Website AMC in India: What an Annual Maintenance Contract for Your Website Should Cover

On this page

1. What is a website AMC?
2. What a website AMC should include
3. Website AMC and Shopify stores
4. Response times and support
5. How many changes are included?
6. Common exclusions to check
7. Ownership and access
8. Pricing, payment and GST
9. AMC or monthly maintenance plan?
10. Renewal, termination and handover
11. Red flags in a website AMC
12. Questions to ask before you sign
13. Quick check: read your AMC before you sign
14. When to get help
15. FAQs

A website AMC (annual maintenance contract) is a yearly agreement in which a developer or agency keeps your website updated, backed up, secure and working, and makes an agreed amount of small changes. Whether an AMC is good value depends almost entirely on what is written in the contract: scope, response times, exclusions and exit terms.

This guide explains what a website AMC contract in India should cover, so you can compare offers and avoid paying every year for a vague promise.

What is a website AMC?

AMC is a familiar term in India for equipment such as lifts, ACs and computers. For websites it means the same idea: a fixed yearly fee for routine care, paid upfront or in instalments, instead of paying each time something is needed. Many businesses are offered a website AMC by the developer who built the site, often starting a year after launch.

An AMC is different from:

• Domain and hosting renewal, which are separate yearly charges paid to the registrar and host, even if the developer collects them.
• A monthly maintenance plan, which covers similar work but is billed monthly and is easier to cancel.
• New development, such as new sections, features or a redesign, which is usually quoted separately.

What a website AMC should include

A useful AMC for a WordPress site covers these areas. Ask for each one to be written in the contract, not just mentioned on a call.

Area	What to look for in writing
Updates	WordPress core, theme and plugin updates, how often, and testing after updates
Backups	Frequency, where they are stored (off the server), how long they are kept and a restore test
Security	Monitoring, firewall or security plugin, and what happens if the site is hacked
Uptime	Monitoring and who is alerted when the site goes down
Content changes	A clear number of small changes or hours per month or year
Support	How to raise a request, working hours and response times
Reports	A monthly or quarterly summary of updates, backups and issues

For the tasks behind each line, see the WordPress maintenance checklist. A contract that only says "complete website maintenance" without these details is hard to enforce.

Website AMC and Shopify stores

Shopify handles hosting, core updates and server security itself, so a Shopify AMC is mostly about app reviews, theme updates, product and banner changes, speed checks and help with payment or shipping settings; monthly Shopify support is scoped this way. If a Shopify AMC charges heavily for updates and backups, ask what exactly is being done, because Shopify already covers much of that.

Response times and support

Response time is the part most AMCs leave vague. A good contract separates urgent and routine requests:

• Urgent: site down, hacked, checkout or enquiry form broken. State the target time for the first response and for starting work.
• Routine: text changes, new images, adding a product or blog post. State a normal turnaround in working days.
• Channel: email, a ticket form or WhatsApp. Written requests make it easier to track what was asked and done.
• Hours: working days and hours, and what happens on holidays and festivals.

How many changes are included?

Disputes usually start here. One side thinks "unlimited small changes", the other means "a few text edits". Ask for one of these in writing:

• A fixed number of hours per month or quarter, with whether unused hours carry forward.
• A fixed number of change requests, with an example of what one request means.
• A list of included tasks, with everything else quoted separately.

Also ask for the rate for extra work beyond the AMC, so you are not surprised later.

Common exclusions to check

Every AMC has exclusions. They are fine as long as you know them before signing. Typical ones are:

• New pages, new features, new plugins or redesign work.
• Domain, hosting, premium plugin and theme licence renewals.
• Content writing, photography and translation.
• Malware cleanup after a hack, or only partly included.
• Problems caused by changes you or another developer made.
• SEO, ads and social media work.

Hack recovery deserves special attention. Ask directly: if the site is hacked during the AMC, is cleanup included, and how fast will it start? If it is excluded, know who you would call; a WordPress malware removal service is the usual fallback.

Ownership and access

An AMC should never make you dependent on the provider for access to your own website. Before and during the contract, make sure:

• The domain is registered in your business name and you hold the registrar login.
• The hosting account is yours, or you have full admin access to it.
• You have your own WordPress admin login.
• Premium plugin and theme licences are in your name or transferable.
• Backups can be handed to you on request.

The website ownership checklist lists every account to confirm. If your previous developer holds everything and is unresponsive, read how to regain control of your website from a previous developer before signing a new AMC.

Pricing, payment and GST

Website AMC charges vary widely with the size of the site, whether it is a store, how many changes are included and the response time promised. Instead of comparing only the yearly figure, compare what each provider will actually do each month. For typical ranges and what drives them, see website maintenance cost in India.

• Ask whether the fee is paid upfront for the year, half-yearly or quarterly.
• If the provider is GST-registered, ask for proper GST invoices.
• Check whether the price is fixed for the year and how renewal pricing is decided.

AMC or monthly maintenance plan?

Both can cover the same work. The difference is commitment and flexibility.

	Yearly AMC	Monthly plan
Payment	Usually upfront or in a few instalments	Monthly
Commitment	A full year	Often month to month or with short notice
Budgeting	One yearly expense, simple for accounts	Spread out
Switching provider	Harder mid-year unless the contract allows it	Easier

If you are trying a new provider, a few months on a monthly plan before committing to a yearly AMC is a sensible test. The guide to monthly website maintenance packages explains what a good plan should include.

Renewal, termination and handover

• Renewal: is it automatic, and how much notice is given of a price change?
• Termination: can either side end the AMC early, with what notice, and is any fee refunded?
• Handover: on exit, the provider should hand over all logins they created, the latest backup and a note of any custom work or plugins they added.

A clean exit clause protects both sides. Providers who are confident in their service rarely object to it. The website design contract checklist covers similar clauses for the original build.

Red flags in a website AMC

• No written scope, only a yearly figure.
• The provider refuses to share admin, hosting or domain access.
• Backups stored only on the same server as the site.
• No reports, so you cannot tell whether any work was done.
• Updates never run because "the site might break", with no testing plan.
• Large charges for tasks the platform already handles, such as Shopify hosting.

Questions to ask before you sign

1. What exactly do you do each month, and will I get a report?
2. How often are backups taken, where are they stored, and have you tested a restore?
3. How many changes or hours are included, and what is the rate after that?
4. What is your response time for urgent and routine requests?
5. Is hack cleanup included?
6. Will I keep full access to the domain, hosting and WordPress admin?
7. How do renewal and early termination work?

Samverse offers WordPress maintenance with written scope and reports, and businesses in Maharashtra can also work with a WordPress developer in Pune for AMC-style support. Send your site address and what you need covered to get a quote.

Quick check: read your AMC before you sign

1. Check the contract lists what is done each month: updates, backups, uptime monitoring and security checks.
2. Check how many content changes or hours are included, and what happens to unused ones.
3. Check the response time for a site that is down, and who holds the admin, hosting and domain logins.

When to get help

Get help when you want a maintenance plan with a clear written scope rather than a vague AMC. WordPress maintenance and support covers updates, backups, monitoring and fixes. You can also send the details through the contact form.

FAQs

What is a website AMC?

A website AMC is an annual maintenance contract: a yearly agreement in which a developer keeps your site updated, backed up, secure and working, and makes an agreed number of small changes.

What should a website AMC contract include?

Updates, off-server backups, security and uptime monitoring, a defined number of changes or hours, response times for urgent and routine issues, regular reports, exclusions, renewal terms and an exit clause.

Is hosting included in a website AMC?

Usually not. Domain and hosting renewals are separate yearly charges, even if the developer collects and pays them for you. Ask for them to be listed separately.

Is a website AMC better than a monthly maintenance plan?

Neither is better in every case. An AMC suits businesses that prefer one yearly payment; a monthly plan is easier to cancel and is a good way to test a new provider first.

Does a website AMC cover hacking?

Only if the contract says so. Many AMCs exclude or limit malware cleanup, so ask directly whether hack recovery is included and how quickly it starts.

Do I need an AMC for a Shopify store?

Shopify manages hosting and core security, so a Shopify AMC is mainly for theme updates, app reviews, product and content changes and speed checks. Pay only for work you actually need.