How Much Does it Cost to Maintain a Website?
How much does it cost to maintain a website?
The average price of maintaining a website is $400 to $60,000 per year.
For any business, it’s critical to invest in routine site maintenance. This annual investment ensures your site remains functional, secure, and live. It also provides your company the chance to improve the usability and content of your website, which can impact shopper decisions.
Ready to learn about the factors behind website maintenance costs? Keep reading:
Domain ($2 – $20 / YEAR)
In addition to purchasing your customized domain name, your company must renew your purchase each year. If you skip on this website maintenance cost, your business can lose access to your domain, with ownership reverting to the domain name registrar.
Costs vary, but in most cases, companies pay $2 to $20 per year to renew their domain name.
SSL certificate ($10 – $1,500 / YEAR)
Your SSL certificate is another website design and maintenance costs — your company needs to purchase an SSL certificate to launch your site, and then needs to renew your certification every year. Without an SSL certificate, your site appears unsafe to users and Internet browsers.
While you can use a free SSL certificate, it’s often better for business owners and companies to invest in a paid SSL certificate. With a paid SSL certificate, your company gains access to helpful features, like customer support, greater encryption, and more.
A paid SSL certificate can cost as little as $10 or as much as $1500 per year.
Website hosting ($24 – $10,000 / YEAR)
For your website to remain live and accessible to users, your company needs to pay for website hosting. Providers offer several hosting plans, from shared to dedicated servers — a shared server is the lowest cost option available, while a dedicated server is the most expensive.
That’s why website hosting comes with a broad price range of $24 to $10,000 per year.
Your website traffic will influence your server choice, which will have a direct impact on your website hosting costs. If your site receives more than 100,000 unique visitors each month, plan for up to $10,000 in yearly dedicated server costs.
Ecommerce functionality ($180 – $300 / YEAR)
If your company operates an ecommerce business, ecommerce functionality is a non-negotiable website maintenance cost. Your business needs to provide a secure and functional payment gateway if it wants to continue to grow its sales and revenue.
Plan to pay around $180 to $300 per year to maintain your payment system.
As your business grows, your ecommerce functionality costs will likely increase. That’s why your team needs to monitor the performance of your ecommerce system, as well as react fast when it’s in need of an upgrade — otherwise, you risk lost sales.
Content management system ($0 – $40,000 / YEAR)
If your business invested in a CMS, you may have costs associated with it. While many platforms like WordPress and Joomla are free, others like HubSpot require a monthly or annual subscription. These CMS applications also tend to come with additional features, like an SSL certificate.
Companies can spend up to $40,000 per year on a CMS. In most cases, larger businesses, like enterprises, require a paid CMS to manage their website and content, as well as additional marketing efforts.
Website maintenance ($200 – $1,250 / YEAR)
What is website maintenance?
When it comes to website maintenance, it encompasses a variety of tasks. A few examples include completing updates on your CMS, managing customer support tickets, and resolving any website-related issues. With website maintenance, you keep your website functional and your visitors happy.
Why does website maintenance matter?
For companies today, website maintenance is essential. It keeps your website functional and usable, which ensures visitors can find what they need on your site, from your phone number to your product to your location.
This service also alleviates the needs for businesses to have a full-time developer on-staff. While feasible for established enterprises, it’s a significant strain on a small business. For a mid-size company, it can also seem like an ineffective use of resources.
How much does website maintenance cost?
When it comes to how much a website costs, website maintenance is one of the lower expenses. This website cost, however, can have a massive impact on the functionality and performance of your site, especially when it comes to sales and leads.
On average, your team should expect to pay $200 to $1250 per year for website maintenance. In some cases, your costs may exceed this amount. For example, if your website requires emergency support during after-work hours, you may see higher fees.
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