Website maintenance for small business

Website Maintenance Services

Website maintenance usually means paying an agency to keep an aging site patched. Theo rebuilds the site, hosts it, makes the changes you ask for, and on Starter and Pro works on it every week, from $69.99 a month, free for the first 30 days. Month to month, and the site stays yours.

See If Google Can Find You - Free Build a site free and see it first

By Theo. Updated September 28, 2026.

Plumbing company demo website built by Theo

One monthly price covers hosting, security and changes by chat
No core, theme or plugin updates: a static site has none
New pages, technical fixes and a report every week on Starter and Pro
Month to month, with the site yours to keep if you leave

From $69.99 a month on Starter, free for 30 days.
Rated 4.7 out of 5 on Trustpilot from 27 reviews
10,000+ sites built
Your first build is on Theo: see the site before you decide

Website maintenance services keep a site online, patched and current, usually through an agency retainer billed monthly or by the hour. Theo replaces the retainer with a plan: it rebuilds the site as a static site on its own managed hosting, so there is nothing to patch, and makes changes when you type them into a chat. Basic is $29.99 a month for the site, hosting and security. Starter, $69.99 a month and free for the first 30 days, adds the ongoing search work: new pages and posts, technical fixes, indexing through Search Console and a weekly report. Pro is $129.99 a month with more of each. OuterBox, an agency, puts typical maintenance budgets at $100 to $2,500 a month, as of September 2026.

What maintenance means here

What website maintenance services include at Theo

An agency maintenance list runs: core and plugin updates, backups, uptime checks, security scans, small edits by the hour. A Theo site has no software to update, so the monthly fee goes to the parts an owner notices: changes on every plan and, on Starter and Pro, new pages, fixes and a report that shows them.

Hosting and security, with nothing to update

Every Theo site is a static website served over HTTPS on Theo's managed hosting, on every plan. The first line of most agency maintenance lists, core, theme and plugin updates, does not apply: there is no CMS, theme or plugin to patch, no database behind the pages and no hosting account to renew. An owner moving from WordPress leaves behind the update list in the dashboard and the plugin renewals that came with it. Where a store is connected, payment runs through the store's own provider, never through the site. On any plan you can copy the site and its images out, and on Pro the code is readable through GitHub.

Changes when the business changes

New hours, a new price, a team photo, a page for a service you just added: type it into the chat in plain English and Theo makes the change. Drag photos straight into the chat. Layout requests work the same way, down to "Move the fifth section above section two." Small edits use a few chat credits, a new page more and a redesign the most; Basic includes 1,500 credits a month, Starter 4,500 and Pro 7,000, and top-up credits roll over and never expire. The restaurant demo on the examples page keeps its menu as text so search engines read it; a menu change is then a message in the chat rather than a new PDF.

Technical fixes, page speed and indexing

On Starter and Pro, Theo fixes technical SEO issues as it finds them, works on page speed and submits new and changed pages to Google through Search Console, none of it billed to chat credits. Each fix is listed in the Growth tab as it is made.

New pages and posts every week, from research

Starter includes weekly content: service pages, blog posts and landing pages built around the keywords and competitors Theo researches for the business, so each new page targets a search customers actually make. The plumbing demo site at the top of this page shows the shape for a trade: separate pages for repair, drains and water heaters, and service-area pages by town. Those are the pages the weekly work keeps adding, one search at a time. Each new page waits in the Growth tab for your review and goes live when you publish it, or on its own if you turn auto-publish on. Pro adds more pages and posts each week and more room for bigger changes. Growth work never uses chat credits, so a busy month of edits does not slow the publishing.

AI search, authority and copy that improves

On Starter and Pro, Theo works toward citations in AI search tools, including ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews, and builds the site's authority over months; this is the slow part of the work and the reason the plan compounds instead of starting over each month. The same work refines copy, calls to action, layout and page flow over time as the analytics show what visitors do. Most agency maintenance contracts stop at keeping the site running. These items are what turn upkeep into growth, and they are the difference between Basic at $29.99 a month and Starter at $69.99.

Reports and proof you can check

On Starter and Pro, Theo tracks analytics and performance and shows what was built and fixed in the Growth tab and in a weekly report, so the maintenance fee has a paper trail you can read. For proof outside your own account: Buy My Lunch, a school lunch service that moved to Theo in June 2026, went from 131 clicks from Google search in one 90-day period to 929 in the next, the 90 days through September 27, 2026, by its own Search Console data. The demo sites on the examples page show what a build includes, and on request the team shares live customer sites in your industry whose owners have agreed.

Who this is for

Who Theo's web maintenance services fit

Theo fits an owner who wants the website handled as one monthly line item: hosted, current and worked on, without a ticket queue or an hourly invoice. Most people searching for website maintenance services have a site already, often on WordPress; Theo's answer is a rebuild on its own hosting, copying the current look if wanted, then upkeep and growth under one fee. A DIY builder leaves layout and edits to you; Theo handles both by chat. In Theo's audit of 5,974 small business websites, 48 percent of the 4,027 sites with search data got an estimated zero visitors a month from Google search (the full report). Patching does not move that number; publishing and fixing do.

Choosing a website maintenance company

How to choose a website maintenance company

Whether the choice is Theo, an agency or a freelancer, three questions separate a website maintenance company that keeps a site alive from one that keeps it useful. Ask them of every provider and compare the answers side by side; website maintenance packages lays out Theo's three plans against typical agency packages.

What is in the monthly price, and what gets billed extra?

Get the list in writing. Many retainers cover updates and backups and bill every edit by the hour, so a busy month costs more than a quiet one; OuterBox, an agency, lists development at $200 an hour, as of September 2026. With Theo, hosting, security and, on Starter and Pro, the weekly growth work are in the price, and the paid extras are top-up credits, a domain bought through Theo and the optional backlink packages in the Boost checklist. Ask also what a provider does not do: with Theo, bookings, payments and member databases run in the tools built for them (Calendly, Square Appointments, Toast and the rest), and the site links to them; custom code is not part of the plan.

Who makes the change when the site needs one on a Tuesday afternoon?

At many agencies, a ticket that waits for the next support window or the next prepaid hour. Ask how a request is submitted, who reads it and how you know it is done. On Theo, the chat: describe the change and it is made, with no form and no brief to write. You do the asking, or anyone you invite as a collaborator from the site's settings does.

Will the plan make the site easier to find, or only keep it running?

Running is the floor, and most maintenance contracts stop there. Ask what gets published each month, what gets fixed, whether new pages are submitted to Google and how you will see any of it. Theo's answer on Starter, $69.99 a month, and Pro: pages and posts each week built from keyword research, technical fixes and page-speed work, submissions through Search Console, work toward citations in ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews, and a weekly report that lists all of it. On Basic, $29.99 a month, none of that runs; it is the site, hosting and chat edits.

Included

What Theo handles

Managed hosting over HTTPS

On every plan. The site is a static website on Theo's managed hosting, served over HTTPS; there is no hosting account to renew, no server to patch and no plugin layer to update. If a store is connected, checkout and payment happen on the store, so card details never touch the site.

Changes by chat

On every plan. Basic comes with 1,500 chat credits a month, Starter with 4,500 and Pro with 7,000. A typo or a new phone number uses a little; a new page uses more; a redesign uses the most. Top-up credits roll over and never expire; the other paid extras are a domain bought through Theo and the optional backlink packages in the Boost checklist.

Domain, store and tool connections

On every plan. Bring a domain and Theo shows you where to point it, root and www, or buy one inside Theo. A Shopify or Wix store connects directly with products, prices, stock and a cart. Booking, point-of-sale and reservation tools such as Calendly, Square Appointments, Jobber, Housecall Pro, Toast and OpenTable are linked, not replaced, and Meta and TikTok pixels can be set on the site. The Boost checklist walks you through the listings that matter, starting with Google Business Profile, Apple Business Connect, Bing Places and Yelp.

Keyword and competitor research

On Starter and Pro. Theo studies what customers search for and what competing sites rank for, and the weekly pages come from that list rather than from a content calendar you have to fill in. The research runs continuously, so later pages build on what the earlier ones learned.

Weekly pages, posts and fixes

On Starter and Pro. New service pages, blog posts and landing pages each week, plus technical fixes and page-speed work, none of it billed to credits. Pro adds more each week. The work runs whether or not you ask for anything that month, which is the difference between a plan and a block of hours.

Indexing, AI search and reports

On Starter and Pro. New and changed pages go to Google through Search Console, Theo works toward citations in ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews, and the Growth tab and weekly report show the work. Pro adds read-only access to the site code through GitHub.

Process

How it happens

Run the free audit, or describe the business

Owners with a site paste its address into the free audit: it reads traffic, rankings and search health and returns specific fixes, no login needed, and it runs about 4,000 audits a month. Owners without a site describe the business in the chat. Either way Theo builds a preview at no charge, usually within minutes, and can match the look of your current site from its URL. What you see: a working preview you can click through on your phone, before you have paid or decided anything.

Refine the preview, then publish

Ask for changes in the chat: a different photo, a shorter headline, a page for each service, the hours in the footer. Publish when it reads right. Publishing puts the site on a temporary address while your current site keeps serving visitors, so nothing changes for customers until you say so. What you see: the live site at its temporary address, the chat where every later change starts, and the plan choice, with Starter free for the first 30 days.

Move the domain and connect Google

Theo walks you through pointing the domain at the new site, root and www, turning off forwarding and parking at the registrar and leaving email records alone. Once the registrar's records update, usually a few hours later, your domain shows the new site; until that moment the old one stays live. Then connect Analytics and Search Console. Old addresses that still get traffic or carry links are redirected to the matching new pages once Search Console is connected; on Starter and Pro the new pages are also submitted through it. What you see: your domain on the new site, and email working as before.

Maintenance becomes a weekly rhythm

With the domain and both Google connections in place, the growth work on Starter and Pro switches on: keyword and competitor research, new pages and posts, technical fixes, page-speed work, indexing and a report every week, none of it drawn from chat credits. Changes you ask for run in the chat alongside it. What you see: the Growth tab listing what was built and fixed, the weekly report, and, if you ever cancel, a confirmation that shows the exact date the plan ends.

Pricing

What it costs, in full

The ongoing search work is part of Starter and Pro. Basic is the site and hosting on its own. Starter is free for the first 30 days.

Plan	Per month	Ongoing search work	Chat credits	Best for
Basic	$29.99	Not included	1,500 a month	Owners who just want their site live and easy to update.
StarterFree for 30 days	$69.99	Included, uses no credits	4,500 a month	Owners who want the site handled without heavy publishing volume.
Pro	$129.99	Included, uses no credits	7,000 a month	Owners who want more capacity, more publishing, and more room to experiment.

No contract, cancel anytime, and you own the site and its content. Top-up credits roll over and never expire. Full pricing and what credits are.

Reviews

What customers say

Rated 4.7 out of 5 on Trustpilot from 27 reviews.

Theo is the best in the game. I was originally forking over hundreds of dollars for a website hosting service only to be on the third page of Google search, but with Theo, I have a gorgeous site constantly optimizing SEO and actually getting me conversions. Truly life changing stuff, couldn’t be more grateful

Greg on Trustpilot

Theo is a fantastic platform, not only from a build and usability standpoint, but in terms of real, measurable performance. The platform is intuitive, well thought out, and easy to work with. More importantly, we saw significant lifts in a remarkably short period of time, and the analytics gave us a clear view into what was driving it. It has been genuinely impressive to see how quickly Theo makes an impact.

Tom Drymalski on Trustpilot

This tool is amazing! Truly the best bespoke AI tool that I've come across in the past year. The website design capabilities are tremendous, and even though I've only experienced 2 months of how Theo can support with SEO, the increases in traction we saw were significant. I've been telling everyone I know who could benefit from Theo to start using it today.

Josh Buoy on Trustpilot

Compare

Theo against the alternatives

	Theo	Typical agency	DIY builder
Monthly cost	$69.99 (Starter, free for 30 days) or $129.99 (Pro); the site plus hosting alone is $29.99 (Basic)	OuterBox: $100 to $2,500 a month, development at $200 an hour; Webstix: prepaid blocks at $80; Netlynx: plans at $99 and $199 a month, as of September 2026	A builder subscription plus the hours you put in
Software updates	Not needed: a static site with no CMS, theme or plugins	Core, theme and plugin updates, the bulk of the retainer	Done by the platform
Hosting	Included on every plan, served over HTTPS	Resold inside the retainer or billed as a separate line	Included in the subscription
Requesting a change	Type it in the chat; paid from monthly credits	Ticket or email, billed hourly or from a block of prepaid hours	Open the editor and do it yourself
New pages and posts	Every week on Starter and Pro, at no credit cost	Rare in maintenance; sold as a content retainer	Written and built by you
Search fixes and indexing	On Starter and Pro: technical fixes, speed work, pages submitted through Search Console	A separate SEO engagement	The platform's SEO settings, run by you
Term	Month to month; cancel anytime	A monthly retainer or a block of prepaid hours	Monthly or annual subscription
Who owns the site	The owner; Pro can copy the code from GitHub	Depends on the agreement	The content is yours; the site lives on the builder

FAQ

Questions buyers ask

How much do website maintenance services cost?

OuterBox, an agency, puts typical maintenance budgets at $100 to $2,500 a month and bills development at $200 an hour; Webstix, an agency, sells support in prepaid blocks at $80, with a 12-block pack at $720; Netlynx, an agency, lists plans at $99 and $199 a month, all as of September 2026. Theo charges $29.99 a month on Basic for the site, hosting and 1,500 chat credits, $69.99 a month on Starter for the site, hosting, 4,500 chat credits and the weekly search work, free for the first 30 days, and $129.99 on Pro for 7,000 credits and more of the weekly work. A month of Starter costs less than one of Webstix's $80 blocks and includes hosting, weekly pages and fixes rather than billing them by the hour. The pricing page lists every plan and explains credits.

How long does it take to get started?

The first preview usually arrives in minutes once Theo has the URL or a description of the business. Going live on your own domain depends on when you publish and when the registrar's records update, usually within a few hours after you change them; the old site keeps serving until then. The weekly work on Starter and Pro starts after the domain and both Google connections are in place.

Who owns the website?

You do, always: the site, its pages, copy and images, on every plan. Theo is the host, not the owner. A domain you brought stays in your registrar account throughout; Theo only shows you where to point it. On Pro the code is readable through GitHub, and on any plan you can copy the site and images to move elsewhere.

Can I cancel?

Yes, at any time; there is no contract and no minimum term. The cancellation confirmation gives the date the subscription stops, and until then the site and its images remain yours to copy.

I already have a website. How does moving it to Theo work?

Theo reads the current site from its URL and builds a preview that keeps the look, or a fresh one if you would rather. You publish to a temporary address, then point the domain at it; the old site keeps serving until the records switch, and email records are left alone. Old addresses that still get traffic or carry links are redirected to the matching new pages once Search Console is connected, and on Starter and Pro the new pages are submitted through Search Console. WordPress owners leave the plugin, theme and core update cycle behind in the move; Theo versus WordPress walks through what else changes.

What happens when something on the site needs fixing?

Say so in the chat and Theo changes it, whether a typo, a dead link, a photo that should be swapped or a section in the wrong place; small fixes use a few credits. On Starter and Pro, technical issues the ongoing work finds are fixed as part of the plan without credits, and the fix shows in the Growth tab. A static site hosted by Theo has no plugin conflict or failed update to recover from, so there is no after-hours rate and nothing to call about at 2 a.m. For anything the chat cannot settle, the team is reachable at team@theo.site and through the Contact Us page.

Does Theo maintain online stores?

Yes. A Shopify or Wix store connects directly on every plan: the site shows products, prices and stock with a cart, the customer pays on the store, and after you change products in the store you click Refresh my products. An Etsy shop's public listings are read and turned into product pages, with checkout staying on Etsy; WooCommerce, Square Online, Big Cartel, Gumroad, Payhip and PayPal sellers keep their checkout behind a storefront that links to the real listings, and the store can also live on shop.yourdomain.com. The Shopify connection has the details; Theo never handles the payment.

Is website maintenance the same as SEO?

No, and most maintenance contracts stop short of it: they keep the software current and the site online, and sell search work as a separate engagement. Maintenance keeps a site running; search work adds pages, fixes what stops Google from reading the site, gets new pages indexed and, over months, earns the authority that moves a site off the zero-visitor list. Theo's Starter and Pro plans do both under one fee; Basic does the first only. If you are comparing tiered agency plans, the website care plans page linked below lists the six items a plan should cover.