Someone to Email When the Site Needs Changing
Most small business websites are built once and then quietly abandoned — no backups, no updates, and nobody to call when the hours change or something breaks.
Hosting from $25/month. Care plans from $40/month, including edits. No lock-in.
The site was finished. Then nothing happened to it for four years.
This is the normal life cycle of a small business website. It launches, it looks good, and then the person who built it moves on. The hours go stale, the seasonal banner from two summers ago is still up, and nobody has taken a backup since launch.
The failure mode is rarely dramatic. It is a price that has been wrong for eight months, a contact form that quietly stopped delivering, or a certificate that expired on a long weekend. Small things, but each one is a customer who did not get through.
The other half is friction. When changing a phone number means finding an old email thread and hoping someone replies, most owners simply do not bother — and the site drifts further from the truth every month.
A website that is wrong is worse than one that is plain. Keeping it true is the cheap part.
What is actually handled.
Managed hosting
Fast, monitored hosting with SSL kept current. You are not administering a server or renewing a certificate at midnight.
Backups that get tested
Regular automated backups, and a restore path that has actually been checked rather than assumed.
Security monitoring
Uptime and integrity monitoring, so a problem gets caught before a customer finds it for you.
Edits by email
Send the change you want in plain English. No CMS login, no ticket system, no training session.
Someone who knows your site
The same person every time, who already knows how your site is built and does not need it re-explained.
Isn't hosting free?
Some of it genuinely can be. There are free tiers that will serve a small static site perfectly well, and if you are comfortable running your own deployments, you should use one. I would rather tell you that than sell you something you do not need.
But it is worth being straight about what the money is actually for, because it is not the server. Storage and bandwidth for a small business website cost pennies a month. Anyone charging you $25 a month for "server space" is not being honest about the bill.
What you are paying for is everything around the server — the parts that fail quietly, on a schedule nobody is watching.
The renewals nobody diarises
Your SSL certificate, your domain, and your DNS records all expire on their own separate schedules. An expired certificate does not degrade gracefully — browsers throw a full-page security warning, and effectively nobody clicks through it. It usually happens on a weekend.
Backups that have actually been restored
A backup nobody has ever tested is not a backup, it is an assumption. Restores get verified here, because the moment you find out a backup was broken is always the moment you needed it.
Monitoring, so you are not the last to know
Most small business owners discover their site is down because a customer mentions it. By then it has usually been down for days. Monitoring means the problem gets found before it costs you anything.
Someone who already knows your site
Free platforms have documentation, not people. When something breaks you are reading forum threads at 9pm. A plan means emailing one person who already knows how your site is built and does not need it re-explained.
The part free tiers do not advertise
A free tier is a business decision someone else made, and they can change it. Limits get introduced, terms shift, and products get retired — usually with notice, occasionally not, and always on their timetable rather than yours.
Most free hosting also assumes you can redeploy your own site: that you are comfortable with a git push, a build step, or a dashboard. If you are not, "free" quietly means waiting on a favour from whoever set it up.
And free accounts are tied to a person. If your site sits under a contractor's login or a relative's personal email, control of it does too. That is fine right up until they change jobs, move away, or stop answering.
If you would rather run it yourself, say so and I will hand over the files — it is your site, and you can host it anywhere. The plans exist for people who would rather it was simply handled.
Hosting and care plans.
Hosting alone keeps the site online. A care plan adds a set allowance of edits so small changes stop being a project.
| Service | Starting at | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Managed hosting — static sites | $25/mo | For low-maintenance sites that change rarely. |
| Managed hosting — dynamic sites | $75/mo | For sites with frequent updates, bookings, or a store. |
| Security monitoring add-on | $15/mo | Added to either hosting tier. |
| Lean Care Plan | $40/mo | Hosting, backups, security, plus 2 small edits per quarter. |
| Growth Care Plan | $85/mo | Hosting plus a monthly edit allowance and priority turnaround. |
Every project is scoped to your business. You get a firm, fixed price in writing before any work begins, and nothing starts without your sign-off. We never bill by the hour.
Not on a plan? Changes are priced individually.
Every change is quoted in writing before any work starts. These are starting points.
| Service | Starting at | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Small edit | $50 | Text or image swap, updating hours or prices. |
| New page | $150 | Matching your existing design. |
| New section or feature | $250 | Form, gallery, or booking widget. |
| DNS or domain change | $50 | Including moves between providers. |
| Larger functionality | $500 | Store, member area, or redesign. |
| Rush turnaround | +25% | Completed within 48 hours. |
Every project is scoped to your business. You get a firm, fixed price in writing before any work begins, and nothing starts without your sign-off. We never bill by the hour.
Or bundle it with your local visibility work.
These combine a care plan with the Google Business Profile work most local businesses need anyway.
| Service | Starting at | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Foundation | $300 + $40/mo | Google Business Profile tune-up plus the Lean Care Plan. |
| Complete | $1,050 + $644/mo | Foundation upgraded to the Growth Care Plan, plus an AI customer service assistant and ongoing local visibility management. |
Every project is scoped to your business. You get a firm, fixed price in writing before any work begins, and nothing starts without your sign-off. We never bill by the hour.
What owners ask.
How much does website hosting cost?
Managed hosting starts at $25 CAD per month for static, low-maintenance sites and $75 per month for dynamic sites with frequent updates or a store. Security monitoring can be added for $15 per month. Care plans, which bundle hosting with an allowance of edits, start at $40 per month.
What is the difference between hosting and a care plan?
Hosting keeps the site online, backed up, and secure. A care plan adds a set allowance of content changes — the Lean Care Plan includes 2 small edits per quarter at $40/month, and the Growth Care Plan includes a monthly allowance with priority turnaround at $85/month. If you rarely change anything, hosting alone is enough.
What counts as a small edit?
Swapping text or an image, updating your hours, or changing a price. Larger work — a new page, a new section or feature, or new functionality like a store — is quoted separately, starting at $150, $250, and $500 respectively. Everything is quoted in writing before work begins.
Do I have to sign a contract?
No. Hosting and care plans are month to month and can be cancelled at any time. If you leave, the site is yours and it can be moved to another host.
Can you take over hosting for a site someone else built?
Usually yes, depending on how it was built. Static and standard small business sites migrate easily. It is worth a look first, because occasionally a site is tied to a proprietary platform that cannot be moved without rebuilding it.
Can't I just host my website for free?
For a simple static site, technically yes — free tiers exist and they work. If you are comfortable running your own deployments, you should use one. What paid hosting buys is not the server, which costs pennies: it is the SSL, domain and DNS renewals that expire on separate schedules, backups that have been tested rather than assumed, monitoring so a problem is found before a customer finds it, and one person to email who already knows your site. Free platforms have documentation, not people.
What is the risk of using free hosting for a business site?
Three things. Free tiers are a business decision someone else controls, so limits and terms can change on their timetable. Most assume you can redeploy the site yourself, so if you cannot, an urgent change means waiting on a favour. And free accounts are tied to an individual login — if your site sits under a contractor's or a relative's personal account, so does control of it. None of that matters until it does, usually at the worst moment.
Tell me what your site is running on.
I will tell you what it would take to move it, what it would cost to keep, and whether a care plan is worth it for how often you actually change things. If hosting alone is enough for you, I will say that.
Ask About HostingOr email ken@gentoolinkwebservices.com · call or text 604-218-7290