How much does website maintenance cost per year: real numbers

“And how much will it cost to run?” - a question worth asking even before the website is built. It usually comes up a year later, together with the first unexpected invoice. So here we have put together what website maintenance cost consists of, so you can plan the annual budget in advance.

What the costs consist of

Website maintenance costs consist of four main parts.

1. Hosting: €40-100 per year

This is the server your website runs on. We often use Hostinger: its starting plans cost only a few euros a month during a promotion if you pay for several years at once. When you renew the plan you will pay several times more, so count the renewal price in your budget. Plans usually include what a business website needs:

• A free SSL certificate
• Regular backups (frequency depends on the plan)
• A CDN for faster page loading (not in every plan)

Partner link: signing up through this partner link may give an extra discount, and we receive a commission. If you need help choosing a plan, get in touch.

2. Domain: €10-20 per year

A .lt domain costs about €10-20 per year (depending on the registrar), and .eu is similar. Some hosting plans (for example Hostinger) include a domain free for the first year, but not for all domain zones, and afterwards you have to renew it at the regular price.

3. SSL certificate: €0

A few years ago an SSL certificate was an extra cost. Today most hosting providers give it free, usually through Let’s Encrypt. If you are still paying for a simple SSL certificate, it is worth looking at other providers.

4. Maintenance and updates: €0-150 per month

This is where the biggest differences begin. The options:

• Do it yourself - €0, but you have to update WordPress, the theme and plugins yourself, make backups and watch security
• A basic maintenance plan - updates, backups, monitoring. Usually €30-60 per month on the market
• Full maintenance - everything, including content changes, optimisation and technical support. €60-150 per month

An example business website

The typical annual costs of a business website (not an online store):

• Hosting: about €50-100 per year
• Domain (.lt): about €10-20 per year
• SSL: €0
• A basic maintenance plan on the market: about €480 per year (€40 per month)

In total: about €540-600 per year (€45-50 per month) with a basic maintenance plan. With our maintenance plan (from €80 per month) the sum would be from about €1,020 per year.

Without a maintenance plan (if you do everything yourself): about €60-120 per year.

An example online store

An online store costs more to run than a simple website: payments, the product catalogue and the order process have to be looked after. Besides the domain and maintenance, the costs are:

• Payment fees (for example MakeCommerce or Paysera): about 1-2% of turnover, depending on the payment method and provider
• An email tool (for example Omnisend or MailerLite): €0-50 per month; the free plan is enough to start (more in the article on email automation)
• A more powerful hosting plan: about €60-150 per year

In total (without fees): about €550-1,250 per year with a domain and a basic maintenance plan - the sum depends on the hosting and email tool plan. We estimate our maintenance price for an online store individually, by its scope. How to launch a store is covered in the article on launching an online store in Lithuania.

What to avoid

• Subscription platforms without counting several years of cost - a Wix or Squarespace plan can cost about €150-400 per year for the platform alone, and the site cannot be moved to another provider
• Hosting that is too cheap - for €1 a month you often get a slow site and poor customer service
• Long contracts you cannot cancel - a good supplier does not hold you by force

What to do on a limited budget

Not every business can spend several hundred euros a year on website maintenance. A few ways to lower the costs:

• Choose reliable hosting from the very start - the cheapest option often costs more in the long run because of problems and extra work. For example, Hostinger (partner link) offers a good price-quality ratio.
• Automate updates - automatic WordPress, theme and plugin updates reduce manual work, but turn them on only when you have regular backups.
• Invest in a quality website from the start - a well-built website needs less maintenance. You will find indicative build prices on our pricing page.
• Watch the site speed - by regularly checking Core Web Vitals you will notice problems early, before they turn into an expensive fix.

Our maintenance plan

Our website maintenance plan costs from €80 per month for a small site. It includes updates, backups (weekly and before every update), monitoring and small content changes. There is no long-term commitment, and for larger sites or stores we estimate maintenance individually.

If you want to calculate the costs for your website, get in touch - after a short conversation we will give an indicative estimate, with no obligation.