Most conversations about website cost stop at the build. But a website is a running thing, not a one-time purchase, and the ongoing cost is where people either quietly overpay for years or get caught out by fees they didn't expect. This is an honest breakdown of what it actually costs to keep a small business website running — and how to tell a fair arrangement from an inflated one.
I build websites for small businesses out of Vilnius, and my aim with clients is a site that's cheap to run, not one that locks them into a fee. So here's the full picture.
The Costs You Can't Avoid
Two things every live website needs:
- A domain name. Your address on the web, renewed yearly. Usually somewhere around €10–€40 a year depending on the extension.
- Hosting. Where the site actually lives. For a small business site this ranges from very cheap to modest — often €5–€25 a month, and sometimes effectively free on modern platforms for a simple site.
For a typical small business, these unavoidable costs frequently come to under €100–€300 a year combined. That's the floor. Everything above it is a choice.
The Costs That Depend on Your Site
This is where the range widens enormously, and it comes down to two questions: how was the site built, and who looks after it?
A simple, well-built site — a clean custom site or a static one — can run for long stretches needing almost nothing beyond domain and hosting. Changes are occasional and billed as needed. Annual maintenance can be close to zero.
A platform that needs upkeep — a typical WordPress install, for example — carries real ongoing work: keeping the software, theme, and plugins updated so nothing breaks or gets exploited. Left unmaintained, these sites slow down, break, or get hacked. Maintained properly, that's either your time or a developer's fee. (I've compared these foundations in WordPress vs a Custom-Built Website.)
A developer retainer — paying someone to handle updates, security, backups, and small changes — commonly runs €500–€2,000+ a year depending on the site and how much changes. For the right site, that's fair value. For the wrong one, it's paying for work that barely exists.
What You Should Actually Be Paying For
A legitimate maintenance arrangement covers defined things:
- Security updates and patching
- Regular backups
- Keeping platform software current (where relevant)
- Content and small feature changes you request
- Monitoring that the site is up and working
What you should be wary of is a vague monthly "maintenance" fee with no defined work behind it. Always ask exactly what a retainer includes. "€150 a month for maintenance" means nothing until you know what's done for it. A good provider will tell you plainly; a vague answer is a warning sign.
Do You Even Need a Monthly Plan?
Not necessarily. Match the arrangement to the site:
- A simple, low-maintenance site you rarely change: domain, hosting, and changes billed as needed. No retainer required.
- A content-heavy or WordPress site, or one with functionality that must keep working: a maintenance arrangement makes sense and saves you from neglect-driven breakage.
Paying a monthly retainer for a site that barely needs touching is one of the most common quiet overpayments in this space.
When Maintenance Costs Are a Red Flag
If your running costs feel persistently high, it's usually one of three things: the site sits on a platform that demands constant upkeep, you're on a retainer that bills for availability rather than actual work, or the original build was poor and now needs frequent fixing. A well-built site on the right foundation should be cheap to run. Ongoing high costs are often a symptom of a build problem, not a normal expense — and worth questioning rather than accepting.
If part of the "maintenance" you're paying for is meant to keep you visible in search, it's worth understanding what that should actually involve — I've written Why Your Website Isn't Showing Up on Google on exactly that.
A Note From Me
I build sites designed to be cheap to run — lean foundations, minimal ongoing upkeep, and no retainer for work that isn't needed. When a site does benefit from ongoing maintenance, I'd rather tell you exactly what it covers than bill you a vague monthly fee.
If you want a site that doesn't quietly cost you every month, you can see what I do at Buno Labs. For the upfront side of the equation, read How Much Does a Small Business Website Cost.
