The verdict in three sentences
Application maintenance is not a comfort expense: it is what separates a website that lasts 5 years from one that degrades in 18 months. In 2026, expect 250-450 EUR/month for basic, 500-900 EUR/month for standard and 1,000-2,000 EUR/month for premium with a guaranteed SLA. The decisive criterion is not price but the guaranteed time to restore service after an outage.
The three maintenance tiers in 2026
Maintenance is scoped around three variables: scope (corrective, evolutive, security), included hours and the SLA (response and restoration time). The more critical the site, the tighter the SLA must be.
| Tier | 2026 price (EUR/month) | Included hours | Scope |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | 250 - 450 | 2 - 4 h | fixes + security updates |
| Standard | 500 - 900 | 6 - 10 h | + small changes + monitoring |
| Premium (SLA) | 1,000 - 2,000 | 12 - 20 h | + on-call + guaranteed SLA |
| On-demand | 90 - 140 / h | as needed | no commitment |
SLA: what a premium contract really guarantees
The Service Level Agreement defines quantified commitments. Without a written SLA, there is no time obligation. A premium contract specifies acknowledgement time, restoration time and penalties for non-compliance.
| SLA commitment | Standard | Premium |
|---|---|---|
| Acknowledgement time | 4 business hours | 1 h |
| Restoration (blocking) | 24 h | 4 h |
| Guaranteed uptime | 99.5 % | 99.9 % |
| Weekend on-call | no | yes |
| Late penalty | no | 5-10 % of fee |
| Reporting | quarterly | monthly |
Mini case study
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Claire, communications director of an industrial group in London, runs a corporate site with 40,000 visits/month that feeds recruitment. A 48-hour outage already cost her an HR campaign. She moves from unpredictable on-demand billing (130 EUR/h) to a standard contract at 700 EUR/month with monitoring. Annual cost: 8,400 EUR for 8 included hours/month, versus on-demand invoices exceeding 12,000 EUR/year with no time guarantee. She secures the site and smooths her budget.
FAQ
Does maintenance include enhancements? In basic, no — only fixes and security. Standard and premium include a package of enhancement hours.
What if I exceed the included hours? Extra hours are billed at the contract hourly rate, typically 90 to 140 EUR/h, often at a degressive rate.
Is an SLA useful for a showcase site? If the site generates leads or carries the employer brand, yes. For a low-stakes site, standard maintenance without a tight SLA is enough.
Can a maintenance contract be terminated? Yes, with a contractual notice of 1 to 3 months. Require reversibility: access, code, backups.
How does it differ from hosting? Hosting provides the server; maintenance keeps the application running, fixes bugs and applies updates. The two are complementary.
Let's scope your project. A corporate website to maintain with an SLA and on-call cover? Tell us traffic, criticality and the guarantee level you need. 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.
