Pricing Guide
We analyzed hosting and maintenance costs across 50+ providers and 120+ NC small business websites. Here's what businesses actually pay — and where agencies hide fees.
TL;DR: Most NC small businesses pay $15–$400/month for hosting and maintenance. The average agency marks hosting up 3-5x. Here's the complete breakdown so you don't get overcharged.
Your website build is a one-time cost. Hosting and maintenance are forever. A $3,000 website with $50/month hosting costs $4,200 over 3 years. A $999 website with $15/month hosting costs $1,530 over the same period.
But here's where it gets expensive: agencies that charge $199–$400/month for "maintenance" often do almost nothing. You're paying premium prices for basic hosting.
| Tier | Monthly Cost | Who It's For | What's Included |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shared Basic | $5–$15/mo | Static sites, portfolios | Storage, basic bandwidth, email |
| Static/Edge Hosting | $0–$20/mo | Marketing sites, blogs | CDN, SSL, fast global delivery, no server |
| Managed WordPress | $25–$80/mo | Blogs, news sites, complex CMS | Automatic updates, staging, backups, security |
| Agency Bundled | $99–$400/mo | Businesses who want "everything included" | Hosting + updates + SEO monitoring + support |
| Enterprise/Custom | $500+/mo | E-commerce, high-traffic, custom apps | Dedicated resources, SLA, 24/7 support |
Here's where agencies make the most money. "Monthly maintenance" sounds necessary — and sometimes it is. But here's what's actually needed vs. what's padding the bill:
Red flag: Any agency charging $200+/month for "maintenance" on a basic 5-10 page small business website is overcharging. You can get everything they do for $25-50/month using automated tools.
We looked at actual hosting bills from NC businesses we work with and against:
| Business Type | Site Size | Agency Charges | Actual Cost | Overpay? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| HVAC Company, Raleigh | 8 pages | $249/mo | $19/mo (Cloudflare Pages + img optimization) | ❌ 13x markup |
| Salon, Cary | 5 pages + booking | $175/mo "maintenance + hosting" | $25/mo (WordPress managed) | ❌ 7x markup |
| Restaurant, Durham | Static, 12 pages | $99/mo (includes hosting) | $0/mo (Cloudflare Pages free tier) | ❌ Unlimited markup |
| Music School, Apex | 8 pages + blog | $189/mo "full service" | $30/mo (static site + blog subdomain) | ❌ 6x markup |
| Restoration Company, Charlotte | 15 pages + gallery | Was $299/mo, moved to $45/mo | $45/mo (Netlify + CMS) | ✅ Saved $254/mo |
If you build your site in 2026 on a static or edge-hosting platform, your hosting costs should be nearly zero:
The only sites that legitimately need paid hosting in 2026: WordPress sites with dynamic functionality, e-commerce with database needs, or sites with heavy traffic (>50k visitors/month).
For full transparency — we publish our pricing because we believe businesses should know what they're paying for:
| Service | What's Included | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Static/marketing site hosting | SSL, CDN, backups, monitoring, updates | $0 with any build |
| WordPress managed hosting | Updates, security, backups, staging, support | $29/mo |
| Site care plan (content updates) | Unlimited text changes, 5 image updates/mo | $49/mo |
| Domain management | Renewal, DNS, connections | $15/mo |
If an agency quotes you $199–$400/month for "maintenance" on a basic small business site, ask them to itemize exactly what's included. Most will not be able to explain what $200/month of value they're delivering beyond basic hosting.
At minimum, get 3 specific monitoring/maintenance tasks they perform each month, when they perform them, and what tools they use. If they can't answer that specifically — you're paying for nothing.
Take 10 minutes and check what you're actually paying:
Most NC small businesses are overpaying 5-10x for hosting and maintenance. Not because agencies are evil — but because most clients don't know enough to question the bill.
If you're paying:
We're happy to do a free hosting audit — we'll tell you exactly what you should be paying and what you're actually getting. No pitch, just the math.
We review hosting and maintenance costs for free. If you're overpaying, we'll tell you exactly what you should be on and help you move if you want.
Book Free Hosting Audit →Full disclosure: We host client sites on Cloudflare Pages and Netlify at no additional charge with any website build. For WordPress or complex sites, we charge $29-49/month and the work is actually done — not just "monitored."