Website maintenance proposal template

What's in the template.

Every section below exists to answer a question your client is silently asking. Use the example copy as a starting point and replace the specifics.

1. 1

   Why maintenance

   Short and concrete: what goes wrong on unmaintained sites like theirs.

   “Your site runs WordPress with 23 plugins, four of them out of date. Without updates and monitoring, the realistic risks are a plugin conflict breaking checkout, or downtime nobody notices until a customer emails.”

2. 2

   What's included

   List recurring tasks with frequency.

   “Weekly core, theme and plugin updates with a backup before each; daily off-site backups kept for 30 days; uptime monitoring; monthly security scan; monthly speed check; a short monthly report.”

3. 3

   Support and response times

   Included hours and response times by severity.

   “Two hours of small changes per month (content edits, minor fixes). Response within 4 business hours for site-down issues, 2 business days for everything else.”

4. 4

   What's not included

   The most important section. Define new work.

   “New pages, features, redesigns, third-party licence costs and anything beyond the included hours are quoted separately at $95 per hour.”

5. 5

   Plans

   Offer tiers so the client chooses a level rather than negotiating a price.

   “Essential $149/month (updates, backups, monitoring); Standard $249/month (adds 2 support hours and speed checks); Priority $449/month (adds 5 hours and 1-hour site-down response).”

6. 6

   Start

   Sign, choose a tier, share access.

   “Sign below with your chosen plan and share admin and hosting access, and we'll run the first backup and update pass this week.”