You need a plan if…
- Your website is where customers book, call, or buy.
- You use a CMS with plugins (WordPress, Shopify with heavy apps, etc.).
- You rank for local searches and want to keep those rankings.
- You'd lose money if the site went down for 48 hours.
- You're not going to remember to update plugins every week.
You probably don't need a plan if…
- Your site is a static single page with no forms and no CMS.
- You have an internal developer who already handles updates.
- The site is a placeholder while a new one is being built.
The honest middle ground
Some small businesses can get away with a cheap "hosting only" plan and running updates themselves once a month. That's fine — until it isn't. If you're the type of owner who will actually log in and run updates on schedule, save the money. If you're not, get a plan.
What we recommend
For 90% of Bay Area small businesses, a $79–$149/month plan pays for itself the first time it prevents a bad update, restores a backup, or catches a downtime alert before your customers do.