The question I get asked most often by business owners is some version of: what will this cost? It’s a fair question, and the honest answer is that it depends on things that are specific to your site. But there’s enough of a pattern to give you a useful framework.
Support for an existing ExpressionEngine or Craft CMS site typically works in one of two ways: ad-hoc work billed by the hour or project, or a retainer arrangement where a set amount of support is available each month for a fixed fee.
Ad-hoc is fine for sites that don’t change much and don’t need frequent attention. You pay for work when it’s needed. The downside is that when something urgent comes up, you’re starting from scratch in terms of context, which adds time and cost.
A retainer works better for sites that are genuinely business-critical. The developer knows the site, is available when needed, and handles routine maintenance as part of the arrangement. The cost is predictable, and you’re not scrambling to find someone when something breaks.
The complexity of the site. A straightforward brochure site with a few channel entries and a contact form requires much less ongoing work than a site with multiple channels, complex relationships, third-party integrations, and custom addons.
How much the site changes. A site that’s updated regularly requires more attention than one that’s essentially static. Content changes, new features, and design updates all require developer time.
The current state of the site. If you’re taking over a site that hasn’t been maintained properly, there’s usually remedial work to do before ongoing support makes sense. Getting the site into a maintainable state has a cost that’s separate from the ongoing support cost.
This is the part that most business owners don’t factor in. A site without ongoing support gradually drifts further behind on security patches, PHP compatibility, and addon updates. When something eventually breaks, the cost of fixing it is significantly higher than it would have been if the work had been done incrementally.
A server PHP upgrade that breaks a site that’s three versions behind EE and running outdated addons is an expensive emergency. The same situation on a properly maintained site is a planned upgrade that takes a fraction of the time and cost.
A proper support arrangement for a business-critical ExpressionEngine or Craft CMS site should include regular monitoring, security updates when they’re available, proactive communication about anything that needs attention, and responsive support when issues arise. It shouldn’t be purely reactive.
If you’re currently without support for your EE or Craft site and you’re not sure what’s involved, the starting point is usually a one-off audit. That gives you and any prospective developer a clear picture of where things stand and what’s needed.
If you want a clear answer on what ongoing support should cost for your site, get in touch with Karl.
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Most clients come to us when their site has started to feel like a risk rather than an asset. Whether the agency relationship has ended, an upgrade has been delayed, or the site has simply grown beyond what it can handle, a conversation costs nothing.
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Expression 37 works with a small number of clients at any one time. These are some of them.
Karl founded Expression 37 in 2007 and has worked exclusively with ExpressionEngine and Craft CMS ever since. He does not take on work in other platforms and does not hand work to other developers. Expression 37 is deliberately small, because the kind of support that matters to clients with business-critical sites is specific to their site, not something that scales in the conventional sense. If you work with Expression 37, you work with Karl.
Find out how we workKarl has been instrumental in delivering the ExpressionEngine development requirements for our client. Karl very quickly became part of our extended team as he is reliable, dependable and thorough in everything he does. Karl has a genuine desire to see his clients succeed and he will go out of his way to help them achieve that. Karl worked hard on our projects and was so helpful all along the way. He is driven, talented and an absolute pleasure to work with! Any organisation would be lucky to have Karl on their team.
Leilah Aintaoui
Video Smart Ltd.