Edip Kilinc is the founder of Webwavers. Together with his team, he develops websites, brands, and digital presences for ambitious companies – with over 250 completed projects, and honored with awards including the German Design Award 2026.
Operations. Domain, hosting, SSL certificate, email. These are the costs incurred just to make the site accessible at all. For a corporate website, realistically 10 to 60 euros per month, depending on the platform and number of visitors.
Maintenance. Updates, security checks, backups, functional checks, bug fixing. With a website builder or hosted platform, some of this is eliminated; with a self-operated system, it is not.
Further development. New pages, text changes, new images, adjustments to new offers. This is the only block that is optional – and the one that determines the lifespan.
The total fluctuates greatly because blocks two and three are interpreted differently. That is why two support offers with the same price tag are often two completely different services.
Operations. Domain, hosting, SSL certificate, email. These are the costs incurred just to make the site accessible at all. For a corporate website, realistically 10 to 60 euros per month, depending on the platform and number of visitors.
Maintenance. Updates, security checks, backups, functional checks, bug fixing. With a website builder or hosted platform, some of this is eliminated; with a self-operated system, it is not.
Further development. New pages, text changes, new images, adjustments to new offers. This is the only block that is optional – and the one that determines the lifespan.
The total fluctuates greatly because blocks two and three are interpreted differently. That is why two support offers with the same price tag are often two completely different services.
50 to 100 Euros per month. Hosting, backups, updates, uptime monitoring. Minor text changes usually based on time and effort. This is sufficient for a website that needs to run stably and is rarely modified.
100 to 250 Euros. Additionally, a fixed allowance of changes – typically one to two hours per month –, a guaranteed response time, and a regular report. This fits most medium-sized businesses.
250 to 400 Euros and more. Additionally, ongoing optimization: loading times, search engines, analysis of inquiries, monthly coordination. This is support in the true sense and is worthwhile if the website is a sales channel.
Anything below that is rarely serious. A package for 19 Euros per month covers hosting and nothing else – which is fine, as long as you are aware of it.
Hardly any maintenance contract states what happens if the website goes down.
This is where offers really differ. A response time of four hours on business days is quite different from we will get back to you promptly. An emergency contact is different from a support email address.
Three questions clarify this:
How do you find out about an outage? Is there automatic monitoring, or does a customer call?
How quickly is the reaction? Within what timeframe, on which days, at what times.
How quickly is a backup restored? And how old is the most recent one? A daily backup means up to 24 hours of data loss in an emergency.
For a company that receives inquiries through its website, a single day of downtime is more expensive than a whole year of maintenance.
The thought of saving on maintenance is understandable – after all, the website is running.
Nevertheless, three things will happen.
Security vulnerabilities. Every system that is not updated accumulates known vulnerabilities. Attacks on these are automated and do not specifically target you, but rather any accessible outdated installation.
Functional failures. Browsers, payment services, map services, and interfaces change. What works today will not necessarily work in two years – and usually nobody notices because the contact form fails silently.
Technical debt. The longer nothing is updated, the more expensive the catch-up process becomes. A website that has been left untouched for three years often cannot be updated in a single step anymore.
The typical scenario: two years of savings, followed by a four-figure sum for restoration. The math rarely adds up.
Not everything has to be done externally. Three things can be handled internally if someone is responsible.
Maintaining content. Texts, images, new references, current opening hours. This requires a CMS that can be operated without a developer – and half an hour of instruction, which is part of the project completion.
Routine check. Once a month: send contact form, check phone number, look at two pages on a mobile phone, check for 404 errors in the Search Console. Fifteen minutes.
Content topicality. Prices, team photos, years, expired offers. Only someone who knows the business can spot this.
What should not run internally: system updates without testing, server configuration, and anything done without a backup. In these cases, the risk is greater than the savings.
Four features.
It names services, not concepts. Monthly updating of all system components with a prior backup is a service. All-round support is not.
It has a notice period that matches the price. For monthly payments, monthly; for annual payments, at the end of the year. A 24-month minimum contract term for a standard package is unusual.
It clarifies who owns what. Domain, content, design files, access details. When in doubt: The domain should run in your name, not the agency's. This is the point that causes the most trouble during a transition.
It explains what a change entails. Will you receive an export? In which format? Who helps with the migration?
A provider who answers these four points openly is not counting on you staying because you can't leave.
