Do I need to pay for website maintenance?

Short answer: You do not need an expensive maintenance contract for a simple business website. A well-built site needs very little upkeep, and the main "maintenance" is just updating your own content. BuiltWeb hosts it for you free, forever, with no compulsory contract.

What does website maintenance actually cover?

Maintenance is a broad word that usually means a few practical things:

• Keeping the site online and backed up
• Applying security updates
• Fixing anything that breaks
• Updating content like prices, photos, or opening hours

For a large, complex site with lots of moving parts, that is real ongoing work. For a straightforward service site, most of it is either minimal or something you can do yourself. The scale of the site should decide the scale of the maintenance, not a one-size contract.

Why do some companies push maintenance contracts?

Because recurring revenue suits them, and because some platforms genuinely need constant attention. A site built on a heavy CMS with a dozen plugins really can need monthly updates to stay secure — but that is a consequence of how it was built, not a law of nature. See what is a cms for context.

We build lean, fast sites that do not depend on a stack of plugins, so there is far less to go wrong and far less to maintain. That is deliberate. A well-built site should mostly look after itself, which means a mandatory £50-a-month care plan is hard to justify for most local businesses.

What upkeep genuinely matters?

A few things are worth staying on top of, and none of them require a costly contract:

• Hosting to keep the site online — free, forever with us, or your own provider if you prefer. See how much does website hosting cost.
• Your domain renewal each year, a few pounds.
• Keeping content current so prices and details are right.
• An SSL certificate, which is usually included and automatic — see what is ssl and does my website need it.

That is the honest list. Everything beyond it is optional rather than essential.

Can I just maintain it myself?

For most updates, yes. We build sites so you can change text, swap images, and adjust basic content without needing us or paying per edit, and we walk you through it before launch — more on that in can I update my website myself. If you would rather hand a bigger change to us, we quote it up front so you always know the cost.

So the answer is that maintenance is optional, not a trap. You pay for hosting if you want it handled, keep your own content fresh, and call us when you want something bigger done. No open-ended contract required, which fits how we price everything — see are there hidden costs to a website.

Want a site that stays simple to run? Get a clear price or browse the packages.