Website maintenance cost in Canada usually falls into four buckets: your own time on a DIY builder, a cheap WordPress update retainer, agency care after you already paid thousands for a build, or a monthly plan where the custom build is included. This page compares those CAD shapes so you can budget honestly — ranges from public Canadian offers and industry norms, not a quote for your site.
If you want the full project-cost picture (DIY vs freelancer vs agency vs Care), start with website cost in Canada. This guide zooms in on the monthly maintenance line item — the one that decides whether the site still works in year two.
Typical CAD ranges in 2026
| Path | Typical monthly CAD | Usually includes |
|---|---|---|
| DIY (Wix / Squarespace / WP.com) | $10–$50+ platform fees | Hosting-ish tools; you do the maintenance |
| WordPress care / updates only | $50–$150 | Updates, backups, malware scans; edits often extra |
| Agency care after a project build | $100–$450+ | Hosting + limited edits; build was $2,000–$8,000+ upfront |
| SEO retainer stacked on top | $450–$850+ (some locals) | Content/SEO — not the same as keeping the site up |
| Web Maintained Care / Plus / Pro | $129 / $249 / $449 | Custom build included, hosting, backups, edit hours, SEO foundations |
What you should get for the money
- Hosting, SSL, daily backups, uptime monitoring
- Security and software patches without a plugin scavenger hunt
- A defined block of edit hours for hours, services, and photos
- Basic SEO upkeep (titles, speed, sitemap) — not a separate $500 SEO upsell for the floor
Detail on package layers: what's included in a website maintenance package. Recurring tasks: maintenance checklist.
Those same SEO foundations — titles, speed, tidy structure — also shape how ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews describe a local Canadian business. That is maintenance work on a live site, not a paid AI Optimization upsell: show up in ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews.
Monthly website maintenance plan vs DIY
DIY looks cheapest until you count evenings spent on forms, certificates, and “why am I not on Google.” A monthly website maintenance plan is priced for owner-operators who would rather be on jobs. Trades-specific notes are in website maintenance for trades.
DIY builder monthly cost vs Care (Wix, Squarespace, Shopify)
Wix, Squarespace, and Shopify all charge a monthly or annual plan fee, and prices change often by plan, region, and billing term, so check each provider’s own pricing page for current CAD numbers. The bigger difference is not the sticker price but who does the work.
| DIY builder (Wix, Squarespace, Shopify) | Web Maintained Care | |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly fee | Plan fee set by the platform (see its pricing page) | $129 CAD/month, custom build included |
| Who builds it | You, from a template | We design and build it |
| Who keeps it current | You: edits, settings, checks | We do, within plan edit hours |
| Google upkeep | Up to you | SEO foundations included |
| Before you commit | You build it yourself first | Homepage preview first, build included, no deposit |
How to read a maintenance quote
- Is the build already paid, or included in the monthly fee?
- How many edit hours, and what counts as out-of-scope?
- Who watches uptime at 2 a.m. — a person or a hope?
- Are backups tested, or only “enabled”?
- Is SEO foundations included, or a separate retainer?
Web Maintained answers those with Care from $129 CAD/month, homepage preview before month one, three-month starter, then month-to-month. London context: website maintenance in London, Ontario. Corridor build-plus-care context: web design Southwestern Ontario.