Website maintenance costs for a modern business site run between €50 and €150 per month. That is the range of webvise's own operating retainers, depending on scope, and small sites sometimes pay a mid-three-figure yearly amount instead.
The most expensive maintenance on the market is the plan sold as unlimited and all-inclusive.
You have probably collected quotes that range from bare hosting with nothing attached to care plans that promise everything, with no way to compare the two. This article publishes what webvise's real retainer contracts say: the monthly range, the inclusion list, the exclusion list, and what AI features add to the bill. The WordPress comparison and four contract questions follow at the end.
- €50 to €150 per month is the real range of webvise's operating retainers, depending on scope. Small sites sometimes pay a mid-three-figure yearly amount instead.
- Included, from real offer copy: monitoring, fixes, small improvements, workflow extensions, and a performance, security, and analytics review at an agreed support cadence.
- Excluded, from a real contract: domain registration, mailboxes, usage-based third-party services, new pages and functions, extensive content changes. The exclusion list is what makes the price honest.
- AI features add a two-digit euro amount per month in running costs on webvise builds, with no per-seat licenses.
- WordPress carries three recurring lines a Next.js build does not have: plugin licenses, a permanent update duty, and PHP hosting.
One caveat before the numbers: the range applies to sites webvise built or rebuilt on its own stack. If your current fee mostly pays for WordPress patching, the cheaper fix is structural, and webvise's WordPress migration service removes the layer that generates the work.
What €50 to €150 a Month Actually Buys
The range comes from real webvise operating contracts, and scope decides where in it a site lands. A small brochure site sits at the low end. More workflows and integrations move the fee up.
- Monitoring of the live site, so problems surface early.
- Fixes: when something breaks, repairing it is inside the fee.
- Small improvements and workflow extensions: the class of change that keeps a site current between projects.
- A performance, security, and analytics review: run at the agreed cadence, with findings reported.
- A defined support cadence: response expectations in writing.
Two more details from real contracts: after a build, the first months of maintenance are sometimes included, and very small sites can swap the monthly fee for a mid-three-figure yearly package. Both variants keep the same written scope.
The Exclusion List Is the Honest Part
A real webvise maintenance contract names what the flat fee never covers. That list does more for the client than the inclusion list, because it is the part most providers leave vague.
- Domain registration: billed at registrar rates, outside the fee.
- Mailboxes: the mail provider's business, at the mail provider's prices.
- Usage-based third-party services: passed through as consumed, never flat-rated.
- New pages and new functions: scoped and quoted as small builds of their own.
- Extensive content changes: beyond small edits, quoted separately.
Each excluded item has its own price logic, so folding it into one flat fee forces a guess. A plan that sells everything as included has either priced in work you will never use, or will quietly re-scope the moment you use too much of it. The written exclusion is cheaper than the implied one.
| Line item | In the flat fee? | What it costs |
|---|---|---|
| Monitoring, fixes, small improvements | Yes | Inside the €50-150 per month |
| Performance, security, and analytics review | Yes | Inside the fee, at the agreed cadence |
| Workflow extensions (small scope) | Yes | Inside the fee |
| AI running costs | Billed by usage | Typically a two-digit euro amount per month, no per-seat licenses |
| Domain registration, mailboxes | No | Registrar and mail provider rates |
| Usage-based third-party services | No | Passed through as consumed |
| New pages, new functions | No | Quoted separately as a scoped build |
| Extensive content changes | No | Quoted separately |
Formal scope beats implied scope, and webvise applies that rule to itself. An informal weekly content arrangement once sat in the internal records as a retainer, and the record got corrected because no written scope backed it up. Since then the rule is simple: unwritten scope does not get billed as maintenance.
Why the WordPress Number Runs Higher
WordPress maintenance carries three recurring lines that a static-first Next.js build does not have: plugin licenses, a permanent update duty, and PHP hosting. Each line exists regardless of which provider sends the invoice. On a webvise retainer none of them appear, because the stack underneath does not have them.
webvise builds on Next.js, deployed static-first, and that is why the retainer can start at €50: there is no plugin stack to patch, no PHP runtime to harden, and no third-party update cycle that can break the site.
The full cost breakdown lives in the hidden cost of WordPress. The security half of the argument, and why the plugin ecosystem is the attack surface, is in WordPress security risks. If both articles describe your current site, the maintenance question becomes a migration question.
What AI Features Add to the Monthly Bill
Sites with AI features, an assistant or document tooling, add running costs on top of the retainer. On webvise builds those typically land at a two-digit euro amount per month, with no per-seat licenses: cost follows usage instead of headcount.
That line sits outside the flat fee on purpose. Usage-based cost belongs on the exclusion side of the table above, passed through as consumed, where the client can see it.
Four Questions That Expose a Bad Maintenance Quote
Each question maps to a line in webvise's own contract. A provider who cannot answer one of them is hiding the real price somewhere else.
- Where is the exclusion list? A contract without one still has one, and you discover it during the first dispute.
- What cadence is agreed for reviews? A performance, security, and analytics review needs a written rhythm. 'Ongoing' commits the provider to nothing.
- How do usage-based costs flow through? AI runs and third-party services belong outside the flat fee, passed through as consumed.
- What happens right after launch? webvise sometimes includes the first months of maintenance after a build. A provider who trusts the build can afford that question.
webvise runs maintenance exactly as described here: a written range of €50 to €150 per month, a written inclusion list, a written exclusion list, and usage billed as usage. For a second read on a maintenance quote you already have, or a number for a site that would get built first, get in touch.
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