The verdict in three sentences
A site without TMA maintenance (application maintenance) piles up outdated plugins, unpatched flaws and missing backups until the day it crashes or gets hacked. The monthly fee isn't rent: it pays for security updates, tested backups and a guaranteed response time. The real cost isn't the subscription, it's the uncovered outage on a busy Friday night.
The three maintenance tiers
| Tier | Price/month | Included | For whom |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | 50,000 FCFA | CMS/plugin updates, weekly backup, uptime check | Simple showcase |
| Standard | 100,000 - 150,000 FCFA | + bug fixes, 2 hrs/mo of changes, daily backup | Active SME, blog |
| Premium | 200,000 FCFA+ | + 24/7 monitoring, <4h SLA, hourly backup, monthly report | E-commerce, institutional |
Included vs excluded: the grey zone that costs
Most disputes come from what's NOT in the contract. Here's the standard 2026 split.
| Service | Basic | Standard | Premium |
|---|---|---|---|
| Security updates | Included | Included | Included |
| Post-outage restore | On quote | Included | Included + priority |
| New features | Excluded | 2 hrs/mo | 5 hrs/mo |
| Visual redesign | Excluded | Excluded | On quote |
| Guaranteed response time | 72 h | 24 h | < 4 h |
| Weekend on-call | No | No | Yes |
Golden rule: anything labelled "enhancement" (new page, new integration) usually exceeds the package. Get the out-of-package hourly rate confirmed (15,000-30,000 FCFA/hr in 2026) before signing.
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Mini case study
Ibrahim, a restaurateur in Abidjan, skips maintenance to save 50,000 FCFA/month. Eight months later an un-updated booking plugin gets hacked: site offline 3 days during peak holidays, emergency repair billed 650,000 FCFA, plus an estimated 400,000 FCFA in lost bookings. Total: 1,050,000 FCFA. The Basic contract over 8 months would have cost 400,000 FCFA. Net loss of non-coverage: 650,000 FCFA.
FAQ
Can I handle maintenance myself? For a showcase, partly yes (visible updates). But tested backups and flaw monitoring need daily discipline; most SMEs end up delegating after a first scare.
What happens without a contract? The site keeps running... until the first flaw. An emergency overhaul typically costs 300,000 to 1,500,000 FCFA, i.e. 6 to 30 months of the Basic tier.
Is an SLA useful? For e-commerce, yes: a <4h SLA ensures a Saturday outage doesn't last until Monday. An hour of e-commerce downtime quickly runs into hundreds of thousands of FCFA.
Difference between maintenance and hosting? Hosting (25,000-75,000 FCFA/mo) rents the server; maintenance protects and evolves the code. They're complementary, never interchangeable.
Let's talk about your project. We size the right maintenance tier for your traffic, without paying for 24/7 on-call you don't need. 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.
