Outsource Web Dev Florida

How Much to Charge for Website Design and Maintenance

By Jeremy Kenerson, Founder and CEO at DeskTeam360

Last updated . The outside prices were checked October 1, 2026. DeskTeam360's details were checked September 25, 2026.

Charge two separate fees: a one-time fee for the design and build, and a monthly fee for the upkeep after launch. Set the build fee from the hours the site takes. Set the monthly fee from the hours and tools each site needs every month, plus a margin.

DeskTeam360 runs this site. It's named near the end as one way to get the monthly work done behind your price.

How do you price website design and maintenance together?

Quote them as two lines: a build fee you're paid once, and a monthly fee that starts when the site goes live. Keeping them apart shows the client what each one buys, and it lets you change the monthly fee later without reopening the build.

As a market check, a GoodFirms survey of web firms puts a basic professional site at roughly $1,000 to $3,000, and Forbes Advisor puts the start of professional design at $1,500. On the monthly side, GoWP lists its WordPress plans at $39 to $99 per site each month, and WP Buffs lists $89 to $359 a month. That's what others list. Treat it as a check, not a price to copy.

For the build fee on its own, see how much to charge for a website. For pricing models and payment terms, see web design pricing.

How do you set a monthly maintenance price?

Start from your own hours and costs, not from someone else's price list. Work out what one site takes in a normal month, then add a margin.

  1. Count the monthly hours. Updates, backups, checks, small edits and a short report.
  2. Pick an hourly rate. Clutch's design agency data shows most charging $25 to $49 an hour, while 57% of web development firms in GoodFirms' survey bill $50 to $100.
  3. Add your tools. Split the cost of backup, security and uptime tools across the sites that use them.
  4. Add hosting if you resell it. Hostinger and SiteGround both list shared plans from $2.99 a month, with renewals between $10.99 and $44.99 a month, and Hostinger's lowest price needs a 48-month plan.
  5. Add a margin for the month that runs long, like a site that breaks after an update.
  6. Round to a clean number, and write down what it covers.

If the math lands far above what your clients will pay, trim the hours with a tighter routine. Don't drop the backups or the checks.

What should each maintenance tier include?

Offer three tiers. Build each one from the same tasks, with more hours and more checks as the price goes up.

Tier What it holds Who it suits
Basic Software updates, a backup before each update, and a monthly check that the site loads and the forms send A small site that rarely changes
Standard Everything in Basic, plus security and uptime monitoring, a monthly speed check and a set number of edit hours A business site that brings in leads
Premium Everything in Standard, plus more edit hours, a test order or booking after each update, and a short monthly report A store or a site with many pages

Write down how many edit hours each tier includes, and what an extra hour costs, so the client knows where each tier ends.

For how to package and sell the plan, see website care plans. For more on what goes in each package, see website maintenance packages.

To talk through what a monthly plan could cover for your clients, you can book a call with DeskTeam360.

Book a call

How do you put design and maintenance in one quote?

Show both fees on one page, with the monthly fee starting the day the site goes live.

  1. List the build. The pages, the features and how many rounds of changes.
  2. State the build fee and when it's paid.
  3. Name the monthly tier the client picked, with its task list.
  4. State the monthly fee and its start date.
  5. Say who owns the hosting and the domain. Porkbun lists a .com at $11.08 a year, the same to register or renew. Decide whether the client pays it directly or you bill it.
  6. Say how either side can end the monthly plan, and what happens to the files and logins when it ends.

You can make the monthly plan part of every build, or offer it as a choice. Either way, put it in the quote, so the client doesn't assume upkeep is free.

When should you raise your maintenance price?

Look at your numbers every few months. Raise the price, or move the client up a tier, when you see signs like these:

  • The site takes more hours each month than its tier covers.
  • The client asks for edits every week.
  • You added a store, a booking tool or more plugins to look after.
  • Your tool costs went up.
  • The hosting now renews at a higher price than the first-year price you quoted.

Give the client notice in writing, and show what the new price covers. For what owners pay on their side, see what it costs to maintain a website.

How do you keep maintenance profitable as you add clients?

Use the same task list for every site, track the hours each month, and hand off the routine work once it starts crowding out new builds.

When you hand off, the price you charge stays yours. DeskTeam360 is one option: it does the work under your agency's name, and your clients only ever deal with you. That white label setup is part of each plan. Each plan also gets the whole team and every service, with web development in the mix. You can stop whenever you like, since there's no long-term contract.

To weigh doing the work yourself against handing it off, see hire or outsource. For pricing a WordPress build, see how much to charge for a WordPress website.

More on costs and pricing

To talk through handing off the monthly work behind your plans, you can book a call with DeskTeam360.

Book a call

Sources

All checked October 1, 2026. DeskTeam360's pages were checked September 25, 2026.

What changed

  • November 2, 2026: First version of this page.