Website Retainer: What a Monthly Website Retainer Should Include

What should a website retainer include?

A website retainer should include ongoing improvement work, not just upkeep: new pages, copy changes, conversion tests, SEO fixes, performance and accessibility checks, and CMS updates. Maintenance tasks like platform updates and backups belong in the retainer too, but they're the floor, not the point.

The difference matters because many retainers are sold as support plans. They keep the site online and fix what breaks, and the site looks the same a year later. A growth-focused retainer treats the site as a product that gets better each month. For how retainers compare with design subscriptions, read our guide to the design subscription model.

Website retainer vs basic maintenance: what's the difference?

Basic maintenance keeps a website secure and working; a website retainer adds the design, copy and development work that improves results. Most teams need maintenance either way, and a retainer once the site is a growth channel.

If your site was just launched, check what your build partner covers after go-live before paying for anything extra. Our article on the website warranty period explains what's normally fixed for free.

What is the website retainer checklist?

The website retainer checklist covers eight areas. Use it to compare proposals, or to audit the retainer you already pay for.

1. New pages and sections. Feature pages, use-case pages, comparison pages and campaign landing pages, designed and built on your platform.
2. Copy. Rewrites of underperforming pages, new headlines, and copy for every new page. A retainer that expects you to supply all the words is half a retainer.
3. Conversion tests. Hypotheses, variants and a simple record of what was tested and learned on key pages.
4. SEO fixes. Metadata, headings, internal links, redirects when URLs change, and templates for blog or programmatic pages.
5. Performance. Image sizing, font loading and script audits so pages stay fast as you add tools.
6. Accessibility. Contrast, focus states, alt text and keyboard paths on every new page, not only at launch.
7. CMS work. New collections, fields and templates so your team can publish without a developer.
8. Maintenance. Updates, backups, monitoring and bug fixes, with a stated response time.

What should a Webflow or Framer retainer include?

A Webflow or Framer retainer should spend most of its time on growth work, because the platform handles hosting, security updates and much of the upkeep. If a no-code retainer is mostly maintenance, you're paying for little.

• Webflow retainer. New CMS collections and templates, interactions, component cleanup, and SEO settings per page. Webflow agencies price these in different ways; see Webflow agency pricing models and Webflow website cost.
• Framer retainer. New pages from existing components, CMS collections, animations and page variants for testing. Framer makes quick edits easy, so the retainer should focus on what your team can't do alone.
• Next.js retainer. More engineering: dependency updates, CMS schema changes, deployments and performance budgets, alongside design and copy.

If your team wants to make more edits directly, moving from a coded site to a no-code builder can shrink the retainer you need; see code to no-code website migration. Any platform move is a separate migration project; see how to choose a Webflow or Framer migration agency.

How do you set up a website retainer so it delivers?

You set up a website retainer to deliver by agreeing the goal, a weekly priority list and a monthly review of what shipped. Without that rhythm, retainers drift into small fixes.

1. 1

   Pick one goal per quarter

   For example: more demo requests from the pricing page, or ranking for a set of comparison terms. The goal decides the backlog.

2. 2

   Build a ranked backlog

   List pages, tests and fixes in order of expected impact. You own the order; the team estimates effort.

3. 3

   Agree a weekly check-in

   Fifteen to thirty minutes to confirm what's in progress and what's next. Keep it short and regular.

4. 4

   Ship to production, not to Figma

   Work counts when it's live. Designs waiting for a developer don't move the goal.

5. 5

   Review monthly

   What shipped, what was learned from tests, what to change in the backlog. Keep a simple log.

How much does a website retainer cost?

A website retainer typically costs about $2,000–$12,000 a month in the ranges we see quoted, depending on whether it's design only, includes development, and how much copy and strategy it covers. Basic maintenance plans sit below that.

Our retainer is $6,000 a month: a design and development team that writes, designs and builds on your Framer, Webflow or Next.js site, joins your customer calls and doesn't track hours. For the full breakdown, see design and development retainer, and for how others price, read design retainer pricing.

Typical monthly retainer range we see quoted

$2k–$12k

Designify retainer per month, design and development

$6,000

Designify trial week

$1,000

What are the red flags in a website retainer proposal?

The red flags in a website retainer proposal are vague scope, hours that expire unused, no named team, and the agency owning your accounts. Each one makes it hard to get value or to leave.

• Vague scope. Phrases like ongoing support with no list of included work.
• Expiring hours. Hours-based plans that drop unused time each month without rollover.
• Design-only output. Figma files without a build; see why that slows you down in Figma to website.
• Agency-owned accounts. Hosting, domain or CMS in the agency's name.
• Long lock-in before proof. An annual term with no trial or short initial period.

If you're still choosing a partner, our list of the best web design agencies for startups uses these same criteria.