Proposal template

Website maintenance proposal template

A website maintenance proposal in seven sections, from what your client told you to a paid site check, a monthly care plan they can stop with 30 days' notice, and the next steps. For web studios and freelancers who look after their clients' sites. Read it here or get it as a Word file and a PDF.

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Michael Koper
By Michael Koper, founder of Nusii Updated
The website maintenance proposal template: the cover and the investment page with a $500 site check and a $150 monthly care plan
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On this page
  1. What to include
  2. The template
  3. A filled-in example
  4. See it as your client will
  5. What to charge
  6. After you send it
  7. Word and PDF
  8. Questions

What should a website maintenance proposal include?

A website maintenance proposal should say what the client told you and what you found on the site, what you'll do every week, day and month, what happens when it breaks, what's included and what isn't, who owns the site, the price (usually a one-time setup and a monthly fee) and how to say yes. The template below has a section for each.

  1. 1 Introduction
  2. 2 What we heard
  3. 3 How we'll work
  4. 4 Results for businesses like yours
  5. 5 What's included
  6. 6 Investment
  7. 7 Next steps

The website maintenance proposal template, section by section

Copy one section or the whole thing. Under each section: what it's for, and one thing we've learned from the proposals sent with Nusii.

[Yellow] you write [Green] Nusii fills in when you send it

1. Introduction

The whole plan in two sentences, with both prices, and who you are. Partners and colleagues read it too, often without having been on the call. Working on your own? Write "I" instead of "we".

Hi [Client first name],

Thanks for the call on [date of your call]. You told us that [the problem in one sentence, in the client's words, such as "the site went down for two days in March and we only found out when a customer called"].

In short: we take over the care of your website. In the first week we check it, back it up and fix what's broken, for a fixed [$500]. After that, we keep it updated, backed up and watched for [$150] a month, and make small changes when you need them. You can stop with 30 days' notice.

[Your studio] is a [number]-person web studio in [city]. We look after [number] websites for [local businesses] and have done since [year].

[Your name]
[Your role], [Your studio]

Proposals with a website maintenance or care plan got their first look in a median of 1 hour in Nusii (406 proposals, November 2025 to October 2026), and about a third of all first views are on a phone. That's why the plan and both prices fit on the first screen.

2. What we heard

Shows you listened, says what you found when you looked at the site, and puts a number on what a day offline costs the client. Only you can write this one: replace the examples with your client's words.

Each goal below answers something you told us. If we got anything wrong, tell us before you accept and we'll fix it.

  • You said [the site was down for two days in March, and you found out from a customer]. We'll watch it every [five] minutes and start fixing it within [two hours] when it goes down, [on working days].
  • You said [nobody has updated anything since the developer who built it moved on, and you're not sure who has the logins]. We'll take stock of every login, plugin and renewal in the first week, and keep it all up to date from then on.
  • You said [changing the opening hours takes weeks]. We'll make small changes within [two working days], up to [one hour] a month.

What we found: [what you saw when you looked at the site, with a number, such as "WordPress and 9 of your 14 plugins are out of date, two with known security problems, and the newest backup we could find is from 2024"].

What stays: [what works and won't change, such as "your hosting and your booking system, which work fine"].

What success looks like: [a result you can both check every month, such as "the site up at least 99.9% of the time, every update installed within a week and small changes done within two working days"], shown in the monthly report.

What it's worth: you told us the website brings in about [40] booking requests a month, worth about [$300] each. A day offline costs about [$400] in bookings, more than [two] months of this plan.

If nothing changes: [what the client said happens if nobody looks after the site, such as "a customer finds the next outage before we do"].

"What will happen if this project doesn't go ahead?" is one of the ten questions in our 2015 book on proposals. For a care plan, the answer is often something that already happened: an outage, a hack, a developer who stopped answering. Ask about it on the call, and ask what a day offline would cost. Those two answers fill in "What it's worth".

3. How we'll work

What happens in the first week, then every week, day and month, so the client knows what the monthly fee pays for. The first line says why the cheaper route won't do. If you didn't talk about one, delete it.

We talked about [leaving it to your host's automatic updates]. It would cost less, but [nobody would check that the booking form still works afterward, or restore the site if an update broke it]. So here's the plan.

  1. Week 1: site check and setup. We take a full backup, collect the logins and check [WordPress], every plugin, the theme and the hosting. We bring everything up to date, fix what's broken (up to [four] hours) and set up daily backups and monitoring. You get a short report: what we found, what we fixed and what needs your decision.
  2. Every week: updates. We update [WordPress, the plugins and the theme], [on a copy of the site first], then check [the home page, the booking form and the contact form] on the live site.
  3. Every day: backups and monitoring. A backup of the whole site, kept for [30] days away from your hosting. We check that the site is up every [five] minutes and scan it for malware every day.
  4. Every month: changes and a report. Up to [one hour] of small changes (text, photos, opening hours, [a new page in an existing layout]), done within [two working days]. And a one-page report: what we updated, uptime, backups and anything that needs your decision.

If something breaks: when the site goes down or gets hacked, we start fixing it within [two hours] on working days and [the next morning] at weekends, and restore it from a backup if that's quicker.

Philip Morgan, in our 2015 book on proposals, prefers to propose "the smallest possible increment of improvement I can make for that client". The site check is that: a small paid first step with a clear end, where the client sees how you work before the monthly plan starts.

4. Results for businesses like yours

Short proof for the people who weren't on the call: what you did for sites like this one. Use real numbers from a real client, or leave this section out.

  • [Past client], [kind of business]: [what you did, with a number and a timeframe, such as "a plugin update broke their checkout on a Saturday; we restored it from the night's backup in 40 minutes"].
  • [Past client], [kind of business]: [what changed, such as "no unplanned downtime in the 18 months we've looked after their site"].

"[A one-line quote from one of those clients.]" [Name, role, company]

Proposals to a client who had accepted one before were accepted 62.6% of the time in Nusii, against 46.4% for a first proposal from the same senders (July to September 2026). If you built this client's site, say so here and drop the site check. If you didn't, one story of a site you put right does the job.

5. What's included

Draws the line between what the monthly fee covers and what costs extra, says what you need from the client, and that the site stays theirs. Most care plan disputes start with "I thought that was included".

Included

  • The site check and setup in week 1, with a short report
  • Weekly updates of [WordPress, the plugins and the theme], [tested on a copy first]
  • Daily backups, kept for [30] days away from your hosting, and a test restore every [three months]
  • Uptime checks every [five] minutes and a daily malware scan
  • Fixing the site when it goes down or gets hacked, starting within [two hours] on working days
  • Up to [one hour] of small changes a month, done within [two working days] (unused time doesn't carry over)
  • A one-page report every month, and answers by email within [one working day]

Not included

  • New pages, new features or a redesign, at [$125] an hour, quoted before we start
  • Hosting, your domain name and paid plugins, about [$40] a month, which you pay directly
  • Writing new text, photography and SEO
  • Fixing changes someone else makes to the site. Tell us first and it won't come to that; otherwise it's billed by the hour, once you've agreed to the cost.
  • Guaranteed uptime. [Your host runs the server.] We watch it and act fast when it goes down.

What we need from you: admin logins for [WordPress, your hosting and your domain] in week 1, one person who can approve changes, and a word before anyone else changes the site.

What you keep: your website, domain, hosting and logins stay in your name. If you stop, we send you the latest full backup and a list of everything we set up, and remove our access within [five working days].

Philip Morgan and Jonathan Stark, in our 2015 book: "You will almost never be the only party responsible for the outcome of a project." With a care plan, the client still pays for the hosting, renews the domain and decides who else logs in. Write their part down.

6. Investment

One price in two parts: the site check, then the monthly plan, each with when it's invoiced, and a way out after the check. These are example prices; the table further down shows what others charge.

Site check and setup

$500

The full backup, the check of [WordPress, the plugins, the theme and the hosting], updates and fixes up to [four] hours, backups and monitoring set up, and the report. A fixed price, invoiced when you accept. If you'd rather not go on after the report, tell us within a week: you pay for the site check, you keep the report and the fixes, and the monthly plan doesn't start.

Website care plan

$150 a month

Everything under Included, for one website. Invoiced on the 1st of each month, starting the month after the site check. Month to month: stop whenever you like with 30 days' notice.

Total: $500 then $150 a month

In Nusii, proposals with a recurring fee were accepted less often than one-off ones (39.5% against 54.5% for the same senders, July to September 2026). A monthly plan is a bigger decision. The site check gives the client a small first step with a clear end.

7. Next steps

Tells the client exactly what to do to say yes, what happens after, and when you'll call. No expiry date, no "limited availability".

  1. If the plan works for you, accept and sign this proposal.
  2. We'll send the invoice for the site check ([$500]) and a secure way to share your logins [through 1Password], and start the site check on [a date within a week].
  3. You get the report at the end of that week. The monthly plan starts on the 1st of the next month, unless you tell us otherwise.

I'll call you on [a day three to five days from now] to answer any questions. If you have any before then, call me on [phone number] or reply to the email this proposal came with.

Proposals with a website maintenance or care plan got their yes in a median of 4.3 days in Nusii, and 56.8% of the yeses came within a week (406 proposals, November 2025 to October 2026). A call three to five days after you send it lands while most clients are still deciding.

A website maintenance proposal example, filled in

Two sections of the template above with a client's words in the brackets, so you can see how it reads when it's done. Fernbrook Veterinary Clinic is made up, and so are its numbers.

Keeping the Fernbrook Veterinary Clinic website up, safe and up to date

What we heard

  • You said the site was down for two days in March, and you found out when a client called to ask why the booking form didn't work. We'll watch it every five minutes and start fixing it within two hours when it goes down, on working days.
  • You said nobody has updated anything since the developer who built it moved away, and you're not sure who has the logins. We'll take stock of every login, plugin and renewal in the first week, and keep it all up to date from then on.
  • You said changing the holiday opening hours took three weeks last year. We'll make small changes within two working days, up to one hour a month.

What success looks like: the site up at least 99.9% of the time, every update installed within a week and small changes done within two working days, shown in the monthly report.

What it's worth: you told us the website brings in about 40 appointment requests a month, worth about $300 each. A day offline costs about $400 in appointments, more than two months of this plan.

If nothing changes: a client finds the next outage before you do, and the next out-of-date plugin could take the site down for longer.

Investment

Site check and setup

$500

Website care plan

$150 a month

Total: $500 then $150 a month

See it as your client will

Every page of the PDF, printed by Nusii. Sent as a link, it's one scrolling page on any device: your client accepts with one button and signs with their name.

Page 1 of the website maintenance proposal template Page 2 of the website maintenance proposal template Page 3 of the website maintenance proposal template Page 4 of the website maintenance proposal template Page 5 of the website maintenance proposal template Page 6 of the website maintenance proposal template Page 7 of the website maintenance proposal template
Open the live preview

The template in Nusii, the way your client will see it. It opens in a new tab.

What to charge for website maintenance

What care plans cost, from Nusii's own proposals and the published prices we could check. The template's example, $150 a month after a $500 site check, sits in FatLab's standard range and below the middle plans of Websults and WP Buffs. It's a little above the $123 median of accepted care plans in Nusii. The site check is four hours at $125 an hour. Before you name your price, find out what the client has in mind: how eight freelancers and agency owners ask about the budget.

What Price
Accepted care plans in Nusii $123 a month (median) half between $65 and $300; 99 accepted proposals, November 2025 to October 2026 Nusii
Care plan, basic $30 to $100 a month updates, backups and basic monitoring FatLab
Care plan, standard $100 to $300 a month plus support, security and some development time FatLab
One studio's care plans $99 to $349 a month for one WordPress site, with 30 minutes to 3 hours of changes Websults
One care company's plans $89 to $359 a month four plans, from updates and backups to custom sites WP Buffs
Small and medium business sites $50 to $500 a month a host's estimate GoDaddy
Small business site $35 to $100 a month an agency's estimate; $125 to $500 for a larger business site WebFX
Extra work, web design companies $100 to $149 an hour listed rates of companies shortlisted on Clutch Digital Applied

Sources: Nusii, monthly care, maintenance, support or hosting fees in accepted proposals (method as in The State of Proposals); FatLab, a website care company's guide, January 2026; Websults, a web studio's published plans, 2026; WP Buffs, a WordPress care company's published plans; GoDaddy, a host's guide, April 2026; WebFX, an agency's guide, December 2025; Digital Applied, an agency's roundup of published figures, October 2026. Apart from Nusii's row, these come from companies that sell care plans, hosting or website work, so treat them as sellers' figures. We didn't find an independent survey of what care plans cost.

How often proposals got a yes, by price

These totals leave monthly fees out, so for a care plan they show the one-time part: the template's $500 site check is in the under $1,000 band. Proposals with a recurring fee were accepted less often than one-off ones (40% against 55% for the same senders). From 1,713 proposals first sent with Nusii, July to September 2026.

Under $1,000
67.1%
$1,000 to $5,000
50.7%
$5,000 to $15,000
48.9%
$15,000 to $50,000
36.1%
Over $50,000
33.3%

Share accepted, by the total the client saw. Bigger proposals are bigger decisions, so this shows what happened, not that a lower price would win. Method: The State of Proposals 2026.

What happens after you send it

From 406 proposals first sent with Nusii from November 2025 to October 2026 with website maintenance, a care plan or website support in the proposal's name or a section title.

39.9%
were accepted
1 hour
median time to the client's first look
4.3 days
median time to a yes
56.8%
of the yeses came within a week

Clients rarely say no. Of all proposals sent with Nusii from July to September 2026, 6.5% were rejected and 45.2% got no answer either way. Silence is the usual no, so a follow-up is worth sending.

Follow up after a week. Most yeses come within seven days. In Nusii you see when the proposal was opened and get an email when it's accepted, so you can follow up when they've read it, not when you guess they have.

More numbers and the method: The State of Proposals 2026.

Get the Word and PDF files

The same template as a Word file you can edit (it opens in Google Docs too) and a PDF printed by Nusii. We'll email you both, plus a few emails with proposal tips. Unsubscribe any time.

Or send it with Nusii

This template is in the gallery of every Nusii account. Send it as a link: you get an email when your client opens it, and they accept and sign online, on any device.

I can put together a polished proposal quickly without fighting the software, and my clients can review and sign it electronically, which makes it easier for them to say yes and get started.

Janelle Hardin
Janelle Hardin
Founder, Dingo Integrated Marketing

The best thing about Nusii is being alerted when a client has viewed the proposal. Highly recommend.

Rory Flynn
Rory Flynn
, Clever Digital
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Questions about website maintenance proposals

What is a website maintenance proposal?

A document that offers to look after a client’s website for a monthly fee: what you’ll do, how fast you’ll act when something breaks, what it costs and how to start. It’s written to win the work, in plain words, and usually comes before or instead of a formal maintenance contract.

What should a website maintenance proposal include?

What the client told you and what you found on the site, what you’ll do every week, day and month, how fast you act when it breaks, what’s included and what isn’t, what you need from the client, who owns the site, the price and the next steps. That’s seven sections, the same as the template on this page.

How much should I charge for website maintenance?

Published care plans for one small business site mostly run $100 to $300 a month: FatLab puts standard care there, and Websults charges $99 to $349 a month for one WordPress site. In Nusii, accepted care plans had a median of $123 a month, with half between $65 and $300 (99 proposals, November 2025 to October 2026). Plans with only updates, backups and monitoring start at about $30 to $100. What moves the price is the hours of changes you include and how fast you promise to act. This template uses a $500 site check and $150 a month as example prices.

What should a website care plan include?

Updates, daily backups kept away from the server, uptime checks and malware scans, fixing the site when it breaks, a set number of hours of small changes and a short monthly report. Say what isn’t included too: new features, hosting, writing and fixing changes someone else made.

Is a website maintenance proposal the same as a maintenance contract?

No. The proposal wins the work: the client’s problem, your plan and the price. A contract or agreement sets the legal terms. This template covers the scope, the price, the notice period and who owns the site in plain words, and it isn’t legal advice. If you use an agreement, attach it.

Should website maintenance be part of the web design proposal?

Name it there and let the client decide at launch. In Nusii, about 6 in 10 proposals with a maintenance or care plan in a title also covered a website build (234 of 406, November 2025 to October 2026). Our web design proposal template mentions a care plan with its price; this template is the one to send when the client is ready, or for a site somebody else built.

Can I use this template for a site I didn’t build?

Yes, that’s what the site check is for. You see the site, the plugins and the hosting before the monthly price starts, and the client keeps the report even if they stop there. If you built the site yourself, drop the site check and start the monthly plan at launch.

Should I offer several care plan packages?

Only if the client asked about choices. In Nusii, proposals where the client could choose between options were accepted less often (40% against 51% for the same senders, July to September 2026). Send the one plan that fits what you heard.

Should a care plan have a minimum term?

It doesn’t need one when the setup is paid separately. This template runs month to month with 30 days’ notice after a paid site check. Proposals with a recurring fee were accepted less often in Nusii (40% against 55% for the same senders, July to September 2026), so the template keeps the commitment small.

How many hours of changes should a care plan include?

A number in writing, close to what the client really asks for. Websults’ plans include 30 minutes to 3 hours a month. This template has one hour, done within two working days, and quotes anything bigger by the hour. Unused time doesn’t carry over, so the hours don’t pile up.

Can I raise the price of a care plan later?

Yes, with notice. Give the client at least the same 30 days they need to stop, and say what the new price includes. Our post on raising your prices without losing clients has more on how to say it.

Can I use this template for Squarespace, Webflow or another platform?

Yes. The platform is a word in brackets. On a hosted platform the software updates come from the platform itself, so the plan is mostly small changes, checks and support, and the price can be lower.

Can I use this template as a freelancer?

Yes. Write “I” instead of “we” and promise response times you can keep on your own, holidays included: say who covers for you or when you’re away.

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