Website Maintenance Agreement Template

This Website Maintenance Agreement is made on [Contract Date] between [Company Name] ("Developer") and [Client Name] ("Client").

1. The Website

Developer will maintain the website at [web address, for example: www.example.com] (the "Site") under the plan Client chooses below.

2. Plans

• Essential, $150 per month: monthly software and plugin updates, weekly backups kept for 30 days, uptime monitoring, security patches, and 1 hour of changes.
• Standard, $350 per month: everything in Essential, with weekly updates tested on a staging site first, daily backups, security monitoring, and 2 hours of changes.
• Priority, $700 per month: everything in Standard, with 5 hours of changes, a quarterly speed and health review, and the fastest response times below.

Client's plan: [Standard]. Client may change plans with the start of any month.

3. Included Hours

Included hours cover small changes, such as content updates, minor layout adjustments, and troubleshooting. Time is tracked in quarter-hour increments. Unused hours don't roll over to the next month. Work beyond the included hours is billed at $125 per hour, only with Client's approval first.

4. Response Times

Developer will respond during business hours (Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm, Developer's local time):

• Urgent issues (the Site is down or compromised): within 1 business day on Essential, 4 business hours on Standard, and 2 business hours on Priority
• Other requests: within 3 business days on Essential, 2 on Standard, and 1 on Priority

5. Not Included

• New features, new page templates, and redesigns, which are quoted separately
• Writing content
• Hosting fees, domain renewals, and premium plugin licenses, which Client pays directly
• Fixing problems caused by changes Client or others make without telling Developer
• Outages or changes caused by Client's hosting company or other third-party services

6. Restoring the Site

If the Site goes down, breaks after an update, or is compromised, Developer will restore it from the latest backup within the response times above. Cleanup or repair beyond what a restore fixes counts against the included hours, then the hourly rate. No site is immune to outages or attacks, and Developer doesn't guarantee the Site will always be available or secure.

7. Client Responsibilities

Client will keep its hosting account and domain active and paid, give Developer the access it needs, and tell Developer before installing plugins or making changes to the Site's code.

8. Fees and Payment

The plan fee is invoiced in advance on the 1st of each month and due within 15 days. Extra hours are billed at the end of the month. Developer may pause maintenance while an invoice is more than 30 days overdue.

9. Limitation of Liability

Developer's total liability under this agreement is limited to the fees Client paid in the three months before the claim. Neither party is liable for indirect or consequential losses, including lost profits or lost data.

10. Term and Termination

This agreement continues month to month from the date above. Either party may end it with 30 days' written notice. When it ends, Developer will give Client the latest backup of the Site and remove its own access and monitoring.

11. General

Developer is an independent contractor. This agreement is governed by the laws of [state or country]. It is the entire agreement between the parties on this subject and may only be changed in writing.

By signing below, both parties agree to these terms.