Website maintenance cost in Japan – every yearly item, explained

The five items behind website running costs

Website running costs fall into two groups: what you pay simply to keep the site online, and what you pay when someone works on it. Map your current contracts or quotes onto these five items first.

• Domain: your site's address, such as example.com or example.co.jp, renewed every year
• Hosting: the server that stores and serves the site, billed monthly or yearly
• SSL: the certificate behind "https" that encrypts traffic – free and paid options exist
• Maintenance: CMS and plugin updates, backups, and fixes when something breaks
• Updates: changing news, photos, prices or adding pages

On top of these you may have company email (for example Google Workspace), licenses for paid themes or plugins, and monthly fees for booking systems or an online store. Go through your invoices and write down what you pay for each item and when it renews – that list is where any review starts.

Typical yearly website maintenance cost in Japan

The yearly total depends on the size of the site and how much you hand over to someone else. These are general ranges commonly seen in Japan:

• Domain: a few thousand yen a year for .com or .jp; .co.jp is somewhat higher, up to around 10,000 yen
• Shared hosting: from a few hundred to about 2,000 yen a month for a small site; busier sites or a VPS cost more
• SSL: free on most Japanese hosting plans; paid certificates with company validation can run tens of thousands of yen a year
• Maintenance plans: often 5,000 to 30,000 yen a month, depending on scope and response speed
• Content updates: either paid per edit from a few thousand yen, or a set number included in the monthly plan

As an example, a small company site with a 3,000 yen domain, 15,000 yen a year in hosting, free SSL and a 10,000 yen monthly plan comes to roughly 140,000 yen a year. An online store on Shopify or BASE adds plan fees, payment fees and paid apps. For choosing a server, see website hosting.

What a maintenance plan should spell out

Two plans at 10,000 yen a month can cover very different work. Before comparing prices, check these points:

• Who updates WordPress core, themes and plugins, and how often
• How often backups run, how long they are kept, and whether a restore is included
• How you report a problem such as a hack or a broken layout, and how fast it is handled
• How many text or photo changes are included per month, and the price beyond that
• Whether domain and hosting renewals are handled for you or by you
• Whether analytics reports or improvement suggestions are part of the plan

If a quote does not list the tasks, ask for them in writing. Our page on website maintenance explains the work in more detail and what you can handle in-house.

Where running costs grow unexpectedly

Monthly fees look small, yet extra costs add up in places people rarely check. Most of these are easy to prevent at the contract stage:

• The domain is registered in the agency's name, so switching providers means transfer fees and paperwork
• Auto-renewal of the domain or hosting lapses and the site and email suddenly stop
• WordPress or PHP is left outdated for years, then needs a costly upgrade all at once
• Every small edit needs a separate quote, and the yearly total climbs
• Paid plugins or services you no longer use keep billing
• Domain and hosting sit with different companies and nobody knows what is paid where

Ownership is the hardest to fix later. Register the domain, hosting and analytics accounts in your own name from day one. For the full picture including the initial build, see website development cost.

Keeping costs low without losing peace of mind

The quickest way to lower running costs is a setup that matches how often you update and how much support you need. A few habits help:

• Keep one cost sheet: item, provider, amount, renewal month and account owner
• Match the platform to your updates: an easy CMS if you post often, a lighter build with simpler maintenance if changes are rare
• Consolidate: domain and hosting with one provider, paid yearly, is easier to manage
• Split the roles: hand over updates and backups, edit text yourself
• Put renewal dates in your calendar: it prevents lapses and double contracts, and reminds you to review

If you are building or rebuilding a site, ask for the yearly running cost alongside the build quote. Comparing providers becomes far more accurate.

How UNANOBO works: a free demo, then clear running costs

Before you commit to anything, UNANOBO builds a free demo of your site around your brand. After you have checked it on a computer and a phone, you get a structure proposal, a plan and estimate for the build, and a breakdown of what domain, hosting, maintenance and updates will cost each year.

The process is free demo, feedback, launch, growth. The founder handles every project personally, so the same person answers your questions about costs and work from the first demo to maintenance after launch. Domains and analytics stay in your name, and everything runs by message in Japanese or English.