You pay your agency every month and have no idea what you are getting
A web agency retainer should buy you a defined number of hours each month covering hosting, updates, content changes, and monitoring. If your agency cannot tell you what those hours were spent on, they probably were not spent. Ask for a written breakdown of the last three months and compare it to what you have actually seen change on your site.
What a retainer is supposed to cover
A monthly retainer is meant to be a bundle of work, agreed in advance. You pay a fixed amount, and in return you get a fixed list of things: the site stays online, software gets kept up to date, small content changes are done when you ask, and someone is watching for problems.
If you signed up for £100 or £150 a month, somewhere in the small print there is probably a number of hours attached. Two hours. Four hours. Sometimes it is just described as "reasonable maintenance", which is the agency reserving the right to define "reasonable" later.
The point is, you should be able to ask: what did those hours cover last month? And get a real answer.
Where the hours actually go
When the answer is vague, it is usually because the hours were not spent on your site at all. Here is what is normally happening behind a retainer where nothing seems to change:
- Automated updates. Software updates that run themselves overnight. No human touches the site. Billed as "maintenance".
- Server monitoring. A tool pings your site every few minutes to check it is up. Costs the agency a few pounds a month. Billed as "uptime monitoring".
- Backups. A scheduled job copies your site once a day. Set up once, runs forever. Billed monthly.
- Account management. The quarterly email asking how you are. The occasional phone call. Real time, but not work on your website.
- Nothing. Some months, genuinely nothing happens. The retainer is profit margin.
The account manager who emails you twice a year to check in is, conservatively, £30 of your monthly bill.
None of this is fraud. It is just that the work is mostly automated, and the price was set when these things took real time. The price never came back down.
How to find out what you are paying for
Send your agency a short email. Polite, clear, in writing.
Hi, can you send me a breakdown of what was done on my website during the last three months? I would like to see the date, the task, and roughly how long it took.
Then wait. One of three things will happen.
They send a real log. Dates, tasks, times. Good. You can now judge whether you are getting value. If two hours a month is going on real work, £100 might be fair. If half an hour is going on real work, it is not.
They send a vague summary. "Ongoing maintenance, security updates, hosting management." No dates, no specifics. This is the standard reply when there is nothing concrete to point at. Reply asking for specifics. If they cannot produce any, you have your answer.
They get defensive. Long email about how retainers do not work like that, how you are paying for availability rather than time, how the value is in the peace of mind. This is a sales pitch wrapped in an excuse. Availability has a price, but it is not £150 a month for a five-page site.
What a fair retainer looks like
For a small business site - five or six pages, a contact form, maybe a Google Business profile - a fair monthly figure for hosting and basic upkeep is around £40 to £50. If you want someone to actually make changes when you ask, a few times a month, £60 to £70 is reasonable. Whether you run a barber shop in Sheffield or a bookkeeping practice in Cardiff, the work involved is roughly the same.
Above that, you should be getting active development work - new pages, new features, real time spent on growing the site. Not just "availability".
What a fair retainer looks like in practice:
- A written list of what is included, with numbers attached (e.g. up to 5 changes a month)
- A monthly email summarising what was done, even if it was small
- Same-day or next-day replies to small requests
- No minimum term beyond an initial 3 months
- Your login details, your domain, your hosting account - all in your name
What to do next
Ask for the breakdown first. You might be surprised - some agencies will produce a proper log and the relationship is fine. Most will not, and the silence will tell you everything.
If the answer is vague or defensive, you are not getting value. Give 30 days notice (check your contract for the notice period) and move to someone transparent.
SkipTheAgency's Maintained plan is £65/month and includes up to 10 content changes, software updates, and a monthly report listing exactly what was done. No retainer mystery. If you only need the site kept online and secure, the Hosted plan starts at £40/month. Migration from your current agency is free.
Frequently asked questions
How do I find out what my web agency does each month?
Email them and ask for a written breakdown of work done in the last three months, including dates, tasks, and rough time spent. A transparent agency will send a log. A vague reply usually means the work was minimal or automated.
Is it normal for a web agency to not itemise retainer work?
Common, but not normal. A retainer should have a defined scope, and you should be able to see what was done against it. Refusing to itemise is a red flag, not industry standard.
How much should a small business pay for website maintenance?
For a small site, £40 to £70 a month is reasonable - covering hosting, software updates, and a handful of content changes. Above £100 a month, you should be getting active development work, not just availability.
Can I cancel a web agency retainer if I am not getting value?
Yes, but check your contract for the notice period - usually 30 days. Send notice in writing. They are legally required to hand over your domain, hosting access, and any content you paid for.
What questions should I ask my agency about my retainer?
Ask what is included in writing, how many hours or changes per month, what counts as in-scope versus extra, and for a log of work done in the last three months. The clarity of the answers tells you what you need to know.
Why does my website never change even though I pay every month?
Because the retainer is probably covering hosting and automated background tasks rather than active work on the site. If you never request changes, none get made - and most agencies will not suggest any unsolicited.
Want a monthly report that actually says what was done?
SkipTheAgency's Maintained plan is £65/month and comes with a monthly summary of every change made, every update applied, and every hour spent. No vague "ongoing maintenance" line items.
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