How much does WordPress maintenance cost a month?

How much does WordPress maintenance cost a month?

How much does WordPress maintenance cost for one site? On the four firms’ price pages we read on Sun 18 Oct 2026, paid plans ran from $39 to $599 a month. That spread is wide because the plans do different jobs. The $39 plan runs automatic updates and backups. The $599 plan includes hosting and 8 hours of development work.

We sell this service too. Our WordPress care plan is $99 a month for a WordPress site and $229 a month for a WooCommerce store, so read this as a price list from someone in the market, with our own row in it.

We fetched each page at 10:12 AM ET, typed the prices from what loaded, then fetched them all again at 11:36 AM ET to check. Nothing below comes from memory or an older list.

What did each plan list on 18 Oct 2026?

The cheapest paid plan at each firm, with the main things its page listed:

The top plans we read were $359 at WP Buffs, $99 at GoWP and $599 at FatLab. FixRunner’s small-site plans top out at $199 billed monthly, and its Enterprise tab lists $300 and $500.

Why do four plans at $99 a month buy different work?

Four of the plans we read cost $99 a month, and no two cover the same work.

GoWP Business adds 50 AI edits and 5 human edits a month to its Pro plan. GoWP says a human edit takes about 30 minutes or less.

FixRunner Rocket is $99 billed quarterly, or $119 billed monthly. It raises support time to 120 minutes and adds support for online shops, speed work and on-page SEO setup.

FatLab Starter includes the hosting, a CDN and firewall, and malware detection with automatic removal. It includes no development hours. Extra development is $150 an hour, per its post.

Ours includes no hosting and no malware cleanup. The $99 pays for the update routine: every week we run the updates on a staging copy, click through the home page and the contact form, and only then update the live site. You get a written note at the end of the month on what changed and what we held back.

So the useful question is not which $99 is cheapest. It is which one covers the thing your site needs most.

Why does a WooCommerce store cost more to maintain?

A store has a checkout, and an update can break it without breaking anything else on the page.

Our store plan is $229, which is $130 more than the WordPress plan. The difference pays for a test order on the checkout after every update.

WP Buffs puts sites with on-site payments, membership sites and multi-language sites on its $239 Perform plan. FixRunner lists “Support For Online Shops” from its Rocket plan up.

What should you compare besides the monthly price?

Five lines on a price page tell you more than the price.

1. Where updates run. On the live site, or on a staging copy first? WP Buffs lists “Safe Updates on Staging” on its $359 plan; FatLab and we test on a copy on every plan.
2. How backups are kept. How often, for how long, and whether a copy sits outside your hosting account.
3. Malware cleanup. GoWP Pro, WP Buffs Perform and FatLab include it. We quote cleanup as a separate job.
4. Hosting. FatLab includes it, and WP Buffs lists it on its $359 plan. FixRunner offers it as an option. Ours leaves it out. We can host the site, priced with the care plan or on its own.
5. The minimum term. FixRunner asks for 3 months and offers a 30-day refund. GoWP and we run month to month.

If you would rather run updates yourself, our WordPress update checklist of 7 checks before you click Update is the routine we follow on care plan sites.

Do you need a monthly plan at all?

Not always. A site that rarely changes and has someone in-house to run updates may only need a fix when something breaks.

Our one-off fixes are $45 for one problem, $110 for up to three problems plus your slowest page sped up, and $250 for up to five problems with a full checkout test. FixRunner lists support without a monthly subscription at $49.

A monthly plan earns its price when updates land every week and the site takes orders, bookings or leads you cannot afford to lose for a day.

What did we not check?

• We read list prices. We did not buy any rival plan, test its service or read its full terms.
• Setup fees, taxes and discount codes are not in the table.
• FatLab’s prices come from its pricing post, last updated 13 Jul 2026 according to the page, not from a checkout.
• Prices can change after 18 Oct 2026. Check the page on the day you buy.

Not sure which plan fits your site?

Tell us what the site runs on and what it does for the business, and we will say which plan fits, or whether you need one at all. Ask about a care plan.

Want to see the site’s state first? Send your site address for the free site check, and a written reply comes within 2 business days.