Compare
WordPress website maintenance plans vs Send to Site
A care plan keeps WordPress patched and sells you hours for changes. Send to Site takes WordPress out of the picture and makes the changes for you. Here's what each costs, from prices South African providers publish.
Last updated 29 September 2026. Provider prices as listed on their websites in September 2026.
A WordPress maintenance plan pays someone to update plugins, patch security holes and run backups, plus a few hours of changes. Published South African plans cost R80 to R6 790 a month. Send to Site rebuilds your WordPress site as fast static pages, which removes most of that upkeep, then makes your changes by email and writes up to 4 SEO articles a month, for R1 500 a month for six months and R750 after that, hosting included. A care plan is still the better choice for online shops, bookings, memberships and staff who edit every day.
What you pay for
What does a WordPress maintenance plan pay for?
Mostly, it pays for keeping WordPress itself safe and running: some mix of core, theme and plugin updates, security scans, backups and uptime monitoring. Your own changes come last, as an allowance of 30 minutes to 20 hours a month.
That upkeep is real work. Patchstack, a company that tracks WordPress security, counted 11 334 new vulnerabilities in the WordPress ecosystem in 2025, and 91% of them were in plugins (State of WordPress Security in 2026). Each fix is an update, and any update can break a page.
Here's the thing. Nearly all of that job exists because WordPress runs code on a server, with a database and a login page. A static site is finished pages with nothing running behind them. No plugins, no plugin updates.
Side by side
A care plan vs Send to Site, job by job
Send to Site removes the WordPress jobs a care plan exists for and keeps what every website needs: hosting, content and a way to undo a mistake.
| Job | WordPress care plan | Send to Site |
|---|---|---|
| Core, theme and plugin updates | Applied weekly or monthly, then tested | Not needed: no WordPress and no plugins |
| Security | Malware scans and monitoring, usually from the second tier up | No login page and no database behind the pages; third-party scripts are refused by design |
| Backups | Daily, weekly or monthly, depending on the tier | Every change is saved in version history; an undo is a reply to the email |
| Hosting | Included by some providers; others charge extra, from R299 or R350 a month | Included, on Cloudflare's network with HTTPS |
| Your changes | A set allowance, from 30 minutes to 20 hours a month | Emailed in plain words and previewed before going live; no limit and no hourly billing |
| Speed | Performance checks on some higher tiers | The rebuild is the speed work: dcreviews.co.za went from 75 to 100 in a Lighthouse phone speed test |
| New SEO articles | Not included in any plan we checked | Up to 4 a month, each approved by you |
| Shops, bookings, memberships | Supported, through plugins | Not supported, because they need a server |
| Your design and URLs | Unchanged, because the site stays on WordPress | Unchanged: same look, words and URLs, checked page by page |
Rand per hour
What does an hour of changes cost on a care plan?
Divide each plan's price by the hours of changes it includes, and published South African website maintenance packages work out at R125 to R1 500 per hour of changes.
| Provider and plan | Price a month | Changes included | Per hour of changes | Hosting |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Webluno Enterprise | R2 499 | 20 hours | R125 | Included (5 GB) |
| Hikari Labs Maintenance plan | R80 | 30 minutes | R160 | Included |
| Parallax Studios Starter | R185 | 1 hour | R185 | Not stated |
| Webluno Professional | R699 | 3 hours | R233 | Included (5 GB) |
| Zoeke Essential | R390 | 1 hour | R390 | Extra, from R350 |
| Webluno Essentials | R399 | 1 hour | R399 | Included (5 GB) |
| dotdigital Essential | R399 | 1 hour | R399 | Extra, from R299 |
| Digital Consulting High-Maintenance | R6 790 | 15 hours | R453 | Not included |
| Digital Consulting Basic | R990 | 2 hours | R495 | Not included |
| Webdo Website care | R450 | 30 minutes | R900 | Separate |
| Engage24 Standard (excl. VAT) | R1 410 | 1 hour | R1 410 | Not stated |
| Glitch Advanced | R1 500 | 1 hour | R1 500 | Not stated |
| Send to Site | R1 500, then R750 | Not counted in hours | No limit, not billed by the hour | Included |
Prices as listed on each provider's website in September 2026. Part of each fee also pays for updates, backups and sometimes hosting, so this is the cost of an hour inside the plan, not an hourly rate. Engage24 lists prices excluding VAT. Glitch's R500 and R900 plans include no hours; edits cost R500 an hour.
Hours are the catch. Webdo's R450 plan includes 30 minutes a month, and unused time does not roll over; Digital Consulting carries unused hours for up to four months. Send to Site doesn't count hours at all. One change is worked on at a time, and a second request joins the one already open.
One and three years
What does each option cost over one year and three years?
Over three years Send to Site costs R31 500 in total: more than a budget care plan, and less than a mid-range plan once hosting is added.
| Option | What you get each month | Year 1 | 3 years |
|---|---|---|---|
| Send to Site | The rebuild (first six months), hosting, changes by email and up to 4 SEO articles | R13 500 | R31 500 |
| Webluno Essentials | R399 a month: 1 hour of changes, hosting included | R4 788 | R14 364 |
| dotdigital Standard, plus hosting | R699 a month for 2 hours of changes, plus hosting from R299 | R11 976 | R35 928 |
| Digital Consulting Small Changes | R1 450 a month: 3 hours of changes, hosting not included | R17 400 plus hosting | R52 200 plus hosting |
Assumptions: prices stay as listed for three years; hosting at the lowest price the provider lists; no extra hours bought; your domain and email cost the same either way, so they are left out. Send to Site has no setup fee.
In cash, the budget plan wins, and it isn't close. What R399 a month doesn't buy is a faster site or anything new on it.
Send to Site's first six months pay for the rebuild. On dcreviews.co.za, a debt counsellor review site Raimond rebuilt from WordPress and runs, the home page's Google Lighthouse mobile performance score went from 75 to 100, and its main content showed in 1.2 s instead of 7.0 s.
Send to Site
One plan. Everything included.Months 1 to 6
R1 500/month
Includes rebuilding your site
From month 7
R750/month
Half price, for as long as you stay
No setup fee. No minimum term. First year R13 500 in total, then R9 000 a year. Prices include VAT.
Which one fits
Care plan or Send to Site: which should you choose?
Keep a care plan if your website has to run code on a server. Choose Send to Site if it mostly shows information that changes now and then.
Choose a WordPress care plan if...
- You sell online with WooCommerce or take payments on the site
- Customers book appointments or classes through the website
- You run a membership area or online courses
- Your staff edit pages in WordPress every day and want to keep doing that
Choose Send to Site if...
- Your WordPress site is for a service business, a firm or a company
- Changes come now and then: prices, hours, the team, a new page
- You'd rather email a change than log in and run updates
- Your site is slow on a phone and you want it fast without a redesign
FAQ
WordPress maintenance questions
How much does it cost to pay someone to maintain a website?
Published South African WordPress maintenance plans cost R80 to R6 790 a month, as listed on the providers' websites in September 2026. The price depends mostly on the hours of changes and whether hosting is included. Send to Site is R1 500 a month for six months, then R750, with hosting, changes by email and up to 4 SEO articles a month included.
Our website maintenance cost guide goes deeper.
Is it difficult to maintain a website?
A WordPress site is not hard to maintain, but it never stops: updates, security checks, backups, and a look afterwards to make sure nothing broke. A static site removes most of that list and leaves the content, which you can email to us.
How much should I pay someone to host my website?
Among the providers we checked, hosting sold separately starts at R299 a month (dotdigital) and R350 a month (Zoeke), while Webluno and Hikari Labs include it in the plan. Send to Site includes hosting on Cloudflare's network in the monthly price. Your domain and email stay where they are.
Will my contact forms and analytics still work after the rebuild?
Yes. Forms keep working, and your analytics stays, loaded after the page so it does not slow the page down. What goes away is WordPress itself: its JavaScript, its plugins and its login page.
Can I leave my care plan straight away?
Check your plan first. Of the plans we compared, Webluno, Hikari Labs and Digital Consulting run month to month, Engage24 asks for 30 days' notice and Zoeke has a three-month minimum when you sign up. Keep the care plan until your rebuilt site is live.
See where your website stands
We check your site for speed, Google visibility, AI visibility and content, then talk you through what we found. It is free, and there is nothing to sign.
R1 500 a month for the first 6 months, then R750 a month. No setup fee.