What is your website actually costing?
The host bill is the small number. The real cost is the retainer, the evening you spend afraid to click Update, and the freelancer when the contact form dies. Put those in. The plans on the other side are the real ones: $99, $249 and $499 a month.
- Essentials hosting & care
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- Business plan, if you want staging
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- Difference vs Essentials
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How the numbers are built
- Yearly cost = (hosting + retainer) × 12 + your hours × your rate × 12 + emergencies × cost each.
- Essentials is $99 × 12 = $1,188. That includes hosting, updates, backups, uptime monitoring and 30 minutes of changes a month.
- Business is $249 × 12 = $2,988, with 60 minutes and updates tested on a staging copy. Priority is $499 × 12 = $5,988, with 180 minutes.
- If Essentials costs more than your current cash spend, the page says so. The calculator does not pretend a $15 host bill is more expensive than $99 of care.
Essentials is $99 a month, cancel any time
Hosting, updates, backups, monitoring and a half hour of small changes. Extra time is $125 an hour. I do not lock you into a year.
Also free: is the site outdated?
Copyright year, mobile viewport, old jQuery and WordPress version, from the homepage.
Questions
Why isn't the host bill the whole cost?
Because the host does not update WordPress, restore a backup, or change your Saturday hours. Those hours are yours, a retainer's, or an emergency invoice.
What is included in $99?
Essentials: hosting, core/plugin/theme updates, daily backups, uptime and security monitoring, and 30 minutes of small edits a month. Unused minutes do not roll over. Business ($249) tests updates on a staging copy and includes 60 minutes.
When is $99 a bad deal?
When the site is fine, you never touch it, and you already have backups you trust. Also when the template cannot work on a phone. That second case is a new website, not a care plan.