So the useful question isn't "what does a plan cost?" It's "what do I get for the money, and what am I still paying for elsewhere?" This article answers both, from the prices providers publish.
What website maintenance costs in Australia in 2026
Most published plans come in three or four tiers. The cheapest cover updates, backups and monitoring with little or no support time. The middle tiers add an hour or two of changes a month. The top tiers add more time, more frequent updates, and extras such as speed work or reporting. Ecommerce, memberships and bookings usually push a site into a higher tier.
Published website maintenance plans in Australia, checked 16 October 2026
| Tier | Published price (per month) | Support time included | What it usually covers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Entry | Mostly $30 to $199 | Often none; at most about an hour | Updates, backups and monitoring |
| Mid | Mostly $99 to $399 | 30 minutes to 2 hours, or a few content updates | Entry, plus changes and fixes |
| Top | $189 to $999 | 1 to 5 hours, or more content updates | Mid, plus more frequent updates, speed work or reporting |
From 14 Australian providers' published prices, read on each provider's own page on 16 October 2026. Two more quote only. One prices in US dollars and is left out of the ranges.
Four things stand out:
- Support time is the biggest gap. At least four entry plans include no support time at all.
- Few say what happens to unused time. Only two of the 14 priced providers say, and both say it expires each month. One offers a yearly pool of hours instead.
- GST is mixed. Six pages show prices inc GST, two show them ex GST or + GST, and six don't say. A $99 plan ex GST is a $108.90 plan inc GST.
- Hosting is a coin toss. Five providers include it, six sell it separately or leave it out, and three don't mention it.
What's included in a maintenance plan
A maintenance plan should cover the work that keeps a site safe, working and current. Check any plan against this list:
- Updates: CMS core, theme and plugin updates, tested before they go live, with a backup taken first.
- Backups: automated and stored off the server, with a restore that has actually been tested.
- Security: a firewall, malware scans and fast patching of vulnerable plugins.
- Uptime monitoring: around the clock, with someone who responds when the site goes down.
- Support time: for changes and fixes, stated in minutes or hours.
- Testing after updates: contact forms, checkouts and booking flows, checked by a person.
- Performance checks: page speed and Core Web Vitals.
- SSL, domain and DNS: oversight, so renewals don't lapse.
- A monthly report: what was done, how long it took and what's left.
- Hosting: included, or a clear statement of who looks after it.
The items most often missing from cheap plans are support time, tested restores and form testing. They're also the ones you notice when something goes wrong.
Why plans at the same price aren't the same
Two plans at $149 a month can be very different products. Seven things drive the difference.
Hosting. About a third of the plans include hosting; the rest sell it separately or leave it to you. A plan that looks cheap can end up dearer once you add hosting back in.
Support time. The range runs from none on several entry plans to about 5 hours a month on the top tiers. If your site changes every month, the support time matters more than anything else on the plan.
Update frequency. Plans run updates monthly, fortnightly or weekly, and more frequent updates usually cost more.
Backups. Plans range from monthly to hourly backups. Few say whether a restore has been tested, and a backup that has never been restored is a hope, not a plan.
GST. Compare like with like. Six providers quote inc GST, two quote ex GST, and six don't say.
Contract terms. They range from month to month, or cancel any time, to plans billed in 6 or 12-month blocks, and one tier on a 36-month term. Check the minimum term before the price.
What the site does. Ecommerce, memberships, bookings and integrations with other systems move you up a tier, and several providers say so on their pages. More moving parts mean more to test after every update.
Monthly plans, hour banks and prepaid hours
Under the tiers, there are three ways to pay for maintenance. Each suits a different kind of site.
| Model | How it works | Suits |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly plan, time resets | A fixed fee each month, with a set amount of support time that expires at month end | Sites that change every month by about the same amount |
| Annual hour bank | A monthly fee with a yearly pool of hours | Sites with a few bigger jobs a year |
| Prepaid hours that roll over | Buy a block of hours, use them in small increments, unused hours carry forward (mine: 6-minute blocks, valid for 12 months) | Sites that change unevenly: busy one month, quiet the next |
My care plans include managed hosting in Australia: Hosting is $169 a month, Care is $249 with an hour of changes, and Care Plus is $379 with two hours, all ex GST. Time is logged in 6-minute blocks, so a small change costs minutes, not an hour, and unused hours roll over and stay valid for 12 months. Every update is tested before it goes live, with a backup first, and if an update I install breaks something, fixing it is on me. You deal with me, and I do the work myself. See my care plans for what each one includes.
Churches registered with the ACNC get church website care at a church rate.
What WordPress maintenance costs
Most of the published plans in the table are WordPress plans, so the ranges above are, in practice, WordPress maintenance costs: about $30 to $199 a month at entry level, and $99 to $399 for a mid-tier plan, checked 16 October 2026.
Three things push a WordPress site's cost up. The first is plugin count: every plugin is another update to install and test, and another way in if it falls behind. The second is premium licences, for page builders, forms and backup tools, which renew every year and usually sit outside the plan. The third is WooCommerce: a shop means checkouts and payment gateways to test after every update, and that's why ecommerce sits in a higher tier on most price lists.
A lean WordPress site with a handful of well-maintained plugins is cheap to look after. A site with forty plugins, two page builders and a shop isn't, whatever the plan is called.
For how I look after WordPress sites, see WordPress maintenance and support plans.
Other running costs to budget for
A maintenance plan isn't the whole cost of running a website. Budget for these too:
- Hosting, if the plan leaves it out. Basic WordPress hosting starts from about $25 a month + GST (checked 16 October 2026).
- Domain renewal. Usually yearly. Check who the domain is registered to: it should be your organisation, not your developer.
- Premium plugin, theme or CMS licences. These renew yearly on their own schedule. Craft CMS sites, for example, need a Pro licence: Craft lists $399 per project, including a year of updates, then $99 a year for updates (craftcms.com/pricing, US dollars, checked 16 October 2026).
- Email. Google Workspace or Microsoft 365, billed per user. Check whether your hosting includes email. My managed hosting covers the website only, so email sits with one of these.
- Bigger jobs. A redesign, a platform upgrade or a new integration is project work, not maintenance. No plan covers it.
Add those to the plan price and you have the real annual website maintenance cost.
What it costs per hour
Most providers don't publish an hourly rate. The two that do, checked 16 October 2026, charge $199 to $220 an hour for support and changes, and one charges its care plan clients $150 to $160.
Don't divide a plan price by its support hours to get an hourly rate. Plans bundle hosting, monitoring and updates, so the number would mislead.
I don't publish an hourly rate. After a free 20-minute call I can usually send a ballpark by email.
How to compare quotes
Before you compare quotes, know what state the site is in. A Website Health Check tells you what a plan will be looking after, and what a website audit costs covers the price side. Then ask every provider the same questions:
- Hosting: is it included, and if not, who looks after it?
- Support time: how much is included, and does unused time roll over?
- GST: is the price inc or ex GST?
- Updates: how often are they run, and are they tested before they go live?
- Backups: where are they kept, and when was a restore last tested?
- Term: what's the minimum term, and what happens to my site, content and domain if I leave?
- Testing: do forms and checkouts get tested after updates?
- People: who does the work, and where are they?
A provider who answers all eight plainly, in writing, is worth more than a cheaper one who can't.
How I price it
A free 20-minute call. A ballpark by email when the scope is clear. A paid scoping agreement, credited against the build, when the work means learning your internal systems, such as an integration. Nothing starts until you've agreed the price.
See website maintenance packages and care plans for what's covered. Not sure what state your site is in? Run the free website check.
