What a website care plan covers, and do you need one?
If you run a small business in Buda, Kyle, Austin, or San Antonio, your website is probably not the thing you want to tinker with at the end of a long day. It still has to stay accurate. Hours change. A price goes up. A photo looks dated. A form stops sending. A website care plan is a simple way to hand that work to someone who will actually do it, on a regular schedule, without starting a new project every time something small needs fixing.
This article explains what a care plan usually covers, what it usually does not, and how to decide whether you need one. We will also describe our own plans, plainly. A care plan is not the right fit for every business, and that is all right.
What “website care” usually means
Website care is the ongoing work that keeps a site you already have accurate, updated, and watched. It is not the same as a redesign, and it is not the same as hiring someone to build a new site from scratch. The site stays yours. The care is about the day-to-day and the month-to-month.
Most care plans focus on three kinds of work. The first is content updates: text on existing pages, new photos you provide, and changes to prices, specials, hours, menus, or other details. The second is technical care: software updates, backups, and a watchful eye on whether the site is reachable and whether anything obvious looks wrong. The third is small fixes: a layout that slipped, a button that points to the wrong page, or a form that needs a straightforward repair.
The details vary, so it is worth asking what is included before you start. A good plan should say, in writing, what is covered, how many hours or requests you get, how quickly routine updates are turned around, and how extra work is billed.
What is usually not included
Care plans are built around a site that already exists. New pages, a new design, photography, logo work, and advertising are commonly quoted separately. Hosting and domain fees are often paid to another company, or passed through at cost if your care provider handles them for you. Paid plugins and licenses work the same way: they are usually not baked into the monthly fee.
Security cleanup can be a gray area. Restoring from a backup is often part of the plan. If a site was changed by someone else, or if a hack needs more work than a restore, that extra cleanup is often billed by the hour. Ask about this up front so you are not surprised later.
If you need a campaign, a new online store, or a full rebuild, say so. That work can still get done. It just should not be hidden inside a monthly “care” price that was meant for updates and maintenance.
Do you need a plan?
You might benefit from a care plan if your site changes during the year, even in small ways, and you do not have time or interest in making those changes yourself. Holiday hours, a new special, a staff photo, a broken link, and routine software updates add up. They are easy to postpone, and postponed updates are how a site quietly falls behind.
A plan can also help if you are not comfortable logging into WordPress, Squarespace, Wix, Shopify, or GoDaddy Website Builder, or if you have been meaning to find “someone who can just handle it.” Having a person you can call or email is often the whole point.
You might not need a plan if you enjoy keeping the site yourself, you already have a trusted person on call, or the site almost never changes and you are comfortable doing the rare update. Some owners also prefer to pay only when they have a task. That can work if you are organized and the work is infrequent. The tradeoff is that backups, software updates, and small problems may sit until someone remembers to look.
There is no prize for being on a plan you do not use. If the site is simple and already in good shape, it is fair to wait. If you keep a mental list of “I should change that,” a plan is often the cleaner path.
How our plans work
We offer three month-to-month plans: Essential at $200 a month, Plus at $250, and All-Inclusive at $350. Every plan includes text edits on existing pages, updates to prices, specials, hours, and other details, swapping in photos you provide, plugin, theme, and WordPress core updates when they apply, weekly backups, uptime and security monitoring, and small layout fixes.
Essential includes up to two hours of updates each month, with a two-business-day turnaround. Plus includes up to three hours, next-business-day turnaround, and a short monthly summary of what we did. All-Inclusive is the Plus plan, plus one blog post and one email newsletter each month. Unused hours, posts, and newsletters do not roll over. You can cancel with 30 days’ notice.
Extra time is $85 an hour, billed in 30-minute increments. Extra blog posts are $100, and extra newsletters are $150. New pages and redesigns are quoted separately at a flat rate. We work on WordPress, Squarespace, Wix, Shopify, and GoDaddy Website Builder sites.
We mention our plans here so you can compare them to the picture above, not because every business needs one. If you are unsure, we would rather say so than sign you up for work you do not need.
A practical way to decide
Look at the last six months. How many times did the site need to change, and did those changes get made? Do you have a current backup? If a form stopped working tomorrow, who would you call? If those questions are easy to answer, you may be fine on your own. If not, a care plan puts a name, a phone number, and a monthly habit around the work.