With a new website, most attention goes to the build cost. That is logical: you compare quotes, review designs, and decide what budget you want to invest for launch.
But after launch, the cost does not stop. A website has recurring costs for hosting, domain name, SSL, maintenance, security, backups, and sometimes payment processing. Separately, those amounts look small. Together they determine whether your website stays affordable, stable, and manageable.
For a simple informational website, you often count on €15 to €50 per month. For a professional SME website, that is more likely between €50 and €150 per month. For a webshop, you usually start from €50 to €100 per month for the technical foundation, with transaction fees on top.
Those amounts are directions, not a fixed price list. At upshift, the pricing calculator shows monthly packages from €29 per month for websites and from €49 per month for webshops. The right monthly cost depends on how important your website is to your business and how much management, content, or support is needed.
The fixed foundation: hosting, domain, and SSL
Every website needs hosting. That is the server space where your website runs. Without hosting, your website is not online.
For Belgian entrepreneurs, you usually see three levels:
- shared hosting for simple websites with limited traffic
- managed hosting for business websites that need to stay stable and fast
- heavier hosting or a VPS for webshops, custom builds, or websites with lots of traffic
Shared hosting can be cheap, sometimes just a few euros per month. That looks attractive, but the difference lies in speed, support, monitoring, and reliability. A slow or unstable website may not cost much on the invoice, but it costs trust with visitors.
A domain name is the smallest cost item. A .be domain at many registrars costs a few euros to a few tens of euros per year. Converted, that is usually less than two euros per month. Good management still matters. Your domain name is your online address and must not expire by accident.
SSL provides the secure connection behind https. For most websites today, that can be via free TLS certificates, for example through Let's Encrypt, provided your hosting or management partner sets up automatic renewal correctly. If you pay separately for SSL, check why. Sometimes it is justified, often it is mainly an old habit or upsell.
Maintenance is not a side issue
A website is software. Even when nothing visible changes, the underlying parts keep moving: frameworks, CMS systems, plugins, servers, forms, security layers, and external scripts.
That is why maintenance is not a luxury. It prevents small technical backlog from becoming a bigger problem later.
If you work with WordPress, maintenance means for example updates to the WordPress core, theme, and plugins. That is general market context, not a description of how we standardly build new websites at upshift. For new projects we start from a lightweight, performant, and manageable setup, often static-first or custom where needed.
With such a custom site, maintenance is more about framework updates, dependencies, monitoring, and deployment management. In any case, you want to know who follows up when something breaks.
For a standard business website, a classic maintenance package often sits between €50 and €150 per month. For a webshop or more complex site, that can rise to €150 to €500 per month, depending on responsibility: support, security, testing, monitoring, backups, and small changes.
At upshift, monthly costs are packaged differently: the calculator works with monthly packages for hosting, domain name, and the technical foundation needed to keep your site performant and manageable. For separate support, extra development, or ongoing optimisation, it is best to agree clearly on what is and is not included.
Good maintenance is not just "clicking updates". It is also checking whether the website still works after an update.
Security, monitoring, and backups
A solid monthly package contains more than hosting alone. At least these elements deserve attention:
- automatic backups
- recovery options when things go wrong
- uptime monitoring
- security updates
- malware scanning on vulnerable systems
- clear support when something goes wrong
Backups matter especially when you need them. A backup that is never tested gives false confidence. So ask not only whether there are backups, but also how quickly a website can be restored.
Monitoring is the same story. If your website goes offline, you want someone to notice before a customer points it out.
Budget guide per website type
For a simple informational website or portfolio, you often end up at €15 to €50 per month. That fits self-employed professionals or small businesses that mainly want to be visible online with little technical complexity. Hosting, domain, and SSL are then the foundation. Maintenance can stay limited, as long as someone remains responsible for updates and backups. In the upshift calculator, a compact website package starts from €29 per month.
For a professional SME website, count on €50 to €150 per month. Think multiple pages, contact forms, SEO pages, blog articles, case studies, and regular small changes. The site then plays a more active role in your sales or communication. Stability, speed, and support become more important. At upshift, a CMS package is €49 per month and a more robust package is €119 per month.
For a webshop, monthly cost is structurally higher than for a simple website. At upshift, a webshop monthly package starts from €49 per month; for shops that need more sales power, management, and scalability there is a package at €119 per month. On top of that come transaction fees and any external tools. A webshop processes customer data, address data, and payments. That requires more follow-up than a regular website.
Use our pricing calculator if you want a first direction for a new website or webshop.
Webshop costs and transaction fees
With webshops, there is an additional cost: payment processing. Payment providers such as Mollie and Stripe usually charge no classic fixed monthly fee for their standard online payments, but they do charge a rate per successful transaction.
Those rates differ by payment method, card type, country, and volume. For Belgium, Bancontact is important. Mollie currently shows Bancontact as a fixed transaction fee of €0.39. Stripe applies separate rates on its Belgian pricing page for cards and local payment methods, including Bancontact. So always check current rates with your payment provider before calculating margin.
For a small webshop, transaction fees look limited. With growth, they become visible. A difference of a few tens of cents per order can add up on a monthly basis, especially when you process many small orders.
That is why your monthly budget for a webshop should always contain two parts: fixed costs for the technical foundation and variable costs per payment.
Also read our article on what a webshop costs or see our approach for webshop development.
Arrange everything separately or choose one package?
You can arrange everything separately: hosting with one party, domain with a registrar, SSL via your host, maintenance through a freelancer, and payments via a separate provider.
That can work perfectly if you have technical overview and know who is responsible for what. It becomes harder when something goes wrong. The hosting party points to the website. The website manager points to the server. Meanwhile your form or webshop is down.
A monthly package mainly solves that organisationally. You pay for one point of contact, one invoice, and clear responsibility. That is not always the cheapest choice on paper, but often the calmest choice for an SME that does not want to lose time on technical management.
Do pay attention to what such a package contains. Ask concretely what is included:
- hosting
- domain management
- SSL
- updates
- backups
- monitoring
- support
- small changes
- response time when problems occur
Vague phrases like "support on request" or "updates when needed" are not enough. You want to know what happens when your website is offline tomorrow.
When having a website built, a conversation about post-launch management belongs there too.
Are monthly website costs tax deductible?
For most Belgian self-employed professionals and SMEs, recurring website costs are business expenses when the website is used professionally. Think hosting, domain name, maintenance, support, software, and transaction fees.
The one-off build cost of a website can be treated differently in accounting than recurring monthly costs. A larger investment is sometimes capitalised and written off over several years. Monthly costs are often booked directly in the year they are incurred.
The exact treatment depends on your business, the nature of the investment, and your accounting. Treat this as practical guidance, not tax advice. Your accountant determines how to process this correctly.
What is clear: keep your invoices. Without an invoice, a cost is hard to prove.
Our advice
Do not only look at the lowest monthly amount. Look at what your website needs to do for your business.
A simple website that is visited occasionally does not need a heavy package. A website that brings in leads, supports quotes, or processes orders deserves better hosting, maintenance, and follow-up.
Make your monthly cost concrete by adding everything up: hosting, domain, SSL, maintenance, security, backups, software, and any transaction fees. Then compare that total with what is included.
Pay little but have no backups or clear support? Then the risk may be greater than the saving. Pay a lot but do not know what for? Then it is time to have your package explained.
Want a first direction for your situation? Start with the pricing calculator or discuss your project. Within 48 hours you get clear advice on what makes sense for your website.
