Who Updates My Website After It's Built?

Nobody tells you this at quote stage, and it's the thing that quietly decides whether your website stays useful or slowly goes stale.

The short answer

There are three arrangements, and you should know which one you're buying before you pay a deposit.

• You update it — the site has a CMS, you log in and change text, prices and images yourself. Free, but only if the CMS is genuinely usable.
• Your developer updates it — you email or message, they make the change. Billed hourly or bundled into a monthly plan.
• Nobody updates it — the most common outcome, and the reason so many small business sites still show 2023 prices.

Ask which one you're getting before signing. “Can I update this myself?” is a better question than most people ask about design.

What “you can update it yourself” actually means

This phrase covers two very different realities.

The good version: you log in, click into a page, edit text like a document, swap an image, hit save. No training needed beyond ten minutes.

The version people actually get: a CMS that technically allows editing but breaks the layout when you paste from Word, requires you to remember which of nine fields controls the homepage banner, and makes you nervous every time you touch it. Technically self-serviceable. Practically, you'll email the developer.

The difference isn't the platform. It's whether the person who built it set up the editing experience deliberately, or just handed you the admin panel and left. Ask to see it before you sign — a five-minute screen share of someone editing a page tells you more than any promise in a quote.

What you'll realistically need to change

Most small businesses need surprisingly little:

• Prices and service details
• Team members joining and leaving
• Photos of recent work
• Opening hours, especially over holidays
• A new service page when the business shifts

That's a handful of edits a year. Which is exactly why the “nobody updates it” outcome happens — it never feels urgent enough to pay for, so it doesn't get done, and two years later your site describes a business you no longer run.

What needs a developer regardless

Some things aren't CMS work, and no amount of self-service covers them:

• Adding a new feature or integration
• Changing the layout or structure of a page type
• Anything that touches how the site works rather than what it says
• Fixing something that broke
• Updates to the underlying platform and its dependencies

A reasonable arrangement: you handle content, the developer handles the machinery. Problems start when the boundary was never discussed.

Three arrangements, honestly compared

Self-service. Cheapest, and right for most small service businesses — if the CMS is genuinely easy. You're trading a little of your time for full control. The risk is that you don't get around to it.

Ad-hoc developer. You message when you need something, they bill hourly. NZ providers publishing 2026 rates put small ad-hoc changes in the $80–$150 per hour band — the same figure quoted in annual website maintenance costs in NZ, where the sourcing sits. Fine for occasional work. It gets expensive if you need something monthly, and there's no guarantee they're free when you need them.

Monthly plan. A retainer covering updates, monitoring and small changes. Predictable, and someone's paying attention to your site rather than waiting to be asked. Worth it once you're changing things regularly or the site is generating real revenue. Not worth it for a five-page brochure site that changes twice a year.

When you don't need anyone

If your site is five pages, your prices are stable, you're not blogging, and the CMS lets you fix a typo without fear — you don't need an update arrangement at all. Change what you need, once or twice a year, and spend the money elsewhere. Anyone selling you a monthly plan for that site is selling you comfort, not necessity.

What I'd recommend

Before you accept a quote, ask three things. Can I edit my own content — show me? What do I pay for changes outside that? What happens if you're unavailable? Whoever answers those clearly is telling you they've thought about the two years after launch, not just the six weeks before it.

Frequently asked questions

Can I update my website myself?

If it was built with a CMS and set up properly, yes — text, images, prices and hours are usually straightforward. Structural changes, new features and anything that breaks still need a developer. The honest test is asking to watch someone make an edit before you sign.

How much does it cost to have a developer update my website?

NZ providers publishing 2026 rates put small changes in the $80–$150 per hour band, or bundled into a monthly plan. Ask which applies and what the minimum billing increment is — some charge in 15-minute blocks, some have a one-hour minimum. Figures are NZD and exclude GST.

What happens if my developer stops responding?

This is why domain, hosting and CMS access should be in your name from day one. If they hold the keys, you have a recovery problem before you have an update problem. Taking over a website from another developer covers the recovery route.

Do I need a maintenance plan just to update content?

No. Content updates and maintenance are different things — maintenance is about hosting, backups, security and platform updates. You can have one without the other, and whether you need a plan at all is a separate question.

Where to start

Find out what your current setup actually lets you do before you pay anyone to change it. Send me your site and I'll tell you what you can edit yourself and what needs a developer — and if the answer is that you can do all of it, that's the answer you'll get. Get in touch, or see recent work.