Why a website needs looking after
A website is not a sign you hang once. Browsers update, phones change shape, Google moves the goalposts, and the software every site runs on ships security patches month after month. A site nobody tends gets slower, drops in search, starts throwing warnings, and eventually breaks on a Tuesday when a customer is trying to call you. Most of the "we had a website but it stopped working" stories we hear are exactly that: a site nobody was paid to watch.
The monthly fee is what makes the site somebody's job. Ours. You don't renew certificates, run backups, chase a hosting company, or learn a content editor. You send an email.
The math
The fee follows the page count, so it scales with the site, not with the calendar. Design and build are in every plan, and so is a monthly allowance of change orders — routine updates after launch, capped by hours of work:
| Plan | Pages | Up front | Change orders / mo | Per month |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Business | up to 5 | $0 | 2 · up to 1 hour | $49 |
| Professional | up to 10 | $0 | 6 · up to 3 hours | $99 |
| Advanced | up to 15 | $0 | 10 · up to 7 hours | $149 |
A Business site — up to 5 pages — is $49 a month, nothing down. A Professional site of up to 10 pages is $99 a month. A freelancer or small agency charges $3,000 to $4,000 to build a five-page site and then $100 to $200 a month to keep it; ours is one number, and the gap widens every year.
What it doesn't cover
New pages, new features, and anything on the add-ons list — an online store, booking, active SEO work, a Spanish-language version, custom tools. Those are projects, scoped and quoted up front before any work starts, and never slipped onto an invoice.
Questions we hear
- Is there a build fee?
- No. Nothing down. The design and the build are part of the monthly fee, and so is everything on this page.
- How is it billed?
- Monthly, by plan: $49 for up to 5 pages, $99 for up to 10 pages, $149 for up to 15 pages. Outgrow a plan and you move up to the next one. More than 15 pages is quoted.
- What counts as a change, and what counts as a project?
- Design revisions are free for 90 days after launch. After that, routine updates — hours, prices, photos, a new team member, a fix for something that looks off — are change orders, and every plan includes a monthly allowance: Business, 2 change orders a month, up to 1 hour of work; Professional, 6 change orders a month, up to 3 hours of work; Advanced, 10 change orders a month, up to 7 hours of work. A new page, a new feature, or anything on the add-ons list is a project, scoped and quoted up front.
- Can I just pay for hosting somewhere cheaper?
- Hosting alone is cheap, and it is the smallest part of the job. Cheap hosting does not patch the site, restore it when it breaks, notice when it is down, or answer the phone. The fee is for the whole of it, so the site you paid to build is still the site you have in three years.
- Who does the work?
- Patriot Web Builders is an American company in Salem, Oregon. The people who built your site are the people who look after it, and when you call, an American who knows your site answers. Nothing is sent overseas.