Website Maintenance: In-House or Agency? Calculator with Break-Even

Whether in-house or an agency is cheaper depends on three things: how many technical hours your system needs per year, what an internal hour really costs and how much risk you want to carry yourself. With Webflow the technical effort is small, while with WordPress and TYPO3 it rises sharply through updates, plugins and security. The calculator compares four models as a market range and shows the break-even point at which a maintenance package pays off.

How the calculator works

The calculator separates technology and content, because they can be outsourced differently.

Technology means updates, security, backups and monitoring. For this, the calculator sets base hours per year: Webflow 16, WordPress 60, TYPO3 100, headless CMS 80. For WordPress and TYPO3, 1.5 hours per plugin or extension above 10 are added. The hours are multiplied by the security and compliance factor of your industry and a risk buffer (default 20 percent) for troubleshooting and emergencies.

Internal costs are hours times the fully loaded internal cost (default €55), times a cover surcharge (15 percent for vacation and sick leave), times the context-switching factor. The context-switching factor reflects ramp-up time, and 1.3 means 30 percent extra effort.

Content means copy, images and new entries. You enter the hours per month. Content stays with you or goes to the agency at the agency hourly rate.

Four models are compared per year:

• A, all in-house: Technology and content internally.
• B, technology to the agency, content in-house: Maintenance package plus internal content. This is the typical split setup.
• C, all with the agency: Package plus content hours at the agency rate.
• D, technology via freelancer on call, content in-house: Technical hours at the hourly rate of an independent developer, as a neutral market alternative.

Break-even is the internal technical upkeep per year divided by 12. If a package comes in below it, it pays off.

Package price: If you have a quote, you enter it. Otherwise the calculator uses the market range for your system. Downtime risk: If you enter downtime costs per hour, the calculator also works out how many disruption hours to expect per model (6 in-house, 8 freelancer, 2 agency per year, assumption). Range: Internal hours fluctuate by plus or minus 30 percent, freelancer and content rates by 20 percent.

Example calculation

With Webflow, in-house (around €5,050 a year) and a package at the typical market range (around €5,150) are practically even. The break-even of around €130 a month sits in the middle of the market range for packages of €80 to €200. There, the decision comes down to risk and time, not cost. With WordPress and TYPO3, model B is clearly cheaper, because internal technical upkeep quickly costs more than €5,000 a year.

Assumptions and sources

Host, agency, freelancer or in-house: what is covered?

A host provides the infrastructure, while maintenance keeps the website current, secure and working. These are not the same thing.

• Webflow: Hosting and platform upkeep are part of the site plan according to the pricing page. You do not have to update a server or a CMS core. What remains is content, forms and integrations, redirects, tracking, consent banners and the question of who responds when an integration breaks. With Webflow, a maintenance contract therefore tends to cover the work around the website.
• WordPress: Hosting is not maintenance. According to heise, WordPress updates are free and possible with one click, but someone has to apply them, test them and roll them back if something breaks. Managed hosts take some of that off your hands depending on the plan.
• TYPO3: Support for a major version runs three years as standard. After that, you need a major upgrade or paid extended support. Pragma-Code gives €10,000 to €45,000 for major upgrades. That is not part of ongoing maintenance and is not included in the calculator.

Checklist for a maintenance contract:

• Are updates, backups and monitoring named individually?
• What response time applies to disruptions, including outside office hours?
• How many change hours are included, and what does each additional one cost?
• Who covers when the contact person is unavailable?
• Who acts in the event of a security incident?
• What notice period applies, and do you get access credentials and documentation at the end?

Industries compared

The answer differs by industry. In industrial companies, control over systems often sits with IT, so the context-switching factor is low, but the compliance requirement is higher. In real estate, content costs more time than technology, because properties are maintained continuously. In trades, time is the problem: every interruption on the job site is expensive. In consulting and law firms, client data and professional secrecy raise the security factor.

In real estate, the difference arises almost entirely in content. In trades, the freelancer model (D) comes out cheapest on paper, because the internal hour is expensive owing to the high context factor.

Limits of the calculator

• Technical hours are assumptions. Only WordPress has a source (3 to 5 hours per month), and that source is a vendor. For consulting and law firms, an industry source is missing. Enter your own hours if you know them.
• No hosting, no licenses: The Webflow site plan, WordPress hosting (€3 to €25 per month according to Hostinger) and the domain apply in all models.
• No major upgrades: TYPO3 major version changes and relaunches are projects.
• Packages differ: Two packages at the same price often handle response time, hours and liability differently.
• Risk is hard to quantify. The calculator only includes it if you enter downtime costs per hour. The disruption hours per model are assumptions.

When you do not need an agency

If your system is small, a team member feels responsible and outages of one to two days are bearable, in-house is often the cheapest and simplest solution with Webflow. A maintenance package pays off above all when nobody internally has the time, the site is business-critical, compliance requirements exist or you run WordPress with many plugins. How to switch agencies reliably is covered in the guide switching web agencies, and what a maintenance contract should regulate in the guide maintenance contract and response time.

How we implement this

Webwavers offers maintenance and support, including for websites we did not build, after a technical check. We build websites on Webflow, WordPress, TYPO3 and headless CMS. It typically runs like this: takeover with a technical check and backup, then monthly upkeep with a status report and a check every three months. What exactly is included is described on the page maintenance and support. For a specific quote, you can reach us through the contact page.

Frequently asked questions

Is managed hosting alone enough, or do we also need a maintenance contract?

Hosting runs the infrastructure, maintenance keeps the website current. With Webflow, hosting is included in the site plan (webflow.com/pricing), but you need someone for content, integrations and disruptions. With WordPress and TYPO3, hosting alone is not enough, because updates and security sit with you or your service provider.

Maintenance contract with the agency or support through the host: what covers more with Webflow?

With Webflow, the host is Webflow itself and covers infrastructure and platform. An agency contract additionally covers what happens around the website: changes, tracking, integrations and the response to disruptions. Check whether response time and hours are stated in the contract.

Is a monthly maintenance package worth it compared with a freelancer on call?

That depends on the technical effort. With Webflow in the industry example, a package and a freelancer cost about the same per year (around €5,150 and €5,100). The difference lies in reliability: a package includes response time and cover, while a freelancer on call only if they commit to it.

Website maintenance by an agency or in-house: which is better?

With Webflow, in-house is often even on paper, and with WordPress and TYPO3 it is usually more expensive than a package. The better model is the one that fits your time and your risk. The break-even price shows the package price at which handing it off starts to pay off.

We maintain content ourselves but need help with technology and security. Which model fits?

Model B in the calculator: technology to an agency or a service provider, content stays with you. In the contract, make sure content changes are explicitly not included or only included with fixed hours.

Does a maintenance contract make more sense for a broker website than a freelancer on call?

In real estate, content is the larger cost block, because properties are maintained continuously. In the calculator (6 content hours per month), the annual costs are around €7,500, of which around €5,900 is content. A contract pays off if the property interface has to run stably.

What does maintaining a WordPress website cost per year?

Seahawk Media gives 3 to 5 hours of in-house effort per month. Calculated internally, that comes to around €5,750 a year in the calculator, and a package at the typical market range around €2,200 a year (€180 a month), without content and without hosting.

Sources

• adfera, Website-Kosten-Report 2026 (website cost report 2026)
• tricks.de, Website-Agentur: Kosten und Preise (web agency: costs and prices)
• Hostinger, WordPress-Hosting im Vergleich (WordPress hosting compared)
• Seahawk Media, Kosten für die Website-Wartung (website maintenance costs)
• heise, WordPress vs. TYPO3 (Stand 08/2022) (as of 08/2022)
• Pragma-Code, TYPO3-Migration: Kosten und ROI (TYPO3 migration: costs and ROI)
• Webflow, Preise (pricing)
• freelancermap, SEO-Freelancer Stundensätze (SEO freelancer hourly rates)