Website care plans let web designers turn one-off projects into recurring revenue: clients pay a monthly or yearly fee for hosting, updates, backups, security checks and a set number of small changes. Hosting the sites on a white-label reseller plan keeps your costs low and your brand in front of the client. The model works when the plan is clearly defined, priced to cover your time, and delivered consistently.
Why care plans work for designers
Project income stops when the project ends. Yet every site you build still needs hosting, renewals, software updates, backups and the occasional change. A care plan packages that ongoing need into a predictable fee. Clients get one person responsible for their website, and you get regular income and a reason to stay in touch, which often leads to new projects.
What to include
Pick tasks you can deliver reliably every month:
- Hosting on your reseller account, with free SSL and email on the client’s domain.
- Software updates: WordPress core, themes and plugins, tested on staging for important sites.
- Backups: confirm they run, and keep extra copies of important sites off the server.
- Security: malware scanning, login protection and cleanup if something goes wrong.
- Uptime and renewal monitoring: know before the client does if the site is down or the domain is about to expire.
- Small changes: a fixed allowance of time or edits each month.
- A short report: what was updated, backed up and changed.
Tier your plans
Three tiers are easy to explain and let clients choose their level of service:
- Essentials: hosting, SSL, email, backups and security updates.
- Standard: everything in Essentials, plus monthly plugin updates and a small allowance of content edits.
- Growth: everything in Standard, plus a larger edit allowance, priority response and a quarterly review of speed and search basics.
Write down exactly what each tier includes and excludes. “Unlimited changes” usually leads to unpaid work.
How to price a care plan
Build the price from three parts:
- Direct costs: your share of the reseller plan, plus any licences or tools per site.
- Your time: realistic minutes per site per month for updates, checks and edits, multiplied by your hourly rate.
- Margin: for risk, such as a hack cleanup, and for growing the business.
An illustration, not a forecast: if 20 clients each pay $15 a month, that is $300 a month. If they all fit on a Tremhost Reseller 4 plan at $12 a month, the hosting cost is small; most of what remains pays for your time. If each site takes 30 minutes a month, that is ten hours of work, so check that the remainder is a fair rate for those hours. Your own numbers depend on your prices, clients and how much support they need.
Tools that make care plans manageable
- WHM and cPanel to create a separate account for each client and set limits.
- Softaculous for one-click installs, staging copies and auto-upgrades.
- Billing software such as WHMCS, to send invoices and reminders and suspend unpaid accounts.
- A shared password manager and a simple client register with domains, renewal dates and plan tiers.
Running it well
- Agree terms in writing: what is included, response times, what happens if a client stops paying and how they can leave with their site.
- Register domains in the client’s name. It builds trust and avoids disputes.
- Bill yearly where you can. A small discount for annual payment cuts admin and late payments.
- Use two-factor authentication on WHM and every WordPress admin account you manage.
- Review plans each year and adjust prices if your time per site has grown.
Hosting care plan sites on Tremhost
Tremhost’s reseller hosting has nine white-label plans from $7 to $60 a month. Every plan includes unlimited cPanel accounts, WHM, LiteSpeed, CloudLinux account isolation, Imunify360 malware protection, free SSL, Softaculous and NVMe storage. Reseller 4 is $12 a month or $108 a year with 60 GB NVMe and 800 GB bandwidth. WHMCS is included from Reseller 6 at $25 a month and is a paid add-on on smaller plans. The SLA sets a 99.9% monthly availability target, and Tremhost moves existing cPanel sites to your account for free.
If you would rather not handle WordPress updates yourself, managed WordPress hosting has updates tested on staging, daily backups and malware removal done for you; the Professional plan is $30 a month, which works out at $7.50 per site.
For a fuller background on the model, read what reseller hosting is.
Frequently asked questions
Do clients know I use Tremhost?
No. Reseller plans are white label, so clients see your brand in their control panel and nameservers.
What if a client’s site is hacked?
Imunify360 scans for malware and CloudLinux limits the spread to other accounts. Decide in advance whether cleanup is included in the plan or charged separately.
How many sites can one reseller plan hold?
cPanel accounts are unlimited; storage and bandwidth are the real limits. Upgrade as you add clients.
Should care plans be monthly or yearly?
Offer both if you can. Monthly lowers the barrier for new clients; yearly billing with a small discount reduces admin and late payments, and suits clients who budget annually.
Next step
Compare the nine plans on the Tremhost reseller hosting page, then price your first care plan tier using your own time per site. Questions can go to WhatsApp on +263 73 563 9917, Monday to Friday, 08:00 to 17:00 CAT.
