What's Actually Included in Website Maintenance (And Why It's Not a Ripoff)

$100-150/month for website maintenance is the standard range across the Ontario market, and it's also one of the least explained fees in this entire industry — most quotes just state the number without saying what it actually covers. Here's what's usually in it.

What the fee actually covers

• Hosting and domain — keeping the site actually online and accessible
• Security and SSL — certificates, core software and plugin updates so the site isn't running on outdated, vulnerable code
• Nightly backups — so a bad update or technical hiccup never means rebuilding from scratch
• Uptime monitoring — catching downtime before it costs you visitors, not after a customer mentions the site was broken
• A set number of content edits each month — text changes, new photos, small layout tweaks, without a separate invoice for each one

Why it's not just a markup

The alternative to a maintenance fee isn't "free" — it's an unmaintained site. Software goes out of date, security patches don't apply themselves, and if something breaks there's no one already familiar with the build to fix it quickly. The fee is effectively insurance plus ongoing labor, bundled into one predictable number instead of a surprise bill the one time something actually goes wrong.

What this looks like with Loqify

Presence ($148.99/mo) includes monthly edits and updates as part of the package. Authority ($299/mo) includes unlimited monthly edits with priority turnaround and a quarterly check-in. Either way, it's built into the plan you're already paying for rather than billed separately every time you need something changed — which is really the difference worth paying attention to when comparing quotes.