The costs every website has
Before anyone touches the site, a handful of bills arrive every year. They are small, but miss one and the site can go offline.
| Item | Typical cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Domain name | RM 50–150 a year | .com is the cheapest. .com.my usually costs more and needs company documents. Renew for several years at once. |
| Hosting | RM 0–3,000 a year | Static sites can run free or under RM 300. Shared WordPress hosting is RM 200–800. Managed WordPress hosting is RM 1,200–3,000. |
| Security certificate (SSL) | Usually RM 0 | Free with almost every host now. A small business rarely needs to pay for one. |
| Business email | RM 25–35 a person, a month | Optional. An address on your own domain looks more trustworthy than a free one. |
| Premium plugins or themes | RM 0–1,500 a year | WordPress only. Page builders, backup tools and form plugins often renew every year. |
How to choose a host, and what each type costs, is in website hosting for small business. Put every renewal date in one calendar, in your own name and login. An expired domain is the only bill here that can take your whole site, and your email, offline on the same day.
Why WordPress costs more to keep
WordPress and static sites cost about the same to build. Keeping them running costs very different amounts.
A WordPress site runs on software that changes every month: WordPress itself, the theme and every plugin. Each update fixes something, often a security hole, and each one can break something else. So someone has to update it, check the site still works, and keep backups that really restore. That is where most of the monthly cost goes.
A static site has no database and no plugins to update. It mostly needs nothing until you want to change something, so you pay per change instead of per month. The trade-off is that you usually can’t edit it yourself. The full comparison is in WordPress vs static website.
What a care plan should include
Prices vary a lot, and so does what you get. Use this to check whether a quote is fair for what it covers.
| Level | Typical cost | Should include | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | RM 150–400 a month | Monthly updates, monthly backups kept off the server, downtime alerts, 30–60 minutes of small changes. | Plans that only send a PDF report and never test a restore. |
| Full | RM 400–1,200 a month | Updates tested on a copy first, weekly or daily backups, security scans, speed checks, 2–4 hours of changes, a reply within one working day. | Unused hours that disappear each month without you noticing. |
| Pay per fix | RM 150–350 an hour | Help only when you ask for it. | Nobody checks the site in between, so problems are found late, usually by a customer. |
Whatever you pay, get four things in writing: what is included, how fast they reply when the site is down, how many hours of changes you get, and when they last tested a restore. A plan that can’t answer the last one is selling reports, not protection. For comparison, my own care plan for a one-page site is USD 49 a month (about RM 210).
Three sample yearly budgets
Typical totals for one year, including the care plan. A simple static site sits at the bottom of each range. More pages, more plugins and more urgent support push it to the top.
Small static site, you do the checks
A 1–5 page site that changes a few times a year.
DomainRM 60–150
HostingRM 0–300
Changes, paid per jobRM 300–600
A yearRM 400–1,000
WordPress brochure site, basic care
A 5–10 page site with a blog or news page.
DomainRM 60–150
HostingRM 300–800
Premium pluginsRM 200–500
Basic care planRM 1,800–4,800
A yearRM 2,400–6,200
WordPress with bookings or a shop, full care
A site that takes bookings, payments or orders.
DomainRM 60–150
Managed hostingRM 1,200–3,000
Premium pluginsRM 500–1,500
Full care planRM 4,800–14,400
A yearRM 6,600–19,000
To judge any of these, compare it with what one customer is worth to you. If one lost enquiry a year costs more than the plan, the plan pays for itself the first time it catches a broken form.
Costs nobody puts in the quote
These are the bills that arrive when maintenance is skipped. None of them comes with a warning.
Cleaning up a hacked site
RM 800–3,000, plus days offline and sometimes a warning on your Google listing. Almost always caused by updates that were skipped. What to do first: website hacked? a Malaysian guide.
Getting back an expired domain
RM 300–2,000 if it can be recovered at all, plus weeks of bounced email. If someone else buys it first, it may be gone for good.
Rebuilding without a backup
The full price of a new website. This is the most expensive maintenance bill there is.
Two years of updates at once
RM 1,000–4,000 to bring a neglected WordPress site up to date, because so much changes at once that things break.
Enquiries lost to a broken form
No invoice, so nobody counts it. Often the biggest cost of all, and the cheapest to prevent.
Each of these costs more than a year of basic care. That is the real case for maintenance: not the monthly report, but the bills it prevents. What to check yourself each month is in the website maintenance guide.
Quick check: is your maintenance set up right?
5 questions · 30 secondsAnswer for your own site, honestly.
Maintenance cost: owners’ questions
How much does website maintenance cost in Malaysia?
Every site pays RM 300–1,000 a year for domain and hosting. On top of that, a basic care plan usually costs RM 150–400 a month, and a full plan for WordPress sites with bookings or a shop RM 400–1,200 a month. A simple static site can cost almost nothing beyond the yearly bills.
Is a monthly care plan worth it?
If your site brings you enquiries and runs on WordPress, usually yes. One hacked-site clean-up or a month of lost enquiries costs more than a year of basic care. For a small static site that rarely changes, paying per change is often enough.
What should a website care plan include?
At minimum: monthly updates, backups kept away from the server, downtime alerts, a set amount of time for small changes, and a restore test at least once a year. Get it in writing, including how fast they reply when the site is down.
Why is WordPress maintenance more expensive?
WordPress, its theme and its plugins all release updates through the year, and each one can break something. Someone has to update, test and back up the site every month. A static site has none of these parts, so it needs far less looking after.
Can I stop paying for website maintenance?
You can, but keep paying for the domain and hosting, and do the free monthly checks yourself: test the form, open the site on your phone, and watch the renewal dates. On WordPress, stopping updates is risky, because old plugins are the most common way sites get hacked.
How much does it cost to fix a hacked website?
Usually RM 800–3,000 for a small business site, depending on the damage and whether a clean backup exists. Without a backup, it can mean rebuilding the site from zero.
Keep reading
Keeping your website running
The full guide
Keeping your website running
What to check, how often, and which parts to do yourself.
Choosing a platform
WordPress vs static website
Why one needs work every month and the other almost none.
Technical
Website speed optimization
Five reasons your site is slow, and which fixes to pay for.