Most website maintenance fees pay for problems the vendor built in

What maintenance fees actually cover

On a WordPress or CMS site, the fee is real work: core updates, plugin patches, security scanning, database backups, PHP upgrades, and fixing whatever broke when those things collided. That's $1,200–6,000 a year — paid not because your content changes, but because the architecture has moving parts that rust. The maintenance industry exists because the sites were built to need it.

The architecture with nothing to maintain

A static site has no database to back up, no plugins to patch, no server to harden, and no version conflicts — there is nothing to rust. Served from edge networks with free tiers covering most business sites, the recurring cost is $0/month, and 'maintenance' reduces to what it always should have been: changing content when your business changes. We built a national nonprofit's site this way — heavy galleries, live event schedule, admin panel — and its maintenance bill since launch is zero.

When a care plan is honestly worth it

Paying for a team on call is legitimate — for new pages, campaigns, and same-day edits you'd rather not do yourself. That's a service, not a survival fee, and it should be optional. Ours is exactly that: sites run free forever, and care plans ($295–595/month) exist only for owners who want hands on deck. Cancel anytime; the site doesn't care.