Hosting, domain, SSL, maintenance and the running costs nobody mentions in the original quote. Real annual numbers.
The build price gets all the attention, but a website is not a one off purchase. Here is what it genuinely costs to keep one running in New Zealand, and which of those costs are optional.
The unavoidable costs
| Item | Typical annual cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Domain name | $25 to $40 | A .nz domain renews annually. Keep it in your own account, not your developer's. |
| Hosting | $100 to $600 | Depends heavily on traffic and whether the site is static or runs a database. |
| SSL certificate | $0 | Free through Let's Encrypt and included by any competent host. Nobody should be charging you for this. |
For a straightforward brochure site, you can realistically be running for under $200 a year. That is the floor.
The costs that depend on choices
- CMS or platform fees. Shopify, Squarespace and similar charge monthly. A self hosted site does not, but somebody has to maintain it.
- Maintenance and updates. If your site runs WordPress or similar, plugins and core need updating or the site becomes a security liability. Budget a few hundred a year or do it yourself.
- Email hosting. Often bundled with hosting, sometimes separate. Google Workspace runs about $10 per user per month.
- Content changes. If you can edit the site yourself this is free. If every change goes through a developer, it adds up fast.
What you should not be paying for
Some arrangements charge a monthly fee that covers nothing identifiable. If you are paying a retainer, you should be able to say exactly what it buys. Common things worth paying for: monitoring, backups, security updates, a set number of content changes. Things not worth paying for: 'maintenance' with no definition, or hosting priced at ten times the market rate.
The clearest signal of a healthy arrangement is that you could leave tomorrow and take everything with you. If leaving is difficult, the pricing is probably not in your favour either.