A website maintenance package should cover four things: keeping the site online and secure (hosting, SSL, backups, uptime), keeping the software current (updates and patches), keeping the content accurate (a set number of edit hours), and keeping the site visible (basic SEO upkeep). If a quote only covers one of those, it is a hosting plan or an hourly rate wearing a package label, not maintenance.
This guide breaks down what belongs in each layer, what typical Canadian pricing looks like, and the questions to ask before you sign a monthly retainer. For the recurring tasks themselves — the actual checklist a maintainer works through — see the website maintenance checklist. This page is about what a package should promise; that one is about what gets done.
The four layers of a real maintenance package
1. Infrastructure — keeping the site up
Hosting, an SSL certificate, daily backups, and uptime monitoring. This is the non-negotiable floor. If your certificate lapses or hosting goes down and nobody is watching, everything else on this list is irrelevant. Ask specifically: how often are backups taken, and has anyone ever tested a restore? A backup nobody has restored is a hope, not a plan.
2. Software and security — keeping it current
On a CMS like WordPress, this means core, theme, and plugin updates applied on a schedule, not "when something breaks." On a managed or static-style site, the surface area is smaller because there is no plugin stack to patch — which is the whole argument in Low-Maintenance Website vs. WordPress. Either way, ask who applies updates and how fast a critical security patch goes out. "Whenever we get to it" is not an answer for a public-facing site.
3. Edit hours — keeping the content accurate
Hours, pricing, staff photos, seasonal offers, new service pages. A package without any included editing time is really just a hosting-and-backup plan, and every change becomes a separate invoice. Confirm the monthly hour allotment, what counts as an "edit" versus a "new build," and what unused hours cost or whether they roll over.
4. SEO upkeep — keeping the site findable
The layer most packages skip entirely. At minimum this means the site still loads fast, titles and descriptions stay accurate as pages change, and the sitemap is current. Better packages include Google Analytics and Search Console access set up on your behalf, and the best include someone actually looking at that data monthly and acting on it — fixing pages that are losing ground, adding copy for questions people are already searching. Read more on how SEO foundations work if you want the fuller picture.
What typical CAD pricing looks like
Pricing structures vary more than the feature lists suggest. Rough Canadian small-business ranges, from cheapest to most hands-on:
| Structure | Typical CAD range | What you actually get |
|---|---|---|
| Basic hosting + backups only | $20–$60/mo | Uptime and backups. No edits, no SEO upkeep, no one reading your Search Console. |
| Freelancer hourly retainer | $300–$800/mo (a few hours) | Whatever the hours cover that month. Response time and consistency vary by person. |
| Agency WordPress care plan | $150–$500/mo | Updates, backups, some support hours. SEO is usually an add-on, billed separately. |
| Flat monthly managed site | $129–$449/mo | Hosting, SSL, backups, uptime, a fixed hour allotment, and SEO foundations bundled in — no separate build invoice. |
For the full build-vs-maintain math over 3 and 12 months, including DIY and one-time agency builds, see How Much Does It Cost to Build and Maintain a Small-Business Website in Canada?.
Questions to ask before signing a maintenance package
- How many edit hours are included, and what counts against them?
- How often are backups taken, and when did you last actually test a restore?
- What is the response time if the site goes down — hours, or days?
- Is SEO upkeep included, or a separate line item added later?
- Do I keep my domain and content if I cancel? What is the notice period?
- Who applies security patches, and on what schedule?
How Web Maintained structures this
Our Care, Care Plus, and Care Pro plans bundle all four layers at a flat CAD monthly rate: hosting, SSL, daily backups, uptime monitoring, and a stated hour allotment (1, 3, or 8 hours) on every plan, with the included build folded into the fee rather than billed separately. SEO foundations ship on every plan; Care Plus adds Google Analytics and Search Console set up for you, and Care Pro adds monthly improvements based on what that data actually shows. The full breakdown, including what a plan does not cover, is on fully managed websites.