50 to $100 per year
– Total: roughly $165 to $265 per year
This works if you are comfortable handling WordPress updates yourself and checking your site regularly. It is the lowest-cost option and appropriate for early-stage businesses watching every dollar.
Managed hosting, minimal maintenance overhead:
– Domain: $15 per year
– Managed WordPress hosting: $300 to $600 per year
– Total: roughly $315 to $615 per year
This works if you want the hosting provider to handle updates, backups, and security automatically without a separate maintenance plan. The higher hosting cost buys you the maintenance layer built in.
Shared hosting plus a professional maintenance plan:
– Domain: $15 per year
– Shared hosting: $100 to $150 per year
– Professional maintenance plan: $50 to $150 per month
– Total: roughly $715 to $1,965 per year
This works if you want a professional handling all updates and have a monthly budget for it. The wide range reflects significant variation in what maintenance plans include. Before signing up for one, ask specifically what is covered, how many content update hours are included, and what the response time is if something breaks.
What You Are Probably Overpaying For
A few common situations where service business owners pay more than they need to:
Hosting bundled into a designer’s monthly retainer at a markup. Some designers host client sites on their own accounts and charge $50 to $150 per month for “hosting and maintenance.” The actual hosting cost to the designer is often $10 to $20 per month. You are paying the rest for account management and the dependency it creates. If you own your own hosting account, you eliminate this markup.
Premium hosting for a site that does not need it. A five-page service business website with a few hundred visitors per month does not need a $100 per month dedicated server. Managed WordPress hosting at the $25 to $35 per month tier is more than sufficient.
Maintenance plans that include things you are not using. If your maintenance plan includes ten hours of content updates per month and you use none of them, you are paying for a service you do not need. Match the plan to your actual usage.
What You Should Not Skip to Save Money
Two things that are worth paying for regardless of budget:
Backups. If your site is hacked, corrupted, or accidentally broken during an update, a recent backup is the difference between a one-hour fix and rebuilding from scratch. Most managed hosting plans include daily backups. If yours does not, a plugin like UpdraftPlus handles this for under $70 per year.
SSL certificate. Your site should show as secure in every browser. Most reputable hosts include this for free. If yours does not, switch hosts before paying extra for it.
The Number to Keep in Mind
For a professionally built WordPress service business website, a realistic annual budget for hosting and maintenance is between $300 and $800 per year, depending on your setup and how much you want handled for you.
Anything significantly below that range means something is being skipped. Anything significantly above it means you are either on an unnecessarily premium setup or paying a markup for services you could get more cheaply by owning your own accounts.
Know what you are paying for. Ask your designer or hosting provider to itemise it if you are not sure. Your website is a revenue asset,t and the ongoing costs of keeping it running should be proportional to what it earns for your business.
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