Website maintenance contract: what to write, what to promise

Last updated: 9 November 2026

Most disputes over maintenance come from a vague contract. The client thinks “maintenance” means “everything”, the agency thinks “updates”. This guide lists what must be written down. It is not legal advice: have your template reviewed by a lawyer.

What is included, by name

List the tasks one by one: CMS, plugin and server updates, backups, uptime monitoring, certificate renewal. Anything not listed is outside the contract, and you say so too.

Uptime: do not promise 100%

No site is available 100% of the time, and a client who reads “100%” in a contract will remember it. If you commit, choose a realistic figure and say how it is measured. The downtime table helps you choose: 99.9% allows about 43 minutes of downtime a month.

Say what does not count: planned maintenance, host outage, attack. And who measures: if it is your monitoring tool, write it down.

Response times

Business hours or 24/7. If business hours, say which.
Time to take charge, which is not the time to resolve. Promise the first, not the second.
The channel: an email, a number, a ticket. Just one.

The monthly report, in the contract

Write that you send a report every month, and what it contains. It is an easy obligation to meet, and it is what makes the invoice understandable. Here is the typical content.

Term, notice, price

A one-year renewable term, one to three months’ notice to cancel, annual price reviewable on the anniversary date. Say what happens at the end: who keeps the access, the backups, the domain name.

Frequently asked questions

What price for website maintenance?

It depends on the site and what is included. Instead, work from the real time you spend on it, then add liability: you are the one the client calls when it breaks.