WordPress Maintenance Cost in 2025: How Much Should You Pay?

WordPress maintenance cost is often a cost of giving your site the stability it needs to grow without interruptions. It’s no secret that what grows along with it is – in most cases – your business. And this is actually why the demand for WordPress maintenance services is now breaking through the ceiling…

Add to this a whooping number of businesses that use the king of all the CMSes for blogging, site-building, or site management (with IBM, Sony, and Mercedes Benz in the forefront), and you shouldn’t be any more surprised, should you?

Taking the above into account, you are likely to expect that the average costs of WP maintenance services follow this trend and increase, but is this indeed the case? At the moment, it’s vain to search for WordPress experts among 18 of the highest-paid tech & IT jobs…

So, what numbers are we talking about? Namely, what are the average WordPress maintenance costs in 2025? And furthermore: what is included in maintenance packages or plans? What weighs the most in the total price? Is it a lot or a little compared to the average prices of website maintenance (regardless of the CMS used)?

If these questions haunt your mind, keep reading. We have a bunch of the most up-to-date data for you. Along with some details that matter.

What Is Included in WordPress Website Maintenance Costs?

Maintenance services for WordPress cover security measures, regular updates, backuping, ongoing technical optimization (in terms of speed and overall performance), resolving plugin conflicts and technical support in case of any issues.

The number and level of services included depend on which maintenance plan you opt for as well as on the website maintenance company you cooperate with. Most often, maintenance agencies offer 3 to 5 pricing tiers, just like in the following example by WP Buffs:

What is typically included in different plans? Below is a quick breakdown of how individual maintenance plans differ to each other in most cases.

Lower Maintenance Plans

Lower plans comprise only essential aspects and routine maintenance tasks like:

• security monitoring,
• uptime control,
• regular backups,
• plugins updates,
• infected files and malicious code cleanups,
• basic technical maintenance,
• basic reporting.

All of these should be enough to maintain a personal blog or small business website.

Medium Maintenance Plans

Medium maintenance tiers are often equipped with the following services:

• improving technical website performance (also to meet Google’s Core Web Vitals),
• optimizing media files (images, videos, gifs along with the library organization),
• auditing WordPress hosting (or more specifically: cross-checking a hosting provider, especially in terms of reliability, technical performance and security infrastructure),
• basic web development (minor tweaks or developing individual design elements),
• technical SEO audits,
• advanced analytics and reporting.

This scope is fully sufficient for medium-sized business pages or content-heavy business blogs.

Higher Maintenance Plans

Higher (and the highest!) WP website maintenance packages may include the following items:

• optimizing for mobile devices (smartphones, laptops, etc.),
• web hosting review and troubleshooting,
• custom development (in most plans limited to a specific number of enhancements or work hours),
• advanced database management,
• optimizations based on testing,
• search engine optimization including especially on-site technical aspects like internal linking (+ fixing broken links), metadata, breadcrumbs, site architecture, content structure, etc. (without content marketing and keyword optimization),
• dedicated support and a designated expert to assist you.

These premium or enterprise plans include all the tasks required to ensure even complex WordPress sites (e.g., custom ecommerce websites, business pages with hundreds of subpages, etc.) stay healthy and perform well.

What Factors Determine WordPress Maintenance Cost?

WordPress website maintenance cost varies depending on what is the goal of your WordPress website, how big and complex it is, how large is its audience, and what kind of technical infrastructure it is set on. Let’s expand a bit more on these determinants.

1. Website Type

The more business and profitable your site is (or can be), the higher maintenance costs. This is the bitter truth. In short: earn good = pay more. Or, to sound more specific:

• The most expensive is usually banking or ecommerce site maintenance, which typically requires extra security measures, payment solutions troubleshooting and inventory system monitoring.
• Membership sites need regular user permission checks, subscription management, and content protection updates, which is reflected in relatively high costs.
• Business sites integrated with CRMs and other apps, with a lot of automation, are more time-consuming to work with, increasing maintenance costs.
• Content-heavy blogs demand more frequent database optimizations and comment moderation systems, so the fees are here above the average.

And the nice piece to complete the above: private website maintenance (with no custom features) is easy and, thus, generally cheap compared to business web pages.

2. Website Size

A small website with a handful of pages is easier to update, back up and secure, while a large site with hundreds or thousands of pages requires more storage, frequent updates, and structured content management.

Bigger websites also demand more extensive backups, database optimizations, and potentially higher-tier hosting plans to ensure smooth performance, all of which add to ongoing maintenance expenses.

3. Website Structure and Complexity

The more complex and complicated your WordPress website is, the higher the web maintenance costs. Complexity reflects how intricate it is in terms of functionality, plugins, and custom code. Sites with e-commerce, membership areas, or numerous integrated plugins require more extensive (and more expensive as well…) maintenance than simple brochure-style websites.

4. Infrastructure Quality

The foundation of your WordPress site directly affects maintenance needs and costs. Running on outdated or low-quality hosting creates a constant stream of performance issues requiring attention. Generally speaking:

• budget hosting means sharing limited resources, leading to more maintenance troubleshooting,
• quality infrastructure reduces performance-related maintenance tasks,
• properly configured servers prevent common WordPress issues.

Higher-quality infrastructure typically costs more upfront but often reduces overall maintenance expenses by eliminating recurring problems that plague sites on substandard hosting platforms.

5. Traffic Volume

The number of visitors your WordPress site receives significantly impacts maintenance requirements and associated costs. Higher traffic creates more strain on your website’s resources and exposes potential vulnerabilities. It’s, hence, clear that high-traffic sites need:

• more frequent performance optimization,
• stronger security measures against potential attacks,
• more time to handle more data during backups and optimization.

As traffic increases, maintenance shifts from occasional attention to proactive monitoring. This requires advanced tools and expertise that naturally command higher service rates.

Is It Worth to Pay for WordPress Maintenance Services?

Yes, it’s worth it, as the price of ignoring WordPress maintenance is much higher than the amount you’ll pay for regular upkeep. Why? Without uninterrupted monitoring combined with regular maintenance actions, you’ll probably gonna have to face some of the problems from the following list:

• security breaches,
• plugin conflicts,
• snail-slow loading,
• malware infections,
• weak performance,
• data leaks,

and more. All of these make your site hardly usable and lead to poor user or client experience. Poor UX and CX are equal to more site exits. Site exits translate to lost revenue (potential clients). Fewer clients are less money. Feel that pain now?

Resolving the above issues without technical knowledge is impossible, while hiring experts in an emergency is often pricier than the monthly cost of maintenance.

What is Average WordPress Maintenance Cost?

The average monthly WordPress maintenance cost in 2025 is $246. This number is a mean calculated from maintenance fees for medium tiers (plans) offered by five popular service providers: WP Kraken, ThriveWP, WP Supporters, WP Assist and WP Engine.

This monthly website maintenance cost may be easily converted to a weekly average, which then will amount to $54.

Yearly, average WP website maintenance can reach $2952, but this number can be misleading, as most companies offer discounts when paying upfront for a year or signing a yearly maintenance contract. I suppose $2500 or $2600 would be more adequate amounts here.

What is the Lowest WordPress Maintenance Cost?

The lowest monthly maintenance fee is offered by WP Kraken and amounts to $39 if paid upfront for a year. If paid regularly per month it is $49, which is still the most competitive price on the market. These prices concern the lowest plan “Watchman” including, among others:

• weekly WP updates and backups,
• security and performance monitoring,
• ongoing reports,
• and standard support.

In a word: enough for small sites and small businesses, but may be not enough for ecommerce stores.

What is the Lowest Cost for Medium Tier in WordPress Maintenance Plans?

Monthly prices for medium maintenance packages start from $90. Only ThriveWP and WP Kraken sell medium plans for less than $150 per month, while the average cost for this tier is $205. ThriveWP includes in this services like:

• weekly WP core updates,
• theme and plugin updates,
• elementary content updates (up to 30 mins a month),
• image and performance optimization,
• and staging environment.

WP Kraken completes this with advanced security optimization and priority support.

What is the Lowest Cost for Highest Tier in WordPress Maintenance Plans?

The highest WP maintenance plans cost at least $313 per month if you decide to cooperate with WP Supporters. Their top tier includes all the services available in lower tiers, plus database cleaning, link analysis, and GA4 integration. This plan, unfortunately, lacks some essentials like mobile optimization and custom code support. If you prefer a plan that covers all of these, the most affordable option would be WP Kraken’s “Sentinel” plan for $329 a month (if paid for a year upfront). Additionally, you’ll get unlimited website edits, while WP Supporters offers only 4 hours dedicated to actions of that kind.

WP Website Maintenance Cost – Comparison

We can summarize the costs of WordPress maintenance services in the table to allow you to easily compare different options. All the prices are denominated in dollars (USD) per month, given upfront payment for a year.

We have classified companies that offer only 3 plans to the appropriate tier group (from 1 to 5, where 1 is the cheapest and 5 is the most expensive tier) taking into account the scope of the offer. If we considered that the highest plan doesn’t contain features comparable to the competition, then we labeled it as tier 3 rather than tier 5.

What is WordPress Maintenance Cost by Type of Website?

Website maintenance costs depend also on its type, as mentioned earlier. The prices reported above are, to some extent, approximations, not the exact values, which is for a reason. Maintaining a website that is complex, custom, constantly updated or code-heavy requires much more expertise, time and effort than handling a typical one-pager created with a website builder. Maintenance companies therefore usually prepare for you individual calculations.

*Annual payments typically go with ~20% discounts.

What is Monthly Website Maintenance Pricing by Industry?

Industry is a factor that influences WordPress maintenance costs indirectly. Site complexity and size remain the crucial determinants, but they correlate strongly with the industry type. For instance, a SaaS company’s website with user logins and integrations need advanced monitoring, unlike a personal blog with occasional posts or one-pager built for a restaurant.

DYI, Freelancers, Marketing Agencies, Maintenance Services – What is the Maintenance Cost By Service Provider?

DYI approach is the cheapest one (it costs you from 0$!), while marketing agencies charge the most for WordPress maintenance services. Where at this scale are freelancers and maintenance expert companies? Let’s take a sneak peek at it.

Cost of DYI WordPress Maintenance

DYI maintenance cost is anyway between $0 (one-pagers or personal sites) and $200 for professional business sites (I mean mostly complicated ones). Costs here are related to using paid plugins or tools, which are necessary to handle advanced technical issues. You can conduct regular software updates manually, but you won’t perform a WP site audit without security or SEO software.

Additionally, since DIY maintenance is a hands-on approach, it also requires a value other than money: your time and expertise. Updates, backups, security, and troubleshooting – all of these call for attention.

If you are about to perform WP maintenance yourself, necessarily check out the full checklist of WordPress maintenance tasks.

Cost of WordPress Maintenance Performed by Freelancers

Freelancers typically charge from $100 to $1200 per month, depending on their reputation and maintenance scope.

Their services vary widely in quality and availability. It’s generally the right choice for online businesses that need occasional expert help but don’t require a full-service solution.

Cost of WordPress Maintenance Performed by Agencies

Hiring an agency (marketing or IT) for WP maintenance entails ongoing costs of at least $500 a month. In this case prices grow very fast with the size of the website and your company recognition.

This approach bears the benefits of having a dedicated team that ensures security, performance, and updates are handled without your direct involvement.

Drawbacks? Agencies often allure with an ocean-broad portfolio of services, but behind the scene it’s not all so rosy. Jack of all trades, master of none – as a proverb said, and indeed, many agencies prioritize quantity over quality, juggling multiple clients at once, resulting in surface-level fixes rather than in-depth technical improvements.

Cost of WordPress Maintenance Performed by Maintenance Companies

Maintenance companies WP Kraken usually charge you from $39 to $500, as mentioned earlier.

The main advantage is that maintenance companies offer dedicated services. Their focus is exclusively on keeping WordPress sites secure, updated, and optimized. And this is also the narrow area of their expertise, which translates directly into efficiency.

They typically offer structured support, including regular monitoring, security patches, and backups, ensuring stability without requiring direct involvement from the site owner.

How to Lower the Price of WordPress Maintenance?

WordPress maintenance costs can add up quickly, especially for complex websites or those relying on premium services. However, there are ways to optimize your expenses without compromising security or performance. By making strategic choices and taking on some tasks yourself, you can significantly reduce maintenance costs.

1. Choose a Hosting Plan with Built-in Features

Some managed WordPress hosting providers include automatic backups, security monitoring, and performance optimization as part of their package. Opting for a plan that covers these essentials can reduce the need for separate maintenance services. For small and/or non-business sites it should be sufficient.

2. Handle Basic Maintenance Tasks Yourself

Learning how to update plugins, monitor security, and perform regular backups can cut down on the need for external support. Many free tools and tutorials are available to help you manage routine tasks independently.

If you use only a basic set of plugins, without advanced or custom ones, give yourself a try!

3. Limit the Number of Plugins

It’s commonly known that using too many plugins increases security risks and maintenance costs. Regularly audit your site to remove unnecessary or outdated plugins, and choose well-coded, multi-purpose plugins instead of multiple single-function ones.

4. Use a Lightweight Theme

Complex themes with excessive built-in features often require more maintenance and updates. On the opposite, a lightweight theme reduces the likelihood of conflicts and performance issues, which decreases upkeep costs.

5. Automate Updates and Backups

WordPress updates can be easily automated for minor releases. Using free plugins you can automate also making backups. Schedule both activities with tools to minimize the need for manual actions, that otherwise are easy to overlook.

6. Opt for Long-Term Maintenance Contracts

Many agencies and freelancers offer discounts for long-term commitments. Instead of paying for on-demand fixes, a structured monthly or annual plan can provide better value. Not to mention ongoing support at your disposal.

Hire Maintenance Experts and Make Your Site Bulletproof Against Any Issues

Now you know the prices or rather one price – the price of holy peace. Weigh once again all the pros and cons and ask yourself whether you need professional services for your WordPress or not.

In case the latter is true, compare meticulously costs, providers and packages to make the right decision for your budget and business as well.

If you’re about to choose, there is good news. WP Kraken currently offers 20% discounts for all of the plans if paid upfront. Discover a well-established company trusted by many famous clients from the financial, real estate, SaaS and many other industries.