Website maintenance isn’t a “nice to have.” It’s what keeps your site fast, secure, and working properly after updates, plugin changes, and platform updates. In Canada, maintenance costs can be surprisingly affordable for simple sites—and essentially mandatory for e-commerce or lead-gen sites where downtime costs money.
Below is a clear breakdown of what Canadians typically pay, what’s included, and how to choose the right level of support.
The short answer: typical price ranges in Canada
Most website maintenance pricing in Canada falls into these buckets:
- Basic maintenance (small sites): roughly $150–$300/month
- WordPress care plans (common Canadian pricing examples): around $85–$160+/month depending on features and site type
- Business support retainers (includes hands-on edits/content time): often $500/month for ~5 hours and up
- Hourly support: often $50–$80/hour for maintenance work (varies with complexity/experience)
Those ranges widen for e-commerce, complex builds, custom code, high traffic, multilingual setups, or strict security requirements.
What you’re actually paying for
Think of maintenance like “ownership costs” of a website. The price depends on how much protection, monitoring, and hands-on support you want.
1) Baseline costs (even if you do everything yourself)
These are the essentials many websites have regardless of who maintains them:
- Domain renewal
- Hosting
- Email sending / deliverability (especially for forms + WooCommerce order emails)
- Premium plugins/apps (sometimes)
Some sites also pay for added security layers (WAF, malware scanning, backup storage, etc.).
2) Core maintenance (the non-negotiables)
This is what most “care plans” include:
- WordPress core/theme/plugin updates (or platform upkeep)
- Offsite backups (daily/weekly)
- Security monitoring and malware scans
- Uptime monitoring
- Basic performance checks
- Monthly reporting (sometimes)
Canadian WordPress maintenance plan examples commonly bundle these basics in the ~$85–$160/month range.
3) Support & improvements (where pricing changes fast)
This is the part that drives cost up or down:
- Content edits (text swaps, image updates, adding sections)
- Layout fixes (Elementor, theme builder, CSS tweaks)
- Speed optimization / Core Web Vitals work
- Technical SEO fixes (indexing, redirects, broken links, schema, etc.)
- E-commerce troubleshooting (checkout, payments, shipping, email notifications)
That’s why many businesses prefer a monthly support retainer that includes a set number of hours. For example, some Canadian support plans start around $500/month for 5 hours .
Simple pricing breakdown by website type (realistic budgeting)
A) Small brochure website (5–10 pages)
Best for: local services, portfolios, simple company sites
Typical budget:
- $75–$200/month for updates, backups, monitoring, basic security
- Occasional extra work billed hourly as needed
When this is enough: the site doesn’t change often, and you mainly want stability + protection.
B) Small business lead-gen site (SEO matters)
Best for: contractors, clinics, law firms, agencies, service businesses
Typical budget:
- $150–$400/month if you want ongoing performance checks, small monthly edits, and light technical SEO
Why it costs more: rankings and page speed matter, plus you’ll likely need regular tweaks (CTA updates, new sections, fixing issues after updates, etc.).
C) E-commerce (WooCommerce / Shopify)
Best for: stores, subscriptions, bookings, high-conversion sites
Typical budget:
- $500+/month for WordPress e-commerce maintenance is common once you include heavier support and risk management
- If you’re paying hourly for e-commerce support, many Shopify/maintenance specialists fall into ranges like $50–$150/hour, depending on skill and scope
Why it costs more: checkout issues, payment/shipping rules, email deliverability, and downtime have a direct revenue impact.
Hourly vs monthly plans: which is cheaper?
Hourly support can be cheaper when:
- You rarely update content
- Your site is simple and stable
- You only need help “once in a while”
Common hourly ranges for maintenance work are often $50–$80/hour .
Monthly plans are usually better when:
- You need proactive monitoring (uptime/security)
- You want predictable costs
- Your site is mission-critical (leads/sales daily)
- You’ve been burned by “surprise” issues before
A plan often costs less than a single emergency fix—especially if you need cleanup, restore, or troubleshooting at the wrong moment.
What makes maintenance more expensive?
Here are the biggest cost drivers:
- E-commerce (WooCommerce/Shopify complexity)
- Multilingual sites (WPML/Polylang)
- Custom theme/code (more testing after updates)
- High traffic sites (caching, server tuning, monitoring)
- Security/compliance needs (extra layers, logs, policies)
- Lots of change requests (content + layout updates every week)
How to choose the right maintenance level
Ask yourself these 3 questions:
- If my website goes down for 24 hours, what does that cost me?
- Do I need ongoing edits and improvements each month?
- Do I rely on Google traffic or paid ads? (speed + SEO technical health matters more)
If the site generates leads/sales, maintenance is not just an expense—it’s protection for revenue.
FAQ
Often, yes—as an operating expense for a business website. For your exact situation, confirm with your accountant.
You can for basic sites, but only if you consistently do backups, updates, and security checks—and know how to restore quickly if something breaks.
Emergency troubleshooting after an update, plus downtime. That’s why monitoring + backups are worth paying for.