The three bands
€50 to €150 a month: the freelancer band. Updates applied, backups taken, small fixes when you ask. Honest value if your site is a brochure and a week of downtime would not hurt you. What is usually missing: nobody is watching anything. Problems get found by customers, then reported to you, then fixed.
€250 to €500 a month: the systems band. The difference is not more hours, it is machines watching: the site checked daily, the contact form test-submitted, backups tested by restoring them, the padlock renewal verified, and a monthly note proving it all happened. One person with good systems delivers what the band above staffs for, which is why the price can sit below it.
€500 to €1,450+ a month: the agency band. Account management, meetings, service agreements, a team. Right for shops doing daily online sales, or organisations that need a phone answered. Most Irish small businesses in this band are paying for availability they never use.
Four questions that expose the band you are really in
- When was my last backup tested by actually restoring it? (Not taken. Restored.)
- Would you know my contact form was broken before I did?
- Can you show me last month's checks, in writing?
- What happens in the first hour if my site goes down on a Saturday?
A €95 plan that cannot answer any of these is not cheaper than a €300 plan that answers all four. It is billed less for doing less, and the gap becomes your emergency later.
You can settle the argument from outside. A €79 health report measures the outcomes a plan is supposed to produce: the padlock valid, forms delivering, no dead ends, a page phones do not wait on, email that arrives. It hands you the evidence for each. Whatever you are paying, that tells you what you are getting for it.
Try the cost calculator: five questions about your site, an honest band out, including "pay less than anyone is trying to sell you" when that is the truth. We do not sell maintenance, so nothing here steers you upward.