A retainer reserves a set number of hours each month for your requests. Instead of billing hourly for every change, you pay a predictable monthly fee and the hours are there when you need them.
Retainers are for sites that are actively changing. New pages, new services, seasonal promotions, updated forms, small features that were not in the original build. If your site is finished and you mainly want it looked after, the Care Plan is the cheaper and simpler answer. If your site is a working part of your business that changes every month, a retainer is the arrangement that keeps it from becoming a series of surprise invoices.
Retainers and the Care Plan are different jobs
Worth saying plainly, because the two services are easy to confuse.
The Care Plan keeps the site healthy. Updates, monitoring, backups, licenses. It is upkeep, and it does not change what the site says or does.
A retainer changes the site. New pages, new sections, form changes, feature additions, and the conversations about what to build next. It is development work, reserved in advance.
Most retainer clients also have the Care Plan sitting underneath. The Care Plan handles the plumbing; the retainer handles the renovations. You can hold both, and the pricing reflects that they are separate services rather than tiers of the same one.
What a retainer covers
- Content updates, new pages, and new sections using existing templates
- Form changes: new fields, new notification recipients, workflow adjustments
- Small feature additions that do not require a new design
- Seasonal or campaign pages built from your existing components
- Priority scheduling ahead of hourly clients
- A short monthly summary of work completed
- Advice on prioritization when your list is longer than your hours
What the work actually looks like
New pages and sections are the most common retainer request, and usually the fastest. A new service page built from the same blocks as the rest of the site takes a fraction of the time a from-scratch page would, and it looks like it belongs there rather than like a bolt-on.
Form changes are the second most common, and the most worth doing carefully. A new field, a second notification address, a different confirmation email — small changes with a large effect on whether enquiries reach you and whether they are answered well.
Campaign and seasonal pages are where retainers earn their keep for firms with a marketing calendar. A page for a seasonal offer, a registration deadline, or a new hire can be built, published, and retired without touching the rest of the site. The hours are there when the campaign is, which is the point of a retainer.
The monthly summary is short — usually a few lines. It exists so that neither of us has to reconstruct what happened three months ago, and so that the value of the retainer is visible rather than assumed.
Advice on prioritization is the part clients underuse. If you send a list of nine changes and you have five hours, I will tell you which three matter and which six can wait. That conversation usually saves more money than the work itself.
Three tiers, sized to how much your site changes
The tiers differ by hours, not by features. Every tier includes the same quality of work and the same priority scheduling.
Light — 2 hours/month: $200/month
Best for firms that update a page or post occasionally, add a new service a few times a year, and want priority scheduling without a large monthly commitment. Two hours is roughly one small page or two form changes, so it suits a site that changes quietly rather than constantly.
Standard — 5 hours/month: $450/month
Best for firms actively adding content, adjusting forms, or growing their online presence. Five hours covers a new page plus a round of small changes in a typical month, with room for the occasional larger request. This is the tier most retainer clients settle on.
Active — 10 hours/month: $850/month
Best for firms running event registrations, ecommerce, or frequent campaigns, where the site is a working part of the business rather than a brochure. Ten hours covers a steady stream of changes and leaves room for planning conversations about what comes next.
Unused hours do not roll over. This is the one term clients ask about most, so it is worth being direct: the hours are reserved for the month they are booked, which is what makes priority scheduling possible. Additional hours beyond the retainer are billed at $110/hour, which is higher than the retainer rate — the discount is the reason to commit to hours in advance.
What this does not include
- Full redesigns or new custom templates (quoted as a separate project)
- Ecommerce debugging that requires developer-level investigation (quoted separately)
- Emergency recovery from malware or a hack (quoted separately)
- Copywriting and content writing
- Design work that introduces new visual components not already in the site
The last exclusion is worth reading twice. A retainer covers building from what your site already has. If a request needs a new component designed — a different kind of card, a new layout pattern, a refreshed header — that is design work and it is quoted before it begins. Most retainer requests never touch this line. The ones that do are usually the start of a larger project, and it is better to name that early than to spend three retainer hours discovering it.
Pricing and payment terms
Light: $200/month
**Standard:** $450/month
Active: $850/month
Retainers are billed monthly, in advance, on the same date each month. The hours are reserved for that month whether or not they are used, which is the arrangement that makes priority scheduling possible.
Terms:
- Billed monthly in advance, due on the invoice date.
- Unused hours do not roll over.
- Additional hours beyond the retainer are billed at $110/hour.
- You may change tiers with 30 days’ notice. Mid-month upgrades are prorated; downgrades take effect the following month.
- You may pause the retainer with 30 days’ notice if your site is entering a quiet period. Pausing releases the reserved hours, so priority scheduling resumes when the retainer restarts.
- A retainer is not a substitute for the Care Plan. They cover different work and are billed separately.
Who this is for
Small firms and solo professionals who update their site regularly, are actively growing their online presence, or want a predictable monthly cost instead of variable hourly invoices.
It suits sites that are a working part of the business — a firm adding services, a practitioner running seasonal campaigns, a small company that treats its website as a marketing channel rather than a business card. It does not suit sites that are finished and mainly need looking after. Those clients should start with the Care Plan and add retainer hours only when a specific project calls for them.
If you are not sure which tier fits, send me a list of what you expect to change over the next three months. I will tell you the smallest tier that covers it, and I will tell you if the honest answer is that you do not need a retainer yet.
Frequently asked questions
What happens if I use fewer hours than my tier includes?
The hours do not roll over. The tier is a reservation, not a bank balance. If you consistently use fewer than half your hours, you are on the wrong tier and I will tell you so at the next review.
What happens if I need more hours than my tier includes?
Additional hours are billed at $110/hour, which is higher than the effective retainer rate. That difference is deliberate. It keeps the retainer priced sensibly for clients who commit in advance, and it means a busy month is an invoice rather than an argument.
Can I combine a retainer with the Care Plan?
Yes, and most retainer clients do. The Care Plan covers licenses, updates, and monitoring. The retainer covers changes to the site. They are billed separately because they are different jobs.
Can I pause the retainer?
Yes, with 30 days’ notice. Pausing releases the reserved hours, so priority scheduling resumes when the retainer restarts. Clients who run seasonal businesses use this regularly.
Do retainer hours cover content writing?
No. Copywriting is excluded from every service. If you need writing support, that is a separate conversation and it is quoted before it begins.
What if my request is bigger than my retainer?
I will tell you before starting. Large requests are quoted as a separate project rather than absorbed into the retainer, which protects both of us from a month where the hours vanish into one job and nothing else gets done.
Where to place these
“Retainers and the Care Plan are different jobs” — immediately after the intro. It prevents the two services from competing and answers the question most clients will have before they read further.
The three tiers — after the “what the work actually looks like” section, not before it. Clients need to understand what an hour buys before a number means anything.
The unused-hours explanation — directly under the tiers, not buried in the terms. It is the single most-asked question about retainers, and answering it in the main body saves an email.
“Who this is for” — after pricing, and make sure the closing paragraph points people toward the Care Plan if they are not ready for a retainer. It is the honest recommendation and it builds trust.