Website maintenance and hosting: a checklist before you sign

Business owners often assume that once a website is live, everything is taken care of. Hosting a website and maintaining it are two different jobs. A site can be running fine today while its plugins are out of date, its backups are not working, or its contact form has stopped sending emails. Most owners find out when a customer tells them, or after enquiries have been missed.

In my experience the biggest problem is rarely the hosting itself. It is that nobody is clear about who is responsible when something breaks. The checklist below is what I would want answered in writing before signing with any provider.

1. Who is responsible when something breaks?

In May 2026 the owner of a bottle shop asked us about self-hosting a website built on a custom CMS. That raised the real question: once it is self-hosted, who maintains the application, applies updates and handles technical problems? Self-hosting can be a fair choice, but only if the answer is a named person.

Ask the provider: if the site goes down, a plugin breaks or the site is hacked, who fixes it, and is that fix inside the monthly fee?

2. Backups: where are they, and has anyone restored one?

Having a backup does not automatically mean you can restore your website. You need to know where it is stored, how recent it is, whether it holds both the website files and the database, and whether anyone has tested it.

When a restore is needed, I first work out what actually went wrong, because there is no point restoring an entire site over one broken plugin. Then I check the last working backup, ideally test it in a separate environment, and only then restore the live site. For an online store I also check what changed since that backup, so recent orders are not lost.

We use Git and GitHub for source-code version control, which lets us track changes and roll code back. Git does not cover the database or uploaded content, so those need their own backups. I have rolled back a website change after a drop in conversion rate: a change that looks better does not always perform better.

3. Who holds the domain, hosting and CMS logins?

Many owners never think about this with a first website. They pay someone to build it and never ask who owns the domain, the hosting account or the admin access. Sometimes everything sits with the previous developer or agency, which is convenient until you want to change something or switch provider.

Before starting work I identify who controls each account. If the owner has no access, I help them work out what to ask their current provider for. You should not be stuck with one agency because they hold the passwords. Our Care and hosting page states that your domain, site accounts and files stay in your name.

4. What does “an update” mean?

I separate two things. Technical maintenance keeps the site healthy without changing what customers see: platform, plugin and theme updates, security patches, and checking everything still works afterwards. Website work changes what customers see.

Ask exactly this, and get the answer before you sign: nobody wants to pay a monthly fee and then find every small request costs extra.

5. What sits outside the monthly fee?

Owners see a monthly hosting price and assume everything is included. Then come domain renewals, premium plugins, third-party subscriptions, extra storage, email hosting or charges for website changes. Two plans at similar prices can cover very different things.

• Ask for a written breakdown of what the monthly fee covers.
• Is restoring a backup included? What if the site is hacked? What if a contact form breaks?
• Are there cancellation fees, or a charge to move the site elsewhere?
• Is there a minimum contract term?

For reference, here is how ours is written down. Hosting is $39 a month and covers hosting, SSL and backups, month to month. Care is $149 a month, includes hosting, monthly maintenance, updates and security checks, support, and 2 hours of website work on your existing content. You choose one, not both. New pages and new features are quoted separately. All prices are in AUD including GST.

Check the site works, not just that it is online

The part of maintenance owners rarely realise needs doing is checking that the site actually works. The homepage can load fine while the contact form has stopped sending emails. Everything looks normal and the enquiries never arrive. Updating a plugin is also not just clicking a button, because one update can break another part of the site, so the site needs checking after technical changes.

You can do one check yourself today: submit a test enquiry through your own website and confirm the message reaches the intended inbox. A success message on the page does not prove your business received the email.

The one question to ask before you sign

If I decide to leave tomorrow, can I take my entire website with me?

Do not accept a plain yes. Can I access my domain? Can I export my website files and database? Are there fees? Do I need the provider’s permission to move? Your website is a business asset, and finding that moving it is complicated or expensive, because you never had proper control, is the outcome to avoid. How long a move takes depends on the site: a simple static site is very different from an online store with a database and integrations, so I would not promise a fixed turnaround without checking first.

Website maintenance and hosting: what Hosting and Care cover →

Whose name should your accounts be in? What happens after we hand over →