The verdict in three sentences
A maintenance retainer for a B2B brochure site is priced between EUR 60 and 450 (about USD 65 to 490) per month in 2026, and price alone tells you nothing about coverage. The five lines to demand in writing are security updates, daily off-site backups, a fix time under 4 business hours for a blocking incident, included development hours and SLA penalties. A EUR 90 plan without these commitments often ends up costing more than a EUR 180 plan that includes them.
What market retainers actually include
Agencies and freelancers usually offer three tiers. The differences lie in responsiveness and in what happens the day the site goes down.
| 2026 tier | Price/month | Updates | Backups | Fix time | Included changes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Essential | EUR 60 to 120 | CMS + plugins, monthly | Weekly, same server | 2 to 5 business days | 0 h |
| Standard | EUR 130 to 250 | Weekly + critical patches within 48 h | Daily, off-site, 30 days | Under 8 business hours | 1 to 2 h |
| Business | EUR 260 to 450 | Continuous, staging environment | Daily, off-site, 90 days, quarterly restore test | Under 4 business hours | 3 to 4 h |
| Out-of-plan hour | EUR 60 to 95 | N/A | N/A | Subject to availability | Billed as used |
A EUR 90 plan therefore sits in the Essential tier: it rarely covers more than batched monthly updates, with backups stored on the same server as the site. If the host has an incident, backup and site vanish together.
The clauses that make the difference
| Clause to check | Weak version | Strong version |
|---|---|---|
| Backups | "Regular backups" | Daily, external storage, 30 to 90 days, restore tested |
| Security | "Secure site" | Critical patches within 48 h, web application firewall, weekly malware scan |
| Uptime | Not mentioned | 24/7 monitoring, alert within 5 min, 99.9% target |
| Response time | "As soon as possible" | Blocking < 4 business hours, minor < 2 days |
| SLA penalties | None | 10 to 25% credit on the month if missed |
| Reporting | None | Monthly report: updates, incidents, time used |
| Exit terms | Not covered | Handover of access and a full backup within 5 days |
The exit clause is the one most often forgotten. Without it, switching vendors can take weeks if the agency alone holds hosting and domain access.
How to size the right tier for your company
The useful question is: what does one day of downtime cost? For a services SME receiving 25 quote requests a month via its site, with a 20% close rate and an average deal of EUR 3,000, each day offline loses on average 0.8 requests, about EUR 500 of potential revenue. From two incidents a year, the Standard tier pays for itself.
Included development hours also matter: a new case study page, an edited form or a changed banner add up to 1 to 2 h per month for an active SME. Billed outside the plan, they cost EUR 60 to 190.
Mini case study
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Mark, owner of an IT services firm, pays EUR 90/month, i.e. EUR 1,080/year. In 2025 he suffered a 4-day outage after a plugin update, billed EUR 380 to fix, and paid 14 h of out-of-plan changes at EUR 75, i.e. EUR 1,050. Real cost: EUR 2,510/year. A Standard plan at EUR 190/month with 2 h of included changes and an 8-hour fix time costs EUR 2,280/year, covers his 14 h (24 h available) and limits an outage to half a day. He saves EUR 230 and avoids about EUR 1,500 of lost requests.
FAQ
What is the average price of brochure site maintenance in 2026?
The observed median is around EUR 150 (about USD 165) per month for a 10 to 30 page WordPress site. Plans below EUR 80 rarely include off-site backups.
Is maintenance mandatory?
No law requires it, but a CMS left unpatched for 6 to 12 months becomes a prime target. Data protection rules make you responsible for the security of data collected by your forms.
What if my current vendor stops responding?
First recover hosting, domain and CMS access, then commission an audit (EUR 300 to 800). Moving to a new contract usually takes 3 to 7 days.
Do unused hours roll over?
It depends on the contract: the best ones allow rollover for 1 to 3 months. Negotiate it before signing, it costs nothing at that stage.
Is a 12-month commitment required?
Most agencies ask for 12 months, with a 5 to 10% discount for annual payment. Insist on an exit clause if SLA times are missed two months in a row.
Let's scope your project. Send us your current contract and site address: we compare it line by line and propose a EUR 130 to 450 monthly plan with a written SLA. Detailed quote within 48 h. WhatsApp +221 77 596 93 33.
Mohamed Bah
Fondateur, Kolonell
Passionate about digital and entrepreneurship in Africa, Mohamed has been helping Sénégalese businesses with their digital transformation since 2020. Founder of Kolonell, he believes every SME deserves a professional and accessible online présence.
