"Website AMC" gets sold in Nepal at wildly different scopes for similar prices — some agencies mean genuine ongoing maintenance, others mean little more than hosting renewal with a different label attached. Knowing what a real Annual Maintenance Contract should include makes it possible to tell the two apart before signing.

What a Genuine AMC Should Include

  • Regular software updates — CMS core, plugins, themes kept current, not left to accumulate security vulnerabilities over a year of neglect.
  • Security monitoring — malware scanning, at minimum, ideally with a defined response process if something is detected.
  • Regular backups beyond whatever the hosting provider does automatically, with a tested restoration process, not just files sitting untested in storage.
  • A defined number of content update hours or requests per month/year — text changes, image swaps, small layout tweaks — without a separate invoice for each one.
  • Uptime monitoring with proactive notification if the site goes down, rather than the client discovering it themselves days later.
  • A defined response time for issues, in writing, not "we'll get to it."

What Gets Passed Off as AMC but Isn't

A common pattern: an "AMC" that's actually just the annual hosting and domain renewal cost, repackaged with a maintenance label, with no actual update, monitoring or support work included. Another: an AMC that covers updates but with no defined scope for content changes, meaning every small text edit becomes a separate billed request despite the client believing they'd paid for exactly that kind of ongoing support. Reading the actual scope in writing, not just the word "AMC" on an invoice, is the only way to know which one you're buying.

Questions to Ask Before Signing an AMC

  1. "How many content update requests are included, and what counts as one?" A specific number (e.g., "up to 5 small content changes per month") is a real scope; "reasonable updates" is not.
  2. "What's the response time for a site-down emergency versus a routine request?" These should be different, defined numbers.
  3. "Is backup restoration tested, and how often?" A backup nobody has verified restores correctly isn't a real safety net.
  4. "What happens if I need more than the included update hours in a given month?" A clear overage rate, agreed in advance, avoids a surprise bill.

What a Reasonable AMC Costs in Nepal

Genuine AMC pricing typically runs from roughly NPR 8,000 to 30,000 per year depending on site complexity and how much content-update time is included, on top of (not instead of) standard hosting and domain renewal, which cover infrastructure but not active maintenance work. A price dramatically below this range for a stated "full AMC" is worth asking pointed questions about, since real ongoing update and monitoring work has a genuine time cost that has to be reflected somewhere.

Why This Matters Beyond Convenience

A website left entirely unmaintained for a year — outdated plugins, unpatched CMS core, no monitoring — is a genuine security risk, not just a cosmetic one; the majority of hacked WordPress sites are compromised through a known, unpatched vulnerability rather than a sophisticated targeted attack. A real AMC is less about convenience and more about not quietly accumulating exactly that risk over twelve unmonitored months.