The verdict in three sentences
A maintenance contract isn't a comfort option, it's your site's life insurance: without updates or backups, an unmaintained WordPress site typically gets hacked within 6 to 18 months. In 2026, budget 80 to 400 EUR/month depending on whether you want simple corrective work or full managed hosting with monitoring and an SLA. The real math isn't the plan's cost, but the cost of an uncovered crash or hack — often 10 to 50 times the annual price of maintenance.
The three kinds of maintenance to distinguish
Everything gets lumped under the word "maintenance." In reality there are three kinds of work, and a good contract states which is included.
| Maintenance type | What it covers | Frequency | Included in a plan |
|---|---|---|---|
| Corrective | Bug fixes, outages, regressions | On demand | Yes, capped in hours |
| Preventive / security | CMS, plugin, PHP updates, backups, monitoring | Monthly to weekly | Yes, the core |
| Evolutionary (light) | Small changes, new content, tweaks | Monthly | Often dedicated hours |
| Adaptive | Browser compatibility, major version upgrades | Occasional | Sometimes out of scope |
Preventive is the most important and most neglected: 90% of WordPress hacks exploit a flaw already fixed by an update that was never applied.
2026 pricing grid for maintenance plans
Here are the 2026 orders of magnitude for a B2B brochure or institutional site.
| Plan | Price/month | Scope included | Target |
|---|---|---|---|
| Essential | 80 – 120 EUR | Updates + weekly backups + uptime monitoring | Small business, 5-10 page site |
| Business | 150 – 250 EUR | Essential + 2 h changes/month + monthly report + 48 h support | SMB, site + blog |
| Security+ | 250 – 400 EUR | Business + WAF + malware scan + 4 h SLA + daily backups | High-traffic, e-commerce |
| Managed | 400 EUR and up | Custom + on-call + redundancy + dedicated contact | Institutional, critical |
Managed hosting (25 to 75 EUR/month) may be added if not already bundled. Beware 29 EUR/month offers: they rarely cover tested backups and human fix time.
The hidden cost of an unmaintained site
An abandoned site gets expensive at the worst possible moment. Here's what maintenance prevents.
| Incident | Average 2026 resolution cost | Business impact |
|---|---|---|
| Hack / defacement | 1,500 – 6,000 EUR | Site down 2-7 days, reputation |
| Data loss (no backup) | 3,000 – 10,000 EUR | Partial or full rebuild |
| Crash after unmanaged PHP update | 500 – 2,000 EUR | Downtime, lost leads |
| Google blacklist (malware) | 800 – 3,000 EUR | Lasting SEO traffic drop |
A 200 EUR/month Business plan is 2,400 EUR/year. A single serious hack costs more — before counting lost sales.
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Mini case study
Thomas runs an industrial trading SMB in Nantes. His brochure site, delivered for 9,000 EUR, had run without maintenance for 14 months. An un-updated form plugin became the entry point: spam injection, Google blacklisting, 5 days offline. Cleanup and restore bill: 4,200 EUR, plus a 30% organic traffic drop over two months. He now pays a Security+ plan at 280 EUR/month, i.e. 3,360 EUR/year — less than that single incident, and he sleeps at night.
FAQ
Is maintenance really mandatory if my site works fine?
Yes, because "it works" today says nothing about flaws published tomorrow. CMS security updates ship every month; without them your site becomes vulnerable within 6 to 18 months on average.
Can I pay hourly instead of a plan?
You can on a time-and-materials basis (60 to 90 EUR/hour), but you lose the preventive side: nobody monitors or backs up. A plan is almost always cheaper over the year for a live site.
Aren't backups automatic at the host?
Often yes, but rarely tested or off-site. A backup never restored isn't a backup; a good plan tests restoration at least quarterly.
What's the difference between maintenance and an application retainer (TMA)?
Maintenance covers keeping things running (security, fixes). A retainer adds structured evolution with an SLA — useful for a business application, often priced at 10-20% of development cost per year.
Can I cancel easily?
Require a one-to-three-month notice and above all a reversibility clause: access to backups, credentials and docs on exit. Avoid contracts that lock your access.
Let's scope your project. Tell us the site type (brochure, e-commerce, institutional), its CMS and your uptime needs: we'll size the right plan with no useless upsell. 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.
