Website Maintenance Retainer vs Plan: Hours Capped

A retainer and a plan can draft the same card and still be different deals. The monthly draft only tells you that money left the account. A website maintenance retainer vs plan is open hours against a number set before the month starts.

Short answer: Treat a website maintenance retainer vs plan as a cap question. If the hours can grow with no ceiling, decide the minutes you want named in advance. Managed Website Hosting & Care names that change time and includes hosting and the care from $99 a month. You can cancel any time.

What is a website maintenance retainer vs plan?#

A website maintenance retainer vs plan is open hours against a named cap. A retainer bills the time a developer spends, and that total can move each month. A flat plan states the change minutes first, then $125 an hour after that, and I tell you before going over.

Say you run a bakery. The developer is on a retainer. New hours go on the window, a photo gets swapped, and the invoice lists the time. A quiet month still has a fee. A longer edit the month after is a larger invoice. None of those numbers was a ceiling you could read on the first day.

Managed Website Hosting & Care is the flat shape, from $99 a month, billed through Stripe. The website maintenance cost page lists those prices next to the minutes.

What should you read on the retainer you already pay?#

Open the last invoice and the agreement. Look for a minute cap, whether unused time ends with the month, and the rate after the cap. If the hours float with no ceiling, the retainer is open. Then see who applies updates and who stores a backup apart from the site.

You can check this without a server login.

1. The last two or three invoices. If the hours change and no ceiling is written on the page, the retainer is open.
2. Whether unused time rolls. If the agreement is silent, ask in email. Silence usually means those hours were never a bank you could save.
3. What sits outside the hours. Updates, a backup stored somewhere else, and a fix when the site breaks are often a different invoice, or they are nobody’s job.

The hosting cost calculator sets what you pay now beside the plan that fits. It does not log in, and it does not change a setting.

What does the flat plan cap, and what stays included?#

The cap is change time: 30 minutes a month on Essentials, 1 hour on Business, and 3 hours on Priority. Small changes use that time first, then $125 an hour, and I tell you before going over. Unused time does not roll over. A fix or backup restore is included.

Email the change to michael@michaelheredia.com. A link or a screenshot helps. I use the included minutes first. If the request will pass the cap, I tell you before I go over. A quiet month does not save minutes for later.

Fixing something that broke on my watch, or restoring a backup, is included on every plan. It does not spend the minutes. Malware cleanup is separate: $125 an hour on Essentials, and included on Business and Priority.

You do not get a server login or a control panel to manage. You keep full ownership of the domain and the content, and you can ask for a complete copy of the site any time.

What sits in the price besides the minutes?#

Every plan includes hosting and SSL, daily backups stored separately, core, plugin, and theme updates, monitoring around the clock, and security hardening. That means locked-down logins, firewall rules, and safe defaults. The minutes are for edits. The rest of the price is care.

On a WordPress site, those updates are the core, the plugins, and the theme. A host bill pays for the place the site sits, not the update or a copy stored somewhere else.

You can keep your current hosting. Same plans, same price. I look after the site on the account you already have, and your host keeps billing you for hosting. I still keep a daily backup stored separately. Priority’s dedicated server applies only when I host.

Monitoring runs around the clock on every plan. On Essentials and Business, an outage goes to the front of the line during business hours. Priority gets 24/7 response if the site goes down.

Moving one standard site in is included: I copy it, test the copy, then switch the domain at a quiet time. A large online store or a custom app gets a fixed quote first. Redesigns, new features, online stores, and integrations are a fixed quote before any work starts. They are not change minutes. Checkout takes a couple of minutes, and an email arrives within 1 business day to start onboarding.

Which plan fits which owner?#

Essentials is $99 a month: 30 minutes, and a reply within 2 business days. Business is $249 a month: 1 hour, a staging copy, and malware cleanup included. Priority is $499 a month: 3 hours, a dedicated server when I host, and 24/7 response if the site goes down.

Plan	Price	What the cap and the care include
Essentials	$99 a month	30 minutes of changes, a reply within 2 business days. Malware cleanup is $125 an hour. Hosting, SSL, separate daily backups, updates, monitoring, security hardening, and a fix or restore are included.
Business (most popular)	$249 a month	Everything in Essentials, 1 hour of changes, updates tested on a staging copy before they go live, malware cleanup included.
Priority	$499 a month	Everything in Business, 3 hours of changes, a dedicated server when I host, and 24/7 response if the site goes down.

“Most popular” is only the label on Business. The price is the same if I host or if the site stays where it is. See the plans. If you cancel, the plan runs to the end of the paid month. Before it ends, you get a full copy of the site and help pointing the domain to a new host.

When this isn’t the right fit#

This is the wrong fit if someone on staff already makes the small changes and handles updates and backups. It is also the wrong fit when the site needs a redesign, a new feature, an online store, or an integration before a monthly cap would matter.

If the pages themselves are the problem, start with web development. I quote that work as a fixed price before it starts. These plans look after the site you already have. A person on staff who already does the edits, the updates, and the restores does not need a second cap.

Pick a plan on the plans page. Checkout takes a couple of minutes, and I email you within 1 business day to start. To compare the cap with the retainer you have now, send the question through the hosting form.