Care plans for the website you actually own

The agency disappears the day after launch. You get the deploy keys, a four-page handoff PDF, and a "let us know if you need anything" email that goes unanswered when the contact form breaks three weeks later. By month four, your site is running on outdated dependencies, the SSL has auto-renewed but the CDN cache is misconfigured, and you're paying $39/mo to a hosting provider you don't really understand.

This is the part of small-business web work nobody talks about: the slow rot of a site nobody's actively caring for. Care plans are the antidote.

But they're also where most agencies trap clients. The $99/mo "maintenance plan" that does nothing. The $400/mo "premium support" that's actually 1 hour of work and 39 hours of margin. We don't run those plans.

What's actually broken about most maintenance retainers

Three things to look for when reading any agency's care-plan page (including ours):

Vague scope. "Up to 2 hours/month of support" usually means hours that don't roll over, that you have to ask for in a specific way, and that the agency keeps strict accounting on while you don't. Real care plans have specific deliverables.

Per-incident escalation. A change you assumed was covered turns out to be "outside scope" and gets quoted at $200/hr. Real care plans have clearly bounded change-types that are covered.

Lock-in clauses. 12-month minimum, 60-day notice, "transfer fees" if you leave. Real care plans are month-to-month with no penalty.

If a care plan can't show you specifically what's covered, what's not, and that you can leave any month — it's a billing relationship dressed as a support relationship.

What's in our care plan

Two tiers, both month-to-month, both specifically scoped:

Neither tier locks you in. Cancel any month, no penalty, no transfer fee. You keep your domain, your hosting (we transfer it back to your name on cancellation), and your content.

What's NOT in any tier

Setting expectations explicitly:

• New page builds beyond a single landing page — quoted separately
• Major redesigns or rebrands — that's a fresh project, see /services/web-design
• Custom feature development beyond bug fixes and small additions — quoted separately
• Third-party app integrations beyond what was already wired — usually a small fixed-price add-on

We've seen too many agencies pretend "everything is covered" and then quietly bill for things that weren't. We'd rather be specific.

Cancel any month, no penalty

You can cancel by replying to the monthly invoice email with "cancel". The hosting transfers to your name within 5 business days. We hand over deploy keys, environment variables, and a written brief on what's running. No drama.

What this looks like in practice

• On Care Basic, content changes go out within a business day, hosting and backups are ours to worry about, and a security patch is applied the day it is disclosed rather than the month somebody notices.
• On Care Active, there is a developer on your site every month: new pages, small features, and a report you can read in two minutes showing speed, traffic and enquiries.

Get on the right tier

We'll recommend a tier honestly. Most clients start on Care Basic and stay there for years — it exists so nobody has to think about hosting, backups or security again. Care Active is for people who want a developer working on the site every month rather than only when something breaks.

See which tier fits → — or add a care plan to a new build