Price increase letter to web design and retainer clients
Copy it, replace the bracketed bits, send it. Below the letter: the text-message version, how much notice to give, and what to say when they push back.
Hi [NAME], Our retainer renews on [DATE], so here is what the last 12 months looked like. Hours included: [N] a month ([N] over the year) Hours used: [M] over the year What they went on: [e.g. "about 40% content updates, 35% new landing pages, 25% fixes and updates"] Licences and hosting I pay for on your site: [AMOUNT] a year, up from [AMOUNT] when we started The short version: you are using more than the retainer was built for, and the licences behind the site cost more. So there are two ways we can go from [DATE]: Option A — keep the scope, right-size the price [N] hours a month, same as now: [NEW PRICE] a month (currently [OLD PRICE]) Option B — keep the price, narrow the scope [OLD PRICE] a month covers hosting, security, updates and [N] hours of edits. New pages and features are quoted separately. Both are fair. A is simpler if the site keeps growing; B makes sense if this year's new pages were a one-off. Let me know which you would prefer by [DATE]. If I do not hear back, I will move you to [OPTION]. [YOUR NAME] [BUSINESS NAME]
How many customers can this price rise lose?
10% ÷ (40% + 10%) = 20%
Open the full calculator, with your prices and customer count →60 days, at the retainer anniversary
10–20% on care plans, or a retiered retainer
The text-message version
For the customers whose entire relationship with you lives in a phone. Send it before the visit, never on the invoice.
Hi [NAME], [YOUR NAME] here. Sent you a quick retainer review ahead of [DATE] with two options — worth five minutes before then. Happy to jump on a call.
Why it is going up, in words you can use
“Rising costs” persuades nobody because everyone says it. Name the actual driver in web design and website care instead:
- plugin, theme and tool licences are now annual per-site subscriptions, and most have raised prices
- hosting, backups and security monitoring cost more per site
- the work drifted: the retainer covers content edits, but the client now asks for landing pages and integrations
- retainers are often priced from year one and never reviewed
When they push back
You will hear these within a week. Having the answer ready is the difference between holding the price and folding on the phone.
- "Someone on a freelance site will do it for a fraction."
- "They might, and for a one-off job that can work. The retainer is someone who knows your site, answers the same day and fixes it when an update breaks something at 9pm." Name the last time you did exactly that for them. Then stop.
- "We barely use the hours some months."
- That is what Option B is for — say so. Offer a lower tier with fewer included hours. A smaller retainer is better than a lost one, and a client who feels they pay for what they use usually grows back into more.
- "What are we actually paying for each month?"
- If you have to be asked, the monthly report is missing. Send a short one every month from now on: updates run, backups checked, uptime, hours used. Retainers are rarely cancelled when the client can see the work.
Is a price rise even the right move for you?
Sometimes it is not. Sometimes the money is in a service plan for customers you already have, or in the job you are quoting below cost without realising. Describe your business in one sentence and you will get three specific moves back — priced per month, with the arithmetic written out so you can put your own numbers in.
Free, no signup, about thirty seconds. If one of them is a price rise, you will get the number to put in the brackets above.
Give me three movesMore letters: business services
Other trades
A template, not legal advice. If you have a written contract with these retainer clients, check what it says about notice periods and price changes before you send anything — the contract wins over any template, including this one.