Website Maintenance Cost in India (2026)
Published maintenance prices for small business websites in India run from about ₹1,500 to ₹10,000 a year from freelancers, and ₹10,000 to ₹25,000 a year for larger sites and stores, with some providers charging ₹1,000 to ₹5,000 a month. What matters is what the plan covers: updates, backups, security, small edits and how quickly someone responds.
A website is not finished at launch. The software underneath it gets updates, plugins change, browsers change, and every so often something breaks. Maintenance is the work of keeping all of that in order, and its cost is the line most often missing from a website budget.
This guide sets out the published maintenance prices in India, explains what a plan should include, and gives you a checklist whether you pay someone or do it yourself.
What website maintenance covers
A sensible plan for a small business site includes:
- Software updates: the CMS core, theme and plugins, tested so an update does not break the site.
- Backups: taken on a schedule, stored away from the server, and tested by restoring one.
- Security: malware scans, login protection and removing plugins nobody uses.
- Uptime and SSL checks: knowing quickly when the site is down or a certificate has a problem.
- Small edits: changing prices, adding a team member, swapping a banner.
- Speed checks: catching the slow plugin or oversized image before visitors notice.
What is usually not included: new pages, redesigns, new features or content writing. Those are projects, priced separately.
Website maintenance cost in India: published bands
There is no independent survey of maintenance prices in India. The figures below are what providers publish.
| What is priced | Published range | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Freelance maintenance, small sites | ₹1,500 to ₹10,000 a year | Hostinger’s cost guide |
| Agency AMC, entry level | from ₹3,000 a year | OneCity |
| Larger sites with e-commerce | ₹10,000 to ₹25,000 a year | Hostinger’s cost guide |
| Monthly retainer | ₹1,000 to ₹5,000 a month | Hostinger’s cost guide |
| Backup and security tools | ₹1,000 to ₹6,000 a year | Hostinger’s cost guide |
| Premium WordPress plugins | ₹1,000 to ₹8,000 a year per plugin | Hostinger’s cost guide |
These are other companies’ prices, not ours. A low AMC is often a promise to run updates and nothing else, which is fine if that is all you need.
What moves the price
- Platform. A WordPress site with a long list of plugins needs more care than a static site with none.
- E-commerce. A store has payments, stock and orders that must keep working after every update, so testing takes longer.
- Edits included. A plan with included changes every month costs more than one with none.
- Response time. “We reply within a working day” and “we fix it tonight” are different prices.
- Who built the site. Taking over a site built by someone else usually starts with an audit, because nobody knows yet what is fragile.
AMC or pay as you go
| Annual maintenance contract | Pay as you go | |
|---|---|---|
| How you pay | A fixed yearly or monthly fee | Per task or per hour |
| Updates and backups | Done on a schedule | Done when you ask |
| Emergencies | Covered, if the contract says so | Priced at the time |
| Good for | Stores and sites that bring in enquiries daily | Simple sites that rarely change |
| Risk | Paying for work that was not needed | Updates skipped until something breaks |
Whichever you choose, ask for the response time in writing. An AMC that says “best effort” is not a promise. Also ask what counts as an emergency: a site that is down, a checkout that fails and a hacked homepage should all qualify, while a typo should not.
The running costs around maintenance
Maintenance sits next to other yearly costs. Budget for them together:
| Running cost | Example price |
|---|---|
| Hosting | Hostlyx: Starter ₹799, Economy ₹1,299, Deluxe ₹2,999, Ultimate ₹3,999 a year, same at renewal |
| Domain | Hostlyx: .in ₹850 first year then ₹900; .com ₹1,299 a year flat |
| SSL certificate | Free with every Hostlyx hosting plan |
| Premium plugins and theme licence | Varies; renew them or you lose updates |
Our WordPress hosting runs on the same plans, and a care plan can sit on top. If you are still planning the site itself, our guide to website development cost in India covers the build side.
Taking over a site someone else built
Many maintenance enquiries come after the original developer has moved on. If that is your situation, expect the first step to be a review rather than a monthly fee. A good review covers:
- who holds the logins for the domain, hosting, CMS and any paid plugins
- which plugins and theme are installed, which are out of date and which are abandoned by their authors
- whether backups exist, where they are and whether one has ever been restored
- custom code or theme changes that an update could overwrite
- anything the site connects to, such as a payment gateway, CRM or email service
The first job is usually to get every login into your name. If the domain or hosting was registered by the old developer, transfer it before anything else, because a lapsed domain takes the website and email down with it.
What a maintenance contract should list
- Which software is updated, and how often.
- How updates are tested, and whether a backup is taken first.
- Backup frequency, where backups are stored and how long they are kept.
- Security checks included, and what happens if the site is hacked.
- How many edits are included each month, and the rate after that.
- Response times for urgent problems and for routine requests.
- Who renews plugin and theme licences, and in whose name.
- That you keep admin access to the site, hosting and domain.
- The notice period, and that you get a final backup when you leave.
- Whether GST is included or extra.
A monthly routine if you do it yourself
- Take a full backup and download a copy.
- Update the core, theme and plugins one at a time, checking the site after each.
- Delete plugins and themes you do not use.
- Test the contact form, checkout or booking flow end to end.
- Check the site on a phone.
- Look at Google Search Console for new errors.
- Confirm the SSL certificate is valid and the domain renewal date is not close.
- Once a quarter, restore a backup somewhere safe to prove it works.
If any step feels risky, that is the point at which paying for maintenance makes sense. Keep a short log of what you updated and when. When something does break, the log tells you, or whoever you call for help, which change is the likely cause, and that alone can turn a long investigation into a quick fix. Store the log with your list of logins, somewhere more than one person in the business can reach.
Getting a fixed quote
Hostlyx offers website maintenance for WordPress and custom sites, including ones we did not build, with the scope and response times written down. Send us your website address and what you want covered, and we will reply with a fixed written quote.