Website maintenance isn’t optional, it’s insurance. What exactly it covers, what it realistically costs per month, and what happens if you skip it.
Why maintenance isn’t a luxury
A site without maintenance after 6-12 months: the WordPress core is outdated, plugins have security holes, the SSL certificate expires, the PHP version is no longer supported, the database bloats, and there are no backups. The first hack or outage usually costs more than two years of regular maintenance.
WordPress sites are the second most attacked target on the web (right after generic SSH brute-force attacks) because there are so many of them. Every serious WP site needs at least automatic updates for security patches.
What serious maintenance covers
- Monthly backup - a full copy of the site and database, stored off the hosting server (Google Drive, Dropbox, S3).
- Updates to the WordPress core, themes and plugins - tested on staging before production.
- Security monitoring - Wordfence, Sucuri or our own WAF, with alerts for suspicious activity.
- Uptime monitoring - an alert within a few minutes if the site goes down.
- Performance check - a monthly report: speed, Core Web Vitals, image sizes.
- Minor changes - 1-3h per month for small edits to copy, images, prices.
- SSL and domain monitoring - an alert before expiry.
Realistic prices in Serbia
Minimum (DIY): €0, your time + risk. Suitable for a micro-site.
Basic maintenance: €29-69/mo. Backups, updates, basic monitoring. Good for a small WordPress company website.
Standard: €69-199/mo. Adds staging tests, a monthly report, a security WAF, 2-5h of changes.
Advanced (WooCommerce or a larger site): €199-490/mo. 24/7 monitoring, faster response, a monthly performance audit, priority support.
See our plans on Website maintenance.
Common misconceptions
- 'The host does backups' - most hosts make backups, but store them on the same server. If the server goes down, there’s no backup. A proper backup is off-site.
- 'There’s nothing to maintain, the site works' - until it goes down in the middle of a sale, the day before Black Friday. Maintenance is prevention, not reaction.
- 'I’ll call a developer when I need one' - you call, they get back to you in 3 days and charge double for the emergency fix. A monthly retainer is more economical.
Next steps
See our maintenance plans or send an inquiry for a proposal tailored to your site. If we didn’t build your site, we can still take over maintenance - we just need access.