In-house vs outsourced
Should you outsource
website maintenance?
| In-house | Outsourced | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | A salary, or part of one, plus tools. | A fixed monthly fee per site. |
| Skills | Depends on one person's experience. | Specialists who do this every day. |
| Cover | Holidays, sick days and resignations leave gaps. | Continuous monitoring and a stated emergency response. |
| Response times | Whenever the person is free. | Stated in writing: first response within one business day, emergencies on a target. |
| If it doesn't work out | A resignation, a notice period and a hiring round. | Thirty days' notice; credentials back within 48 hours. |
| Knowledge of your business | High. | Lower at first; built up over time. |
| Best for | Large sites with constant development work. | Most small and mid-sized business sites. |
The cost question
What outsourcing website maintenance
costs, compared with in-house.
The honest comparison isn't a salary against a monthly fee. It's what the work actually needs, and what happens when the one person who does it is away.
| Option | Typical cost | What you get for it |
|---|---|---|
| A full-time web developer | $92,650 median US salary, plus benefits, taxes and tools | Maintenance plus development, but maintenance stops when they're away. |
| A fifth of a developer's time | About $18,500 a year in salary alone (illustration) | Updates when there's time, usually squeezed between projects. |
| Hourly or ad-hoc help | $75–$200 per hour in the market | Fixes after something breaks. Nobody watches the site in between. |
| A monthly maintenance plan | $50–$750 per site per month in the market | Scheduled updates, backups, monitoring, security and a monthly report, for a fixed fee. |
Salary: US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook, median pay for web developers, May 2025 (checked September 2026). The one-fifth figure is an illustration (20% of that median). Market ranges for hourly and monthly maintenance as published on our pricing page, with our own rates beside them.
What does in-house upkeep cost you now?
Two numbers: the hours your team spends on the website each month (updates, fixes, backups, chasing problems), and what an hour of that person's time costs you.
$45 is roughly the US median web developer salary ($92,650, BLS, May 2025) divided by 2,080 working hours, before benefits and taxes. Use your own figure if you know it.
The split
What to outsource,
and what to keep.
Maintenance vs management
What outsourced website
management covers.
Maintenance keeps the site working. Management keeps it current. Most businesses outsource the first completely and the second as far as they're comfortable.
Your options
Five ways to outsource
website management.
"Outsourcing" covers very different arrangements. Each suits a different kind of site, and each has its own weak spot.
| Option | Works well when | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| A freelancer | The site is small and changes rarely. | One person means no cover for holidays, illness or a better-paid project. |
| The agency that built the site | They still exist and still offer maintenance. | Maintenance is often an afterthought next to new builds. |
| Your hosting company | You only need server-level backups and uptime. | Plugins, themes, forms and the site itself usually aren't covered. |
| An hourly offshore team | You have a list of one-off tasks and someone to manage them. | Low hourly rates, but nobody owns the site between tickets. |
| A specialist maintenance provider | The site earns money or enquiries and has to stay working. | Check who does the work, the response times and how you leave. |
Offshore, honestly
Outsourcing website management
offshore: the real trade-offs.
We're based in Chennai, India, so here's the honest version of what that means for a client in the US, UK, Europe or Australia.
Choosing a provider
Questions to ask before you
outsource website management.
Ask every provider the same eight questions, and ask for the answers in writing. Vague answers are the answer.
Getting started
How to outsource WordPress
support without losing control.
Know what you have
A written assessment of the site: platform, update backlog, backups, security and access.
Grant access, keep ownership
Add the provider as a user on your accounts. Never transfer ownership of the domain or hosting.
Put the exit in writing
Notice period, response times and a handover timeline, agreed before work starts.
What a contract should include →Judge it by the first report
After the first month you should see exactly what was updated, backed up and fixed. If you can't, the handover isn't finished.
Timing
Signs it's time to outsource
website maintenance.
Most businesses outsource after something goes wrong. These are the signs that come first.
Honest fit
When not to outsource
website maintenance.
Outsourcing isn't always the right answer. Keep it in-house, or keep part of it, when:
For agencies
Outsourcing WordPress support
for your clients?
If you're an agency, outsourcing looks different: the work has to happen under your brand, and the provider must never approach your clients. That's white label WordPress support, with a written non-solicit, reports under your name and one per-site rate from five sites.
White label WordPress support and maintenance → · White label web development for agencies →
Who you're dealing with
Who you would be
outsourcing to.
You're handing someone the keys to your website. You should know who they are.
Naveen Kumar
Founder & lead engineer · Based in Chennai, India, working 9am–6pm US Eastern with clients across the US, UK, Europe and Australia
I built and ran WordPress, WooCommerce and custom-coded sites for clients directly for years before starting PixelGravitas — writing the code, managing the servers, staying on call when something broke. If your site goes down, you're talking to the person who fixes it, not a support queue. More about how I work →
Questions, answered
Outsourcing maintenance:
common questions.
Is it worth outsourcing website maintenance?
For most small and mid-sized businesses, yes. The work is technical, repetitive and risky to do badly, and a specialist does it every day for less than the cost of part of a salary.
What should I not outsource?
Ownership of your domain, hosting and admin accounts, and decisions about content and priorities. Outsource the technical work, not the control.
Is outsourcing website management offshore safe?
It can be, if you keep ownership of every account, get a named engineer rather than a queue, and have response times and a handover timeline in writing.
How do I outsource WordPress support?
Start with an assessment of the site, add the provider as a user on your accounts rather than transferring them, agree terms in writing, then hand over updates, backups, security and monitoring.
What happens if I want to bring maintenance back in-house?
Give thirty days' notice. Every credential is handed back within 48 hours, with no exit fee.
Do you work with in-house teams?
Yes. Many teams keep content in-house and hand over the technical maintenance. Support requests can come from anyone you authorise, and we work 9am to 6pm US Eastern Time, Monday to Friday.
What does an outsourced maintenance provider need from me?
Admin access to the site, access to hosting or its control panel, and a named contact for decisions. You keep ownership throughout, and access can be removed at any time.
How much does outsourcing website maintenance cost?
Monthly maintenance plans in the market run from about $50 to $750 per site per month, depending on the site and what's included. Hourly support typically costs $75 to $200 an hour. Our plans are published per site per month on the pricing page.
Is outsourcing website maintenance cheaper than hiring?
For most businesses, by a wide margin. The median US web developer salary is $92,650 before benefits and taxes, and even a fifth of one developer's time is around $18,500 a year in salary alone. A maintenance plan for one business site costs a fraction of that.
What's the difference between outsourcing website maintenance and website management?
Outsourcing website maintenance hands over the technical upkeep: updates, backups, security and monitoring. Outsourcing website management goes further and hands over day-to-day running of the site too, such as content changes, new pages and user accounts. Most businesses start with maintenance and use support hours for the management tasks they don't want to do themselves.
Will I lose control of my website if I outsource it?
Not if it's set up properly. Your domain, hosting and admin accounts stay in your company's name, the provider works as a user you can remove at any time, and every change is written up in the monthly report.
How do I choose an outsourced website management provider?
Ask who actually does the work, where backups are stored, what the response and resolution times are in writing, what work outside the plan costs, whether hack cleanup is included, how updates are tested, the notice period, and how fast every credential comes back if you leave. A provider that answers all eight in writing is easy to compare.
Can agencies outsource WordPress support for their clients?
Yes. That's white label WordPress support: the work is done under your agency's brand, with a written non-solicit, and your clients never deal with us directly.