Like any other software product, your store will inevitably have bugs that need to be fixed, updates that need to be installed, security patches that need to be applied, and new features that need to be added.
The key question is — how much does ecommerce maintenance cost?
To answer this question, let’s first take a look at the difference between support and maintenance and why you’re likely interested in a combination of these two essential pieces of the development process.
Support is reactive. When something breaks, you call support to fix it.
Maintenance is proactive. You diagnose/fix/improve things before they break.
There are always new patches, new bugs, and new features that clients want, so having someone on-call is important. They don’t have to be on-call 24/7, but they should be available most times of the day.
That’s why you’re likely interested in a combination of support and maintenance, and that is also the reason why software development companies offer both in their support packages.
When we talk about the costs of setting up an ecommerce site with our clients, we discuss what happens after the store goes live.
Anatoly Kholozyon, Project Manager at Elogic, says that most Magento projects require at least two weeks of full-time support and maintenance after they go live. The reason for this isn’t because the work was sloppy or rushed — it’s because it’s impossible to iron out every single detail and foresee every possible user action (although we try our best).
This is what we include in our support and maintenance packages:
Now that we know what support/maintenance entails, let’s look at how much it costs.
The short answer is — it depends. If you opt for a low-cost ecommerce platform or low-cost website design, you’ll be spending tons of money to tweak and optimize your site to make it user-friendly.
There are two major factors that influence Magento support costs — 1) the average cost of a Magento developer and 2) the number of hours needed to maintain the website based on what needs to be done (for example — installing patches, updating Magento, developing new features, bug fixes, etc).
The cheapest developers (Southeast Asia, India, Pakistan) charge $10-20 per hour. The typical rates per hour vary from $20-$60 in Eastern Europe (Ukraine, Belarus) while in Western Europe (Germany, Netherlands, France), the United Kingdom, and the United States of America it’s about $150-200.
“Generally, the number of hours it takes to maintain a Magento site ranges anywhere from 20-120 hours/month.” – Anatoly Kholozyon, Project Manager at Elogic.
For stores that are just starting out, we offer a Small support package.
Medium-size online retailers can benefit from the Medium package.
Large ecommerce stores with high sales volumes and a quickly growing business will find our Large support package ideal for their needs.
Our Magento support packages are tailored for ecommerce businesses of different sizes. We not only provide bug fixes, but also improve performance, provide audits, integrate required tools and services, and help you decide a course which is best for your business.
Launching your store is only the beginning of the excitement of owning and operating an online shop. Like any other business endeavor, be it software-related or not, you’ll have to make adjustments, improvements, and troubleshoot issues as they arise.
If you’re a new merchant and you need more information, we recommend reading our full guide on ecommerce website development cost.
