The Top 7 Website Maintenance Companies in Chicago

April 8, 2016

Finding a great web design team is a challenge. Finding a great web design team that also made supporting websites an integral part of their business is even more difficult.

Often when hiring a company we think only about the company that will help us plan, build and launch a world class website in 2-4 months. And we might not consider that is merely a blip on the life cycle of a website that we expect to be live for 3-5 years. Or we just assume this company has serious approach to supporting, upgrading, providing security patches and ensuring that we have piece of mind that our site is backed up.

Unfortunately, our team sees many failed relationships that result because the web team that was selected to build the website was not in the business of supporting or maintaining websites. Client's don't often find this out until after the site launches.

Before you commit to a web team ask some questions about how this web team thinks about website maintenance and how they'll be available. If you're still not sure where to start I developed a short list of standard questions about website maintenance and reached out to some of our favorite web design agencies in Chicago that love providing website maintenance services.

If you'd like to know more about any of them they're all quite friendly and highly approachable. I'd definitely recommend reaching out to them.

7 Larger Website Maintenance Companies in Chicago

(Listed Alphabetically)

Team Size: 10
Hourly Rate: $140
Location: Chicago - West Loop
Building Websites Since: 2009
Website Support Agreements Since: 2010
Supporting Websites not Built in House: Yes
Software for Handling Support: Mantis
Avg Support Agreement Length: 12 months
# of Website Maintenance Clients: 15+
Languages/Platforms you Support: Drupal & Magento
Website Maintenance Services: Enterprise class hosting, monthly maintenance (application, testing, and deployment of security updates), ongoing support (break-fix and enhancements), site administrator training
Website Support Package Options: • Retainer Based - 40hrs/mo
• Ad Hoc Support (for security updates) - Any option

What Digital Bridge Solutions loves about supporting websites:

Working with a site on an ongoing basis allows us to really understand our clients' business and evolving needs, and make sure their digital strategy and tools are keeping up with these needs and enabling new possibilities for the organization. We want to be the bridge that gets your business from here to there.

Team Size: 6
Hourly Rate: $175
Location: Chicago - Northside
Building Websites Since: 2006
Supporting Websites Since: 2011
Supporting Websites not Built in House: Yes
Software for Handling Support: Teamwork & Desk
Avg Support Agreement Length: 6 mo - 1 yr
# of Website Maintenance Clients: Not Available
Languages/Platforms you Support: Wordpress, Drupal, ExpressionEngine, and Rails
Website Maintenance Services: Daily site backups, site validation audit/report, Google Analytics audit/report, server audit/report, site performance accessibility and goal recommendations, weekly backup reports, monthly CMS updates, support ticketing
Website Support Package Options: • $500/mo
• $875/mo
• $1,375/mo
• $1,740/mo
• $2,450/mo

What Lime Red loves about supporting websites:

We love working with smart people who have a long-term vision and appreciate a research-driven, human-centered approach to web design and development. Specifically, we work with nonprofits, universities, associations and social enterprises who are making people’s lives better.

Team Size: 16+
Hourly Rate: $200/hr - Priced by Project
Location: Chicago - Northside
Building Websites Since: 1998
Website Support Agreements Since: 1999
Supporting Websites not Built in House: Yes, on a case-by-case basis
Software for Handling Support: Basecamp
Avg Support Agreement Length: 1 yr
# of Website Maintenance Clients: 10-20 Active Agreements
Languages/Platforms you Support: Wordpress
Website Maintenance Services: Hosting, preventative maintenance, new code, strategy, staging and production environments, website backups, ongoing SEO, ongoing content work, new UX work or development work
Website Support Package Options: • 7-12 hours/mo
• 35 hrs/mo

What Mightybytes loves about supporting websites:

Mightybytes loves working with clients of all stripes, but as a Certified B Corporation, we're particularly interested in partnering with businesses and organizations working to make a positive impact in the lives of people and on the planet — from theater companies and libraries to environmental and social nonprofits.

Team Size: 35
Hourly Rate: $150
Location: Chicago - Northside
Building Websites Since: 2001
Website Support Agreements Since: 2006
Supporting Websites not Built in House: Yes, after an assessment
Software for Handling Support: A homegrown system & Basecamp
Avg Support Agreement Length: 5+ years
# of Website Maintenance Clients: 7 Active Agreements and 400+ Support Clients
Languages/Platforms you Support: Drupal, Wordpress, Mighty-Site (Proprietary CMS)
Website Maintenance Services: Hosting, content updates, bug fixes, backups, CMS upgrades, and feature requests
Website Support Package Options: • Month-to-month Agreements
• 10-25 hrs/month

What Orbit loves about supporting websites:

Two points. First, we like being accountable for making a website work. We think it’s better for the client to have their web design partner also host and support the website. This avoids finger pointing and unnecessary communication when problem solving.

Second, great websites are going to be tested, changed, updated, and enhanced. We like to be a good partner and make it as easy as possible to help our clients get the most out of their websites.

Team Size: 7
Hourly Rate: $175
Location: Chicago - Westside
Building Websites Since: 2007
Supporting Websites Since:: 2012
Supporting Websites not Built in House: Yes, after an assessment
Software for Handling Support: myEDUCO - Homegrown system
Avg Support Agreement Length: 3 yrs
# of Website Maintenance Clients: 18 Active Agreements and 50+ Support Clients
Languages/Platforms you Support: Druapl, Wordpress, Ruby on Rails
Website Maintenance Services: Hosting, backups, server tuning, emergency support, 24-hour support ticketing, content and design updates, strategic content marketing/publishing, site performance/conversion review
Website Support Package Options: • 18 hrs/yr
• 24 hrs/yr
• 36 hrs/yr
• 72 hrs/yr
• 200 - 360 hrs/yr

What EDUCO loves about supporting websites:

Maintaining a website it just as important as the initial build. Getting the opportunity to help support, maintain, and market a website gives us the opportunity to make the website that we build, with each client, even better and continue to bring more value to our client's business.

3 Smaller Website Maintenance Teams in Chicago

Team Size: 3
Hourly Rate: $125
Location: Chicago - Northwest Suburbs
Building Websites Since: 2007
Website Support Agreements Since: 2013
Supporting Websites not Built in House: Yes
Software for Handling Support: ZenDesk & Adept Portal
Avg Support Agreement Length: Ongoing
# of Website Maintenance Clients: 5+
Languages/Platforms you Support: WordPress
Website Maintenance Services: Backups, content updates, CMS upgrades, security scans, uptime monitoring, traffic spike monitoring and SEO monitoring/reporting.
Website Support Package Options: • Up to 25 hrs/mo

What AdeptPlus loves about supporting websites:

We see maintenance as an opportunity to grow, expand and drive your website. Whether a client would like to pay-as-they-go with a one or two hours per month or put together a strategic plan to drive sales online, we take a flexible approach as we understand every business is different. We also try to “wow” our clients with proactive updates and same-day response time.

Team Size: 1
Hourly Rate: Contact for pricing
Location: Chicago - Westside
Building Websites Since: 2002
Website Support Agreements Since: 2008
Supporting Websites not Built in House: On a case by case basis
Software for Handling Support: Email
Avg Support Agreement Length: 5 yrs
# of Website Maintenance Clients: 12
Languages/Platforms you Support: HTML, WordPress, Perch
Website Maintenance Services: Content updates
Website Support Package Options: Not available

Megan's approach to supporting websites:

I prefer to build websites that clients can update themselves, especially if they have frequent updates. If updates are needed only 4-6x per year, I will often manage the site for them.

Picking a Website Maintenance Team Is No Easy Task

How do you know if you'll like them, that they'll treat you with the respect and dignity you deserve.

Often times clients have had a bad experience with their previous team otherwise they wouldn't be searching for a new group.

Whatever your website design project may need, I hope this list gave you a reference point for comparison. And if we left out any great web agencies we’d love to hear from you! Drop us a line or leave us a comment below.

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