"Do I really need website maintenance?" is a fair question. To answer it with facts, we analysed the requests from our maintenance and support retainers: 209 recorded requests across 18 retainer clients.
The headline numbers: a typical client sent a median of 4.3 requests per month (the range across clients was wide, from 1.2 to 14.7). The median request took 1.2 of work.
What clients need help with
| Request type | Share of requests | Median time per request |
|---|---|---|
| Bug fixes | 21% | 0.7 |
| Marketing and campaign assets | 16% | 0.6 |
| Content and design changes | 13% | 1 |
| Integrations and syncs | 11% | 2.3 |
| Email, forms and notifications | 9% | 0.7 |
| Outages and security | 5% | 1.4 |
| Tracking and analytics | 5% | 0.6 |
| Hosting and migrations | 4% | 1 |
| ERP, invoices and documents | 1% | 2 |
| Other | 16% | 0.3 |
What this tells us
Things do break – but mostly in small ways
Bug fixes were the largest category at 21%. But the median bug fix took 0.7. Typical examples: a layout broken after an update, a gallery displaying wrongly after a content edit, a button not working on mobile. Annoying, visible, quickly fixed.
Outages are rare but matter
Outages and security incidents made up 5% of requests – sites down, server errors, malware. Rare, but each one is urgent, and they took longer: a median of 1.4.
Integrations take the most time per request
Integration and sync issues – listings not updating, form data not reaching a CRM, an API connection failing – were 11% of requests but had the highest median time: 2.3. The more systems a website connects to, the more maintenance it needs.
A lot of maintenance is not maintenance
Marketing assets and content changes together made up nearly a third of requests. Clients use their retainer for campaign banners, new offers, text updates and small design changes. This is where a retainer saves the most coordination: no quotes, no new projects, just a request.
Forms and email are a recurring weak point
Email, form and notification problems were 9% of requests: form notifications not arriving, confirmation emails in spam, mailbox issues. They often appear after changes elsewhere – a new email provider, a password change, a hosting move.
What causes things to break
From the request descriptions, the usual triggers are:
- Updates of the CMS, theme or plugins
- Client edits that affect global elements or change image proportions
- Changes at third parties: API changes, expired keys, new email settings
- Hosting events: server issues, storage problems, migrations
- Security: outdated software being exploited
Sites rarely break on their own. Something changes, and something else reacts.
How often you will need help
Across our retainers, the median was 4.3 requests per month, but the spread is large. A simple brochure site might need help once every month or two. A site with a shop, integrations and active marketing may send several requests a week.
A typical month on a maintained site
To make this concrete, here is what a month looks like for a typical business site on one of our plans, based on the patterns above. At the start of the month, the scheduled work runs: updates on staging, backups checked, a quick security and speed review. During the month, a few requests arrive – a text change for a new offer, a banner for a campaign, perhaps a bug after a plugin update or a question about why a form notification did not arrive. Each is handled as its own small task. At the end of the month, the client receives a short report of what was updated and what was done. Most months are unspectacular. That is exactly the point.
What maintenance cannot prevent
No plan makes a website immune to problems. Third-party services change, hosting providers have incidents, and new security issues appear. What maintenance does is shorten the time between a problem appearing and it being fixed, and make sure there is a recent backup when something serious happens.
Does every site need a maintenance plan?
Not necessarily. Our rough guidance:
| Site type | Recommendation |
|---|---|
| Simple site, few plugins, rare changes | Occasional updates and backups may be enough |
| Business site with forms and regular content changes | A small plan |
| Site with booking, shop or integrations | A plan with monitoring |
| Site supporting active marketing campaigns | A plan with hours for assets and changes |
What our maintenance includes
Monthly updates of CMS, themes and plugins, cleanup, security checks, performance review, backups, and a short report – plus hours for requests like the ones above.
FAQ
How quickly are problems fixed?
The median request took 1.2 of work. Outages are prioritised over content changes.
Can I skip updates if the site works?
Short term, yes. Long term, outdated software is the most common path to security problems and larger breakages.
What if I have no plan and something breaks?
We help anyway, as a one-off task. A plan simply makes it faster and more predictable.
What do maintenance requests usually involve?
Bug fixes were 21% of requests, marketing assets 16%, content and design changes 13%, and integrations 11%.
Will I need changes after my website launches?
Probably. 34% of our WordPress projects with a go-live had change requests afterwards, the first one a median of 12 days after launch. Plan a small budget or a support plan for this phase.
Where the numbers come from: our own project records in Odoo – 233 finished projects, 909 tasks and about 4941 logged hours, mostly from 2025–2026. Durations are calendar days from kickoff and we quote medians, so one unusually long project does not distort the picture.
Planning a maintenance and hosting project?
If you want a realistic plan for your own project, book a short call with our team and we will walk you through the phases, what we need from you and where projects like yours usually lose time. You can also browse finished work in our maintenance and hosting portfolio.
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