El Coco Most website care plans come in tiers, and each tier adds a layer to the one below. The entry tier is software running updates, backups and scans, usually $30 to $60 a month. The middle adds a person who tests updates and fixes what breaks, at $80 to $150. The top adds more hours and reports, from $150 up. A site that brings in leads or bookings needs the middle tier, because that is where a person catches a dead form.
What each tier is made of
A care plan is maintenance sold by the month at a fixed price. Tier names vary from studio to studio, but most sheets are built from the same layers, priced in roughly these bands in US dollars a month:
- Entry, $30 to $60: software applies updates, takes backups, scans for malware and checks that the site loads.
- Middle, $80 to $150: all of that, plus a person who tests updates before they go live, rolls back what breaks, restores backups and makes small edits.
- Top, $150 to $300 or more: more support hours, monthly reports, and sometimes SEO or social posts.
Three tiers, stacked
Each tier adds a layer to the one below. Monthly prices.
- More support hours
- Monthly reports
- Sometimes SEO or social posts
- A person tests updates before they go live
- Rolls back what breaks, restores backups
- Small edits
- Automated updates and backups
- Malware scans
- Uptime checks
Bands from Blake Strategies and The Admin Bar care-plan guides.
The entry layer costs a provider very little to run. Most of the money in a care plan pays for the middle layer: the hours a person spends testing updates and fixing. The top layer can turn into a different purchase.
Lines to check on a tier sheet
Tick lists look much alike from one studio to the next. The differences hide in a few lines of small print.
- How many support hours you get each month, and whether unused hours roll over. Many plans say they do not.
- How fast someone acts when the site is down, and on which days.
- Whether hosting is in the price or a separate bill from a host you manage.
- How often backups run, how many copies are kept, and whether they live off the server.
- Whether restores and hack cleanup are included.
Pin down restores and hack cleanup before anything else on that list. Neither happens often. When one does, it is urgent. A plan that leaves it out bills it at rush rates.
Hours that do not roll over are reasonable when the plan says so up front, since they let the provider plan a week. If you rarely ask for edits, a lower tier plus pay as you go hours can cost less over a year. Count your own change requests from the last twelve months before you choose.
Who holds the keys
Before you compare tiers, check who owns the accounts. The keys are the domain registration, the hosting account and the logins to the site itself. All three should be in your name, with the provider added as a user.
We know an owner who paid an exorbitant amount for hosting and still lost her website. The domain, the host and the logins were all held by her provider. When she wanted to change things, the relationship turned adversarial. She had nothing to take with her. No care plan can fix that after the fact.
A good provider will not mind the question. Ask them to confirm in writing that the domain is registered to you, that you have your own login to the host, and that you can get a full copy of the site whenever you ask. A care plan should be easy to leave. That is what keeps it fair while you stay.
What to pay for, and what to skip
Spend a fixed budget first on a person who tests updates before they go live. Next come backups stored away from the server, with one restore actually tried, and a response time written into the plan. The last item is a check of the live site after every change.
That last line matters because a website is not set-and-forget. Sites go down and mobile layouts break, and many of those failures start with a change someone made. A redirect rule that fights the host's own redirect can take every page offline. So can one badly written line in the server config, while the upload tool reports success. A malware scanner catches neither. A person loading the live site after the change catches both, so make sure the plan says who does that.
Skip bundled premium plugins sold on their license value. They only help if the site already uses them, and every plugin added is one more thing to update. Reports full of green ticks are another skip. A low mobile speed score says very little on its own. The cause is what matters, such as web fonts loading from an outside server and holding the page blank, or oversized hero images. A report worth paying for gives you the cause and the fix along with the number.
What security on a care plan covers
Most tier sheets lead with security, and a hacked site is the failure that costs the most to clean up. "Security scanning" on a sheet often means a tool that reports a problem after it has happened. How fast a hole gets closed matters more.
Five hours is the number to hold a plan against. A plan that updates plugins once a week can be days behind an attack, and for nearly half of those flaws there was no update to apply yet. On a plugin heavy WordPress site, that argues for a firewall that blocks known attacks before a fix ships. It also argues for asking which plugins the site could do without.
So ask how much plugin code runs on the pages your visitors load. It can be none. Some builds use WordPress only as a writing tool on a separate api subdomain, and visitors get plain HTML files. A plugin flaw made public at breakfast finds nothing on those pages to attack. The writing backend still needs its updates, so ask who patches it and how soon after a fix ships.
Ask to see the server config, too. A short one covers HTTPS, security headers, no directory listings, cache rules, redirects and a 404 page. A provider can check a file that size line by line, and a single wrong line in it can take down every page.
Which tier to pick
Decide on two things: what a broken site costs you, and how often the site changes.
A brochure site that changes twice a year can live on the entry tier with pay as you go hours for the odd edit, as long as restores are included. A site with a lead form needs the middle tier, because someone has to notice a dead form and fix it the same day. A broken form loses enquiries nobody ever sees, and a customer who hits a broken page thinks less of the business. That covers a real estate agent with a contact form on every listing, or a hotel or vacation rental taking direct enquiries. Our post on websites for real estate, hotels and rentals covers what those sites need at build time.
A rental owner may want the middle tier through high season and the entry tier in the quiet months. Ask whether plans can change month to month or whether each tier carries a minimum term.
The top tier earns its price when you use the hours every month and someone acts on the reports. If it bundles SEO, judge that part as an SEO service with its own monthly work and its own price. Treat any promise of rankings as a reason to walk away. What local SEO services cost covers that side.
With El Coco Media, we offer these services as well as copywriting for blog posts/business updates. We offer the convenience of sending us images and voice notes about the topic. We'll convert that into workable content that will keep your website current for search ranking.
Questions
What is a website care plan?
A monthly service that keeps a live website updated, backed up, monitored and fixed after launch. Some studios call it a maintenance plan or a website management plan.
What is the difference between hosting and a care plan?
Hosting is the server that holds your site. A care plan is the work that keeps the site on it healthy. Some plans include hosting and some expect you to pay a host yourself.
Who should own my domain and hosting?
You should. Register the domain and open the hosting account in your own name, then add your provider as a user. That way you can leave a care plan and take the site with you.
What happens if my site gets hacked while on a care plan?
It depends on the plan. Some include cleanup and a restore. Others bill it by the hour at rush rates. Get the answer in writing before you sign.
Does a static site need a care plan?
It needs less of one. With no plugins on the public pages there are fewer updates to test. The deploy checks, domain renewals, backend updates and Search Console still need someone.
Most owners would rather spend their week on the product or service they sell. Keeping the site, the host and the rest of the digital work in order behind the scenes is what puts more eyes on it.