What is a website care plan?

A care plan is a monthly fee for looking after a website after it launches: updates, backups, checks that the site and its forms still work, small edits and a short report. The client pays a set amount each month instead of calling someone when something breaks.

How much should I charge for a website care plan?

Start from your own monthly cost per site, including your time, and add a margin. As a market check, a 2026 GoDaddy guide put maintenance for small to medium business sites at $50 to $500 a month, and a 2026 Elementor guide said maintenance plans often cost $50 to $200 a month.

How do care plans create recurring revenue?

Each client on a plan pays every month for as long as the plan continues, so revenue from past projects keeps arriving between new builds. It only works if the plan is priced to cover your real time and costs, which is what the worksheet checks.

What if a care plan client wants to cancel?

Let them, on the notice period you agreed, and hand everything over cleanly: their logins, a final backup and a note of what was done. A fair exit is what makes the next client comfortable signing up.

How do I get the worksheet?

Enter your email on this page and we send the worksheet to your inbox as a PDF, with a download link that works for 7 days. Asking for it doesn't sign you up to anything; the newsletter is a separate box you tick only if you want it.

Run the agency

Build a book of monthly clients with a three-tier website care plan

A website care plan offer in three tiers, with monthly inclusions, a cost and margin sheet, and the scripts to sell and renew it. Free, sent to your inbox.

24 September 2026Free PDF, 6 pages

Get the website care plan offer by email

Enter your email and we'll send you the PDF.

Who it's for

A one-person AI agency that has built a few client websites and gets paid once per site. You want monthly revenue that carries on after launch, from a care plan clients understand, priced so every plan still pays once your time is counted.

What it helps you do

Offer three care plan tiers with exact monthly inclusions a local business owner understands
Price each plan from your real monthly cost per site, with unknowns in plain sight
Sell the plan at handover, and renew or re-price it each year without drama
Keep the plan fair: the client owns their accounts and can leave cleanly

What's inside

What a care plan is, in words you can say to a client
Three tiers, each with exactly what happens every month
Sourced price ranges for small-business care plans
A cost-per-site worksheet and a simple margin check
The handover script, the annual review script and fair cancellation terms
What to put in the monthly report so clients keep paying for it

A look inside: Tier 1: Keep it running

Backups every day, kept for at least 30 days, and one test restore every quarter, written down with the date.

A backup nobody has ever restored is a hope, not a backup.

How Volant runs this part of your agency

Renewals are decided on the client's record, and accepting one changes no billing by itself.
Money received is kept apart from money owed and money proposed, so you can see which plans have actually paid this month.
Volant is built to budget the costs it incurs, and to show costs elsewhere as unknown, not zero: the same rule as this worksheet.
Monthly reports show what happened, where each number came from, and what is missing.

Questions

Questions people ask

What is a website care plan?: A care plan is a monthly fee for looking after a website after it launches: updates, backups, checks that the site and its forms still work, small edits and a short report. The client pays a set amount each month instead of calling someone when something breaks.
How much should I charge for a website care plan?: Start from your own monthly cost per site, including your time, and add a margin. As a market check, a 2026 GoDaddy guide put maintenance for small to medium business sites at $50 to $500 a month, and a 2026 Elementor guide said maintenance plans often cost $50 to $200 a month.
How do care plans create recurring revenue?: Each client on a plan pays every month for as long as the plan continues, so revenue from past projects keeps arriving between new builds. It only works if the plan is priced to cover your real time and costs, which is what the worksheet checks.
What if a care plan client wants to cancel?: Let them, on the notice period you agreed, and hand everything over cleanly: their logins, a final backup and a note of what was done. A fair exit is what makes the next client comfortable signing up.
How do I get the worksheet?: Enter your email on this page and we send the worksheet to your inbox as a PDF, with a download link that works for 7 days. Asking for it doesn't sign you up to anything; the newsletter is a separate box you tick only if you want it.

Next step

Raising a care plan price without drama
How to raise care plan prices for existing clients and keep your AI agency's recurring revenue fair: when, how much notice, a letter to copy, and pushback.
The "what you own" page of a handover pack
A one-page template for the handover page a one-person AI agency's clients keep: every account they own, who can log in, what it costs and what comes next.
Moving a client site to a new host without downtime
How a one-person AI agency moves a client website to a new host without downtime: set up and test first, lower the DNS TTL, leave email alone, switch, check.
Accessibility basics for small business websites
A plain accessibility checklist for a one-person AI agency's small business sites: the six most common problems, how to check each without tools, the law.
Where should a one-person AI agency's money records live?
How a one-person AI agency can track who owes what: three money states, where each record should live, how long to keep them, and a monthly check.
How to price a care plan when hosting is included
Should a care plan include hosting? How to price hosting and care as recurring revenue for an AI agency, what to pass on at cost, and when a client leaves.
Website handover: what the client should own
What a one-person AI agency hands over when a client website goes live, from the domain and hosting to logins, files and renewals, so the client can run it.
How to check a client website before you show it or hand it over
A simple way for a one-person AI agency to check a client website: what to look at on a computer and a phone, in what order, and how to note what you checked.
Who owns what in a client project: domain, hosting, email and numbers
Should your AI agency or the client own each account? A plain rule, account by account, for domains, hosting, email, phone numbers and the tools in between.
Care plan tiers that don't confuse anyone
How to name and split tiers so clients pick quickly.
What a care plan is
A plain definition of the monthly service.
Keep clients: messages, meetings, reports and renewals in one place
How Volant keeps each client's plan, reports and renewals together.
All guides
Every free checklist, template and worksheet.

Sources

GoDaddy: How much does it cost to maintain a website in 2026? (13 April 2026)Checked 24 September 2026
Elementor: How much does a small business website cost? (a 2026 breakdown, 29 June 2026)Checked 24 September 2026
Let's Encrypt: Decreasing Certificate Lifetimes to 45 Days (2 December 2025)Checked 24 September 2026
BrightLocal: Local Consumer Review Survey 2026 (11 February 2026)Checked 24 September 2026

Start here

Sell the service this week.Run the whole agency in one place.

Every guide works on paper, with or without Volant. Volant puts your prospects, offers, payments and client work in one place on your desktop, while your agents do the work.

For Mac and Windows. Works with Claude Code.

Join the waitlist