University websites are application portals, research hubs, event calendars, crisis communication tools, and accessibility benchmarks, all rolled into one.
And they come with a price.
Across North America, website maintenance costs are quietly consuming a large share of higher ed budgets. Not because universities are overspending, but because they’re often investing reactively, patching problems instead of preventing them.
From missed updates and security vulnerabilities to aging CMS platforms and scattered microsites, the real expense isn’t always visible. But it adds up, fast.
This article breaks down what’s driving those costs, where the hidden inefficiencies lie, and how universities can adopt smarter, more sustainable strategies to maintain their digital presence, without draining their resources.
The high price of keeping it in-house
You’d never build a campus with one architect, one electrician, and a dozen student volunteers.
But that’s how many universities treat their digital presence: under-resourced, overworked, and held together by good intentions.
Behind the scenes, building a fully resourced internal web team can approach a seven-figure annual cost. According to an analysis by Bravery Media, a competitive in-house digital strategy team, complete with web strategists, developers, designers, accessibility specialists, and QA, would cost around $994,000 per year in salaries alone.
That’s what it takes to do it right.
For many institutions, this number is a wake-up call. It helps explain why more universities are now shifting to cost-efficient alternatives, outsourcing to specialist agencies or adopting managed services models that deliver expertise on demand, without the full-time payroll.
That’s why, the million dollar question (literally) is: Do you want a full team on staff year-round, or a scalable partner that delivers only when, and where you need them most?
When resources are tight, smart allocation beats internal ownership every time.
When “keeping the lights on” drains the budget
Walk into most university IT offices and you won’t find teams dreaming up bold new digital strategies. You’ll find them answering support tickets. Fixing broken forms. Running updates. Trying to keep dozens of scattered systems running just well enough not to break.
And that’s the problem.
Studies show that over 75% of higher-ed IT budgets are spent just on basic support and maintenance of technology (Collegis Education). Not growth. Not innovation. Just keeping the lights on.
It’s like spending three-quarters of your campus operations budget mowing lawns and changing light bulbs, without ever investing in the new science lab students actually want.
This heavy allocation toward maintenance means something has to give. And what gives is usually progress. When IT leaders are buried in bug fixes and patch management, they have no capacity to build better experiences, experiment with new tools, or improve accessibility across digital touchpoints.
The reality is cutting even 25% of that maintenance spend could free up significant budget for strategic improvements, new enrollment tools, personalized content systems, or upgraded user journeys.
You can achieve that not necessarily with more staff. Often, it starts with better systems or a trusted partner who can take the routine work off your plate so your team can finally focus on what’s top priority.
The talent shortage no one planned for
You can’t maintain a high-performing website without skilled people. Developers who know your CMS inside out. Designers who understand accessibility. Strategists who think beyond the homepage.
But right now? Those people are hard to find and even harder to keep.
Universities across the U.S. and Canada are feeling the pressure. Nearly 80% of college leaders reported more open IT positions in 2023 than the year before, and 84% said hiring for staff roles has become more difficult (Orr Group).
So, many institutions are overextending the few people they have or overpaying to retain them. Others are simply falling behind, letting bugs pile up, delaying updates, and risking outages because there’s no one available to fix the issues.
This growing talent gap has made one thing clear: partnering with a specialized web maintenance team is a strategic necessity. These teams come fully staffed, trained, and ready to plug into your workflow.
And when every open position means another delay or security risk, that kind of support becomes essential.
The redesign-then-forget cycle
It starts the same way every time.
A new VP of Marketing walks in, looks at the university website, and declares, “We need a redesign.” Budgets are approved. Agencies are hired. The homepage gets a facelift. Navigation is cleaned up. Everyone celebrates.
And then? Nothing.
In higher ed, it’s common to do a major redesign every few years and neglect almost everything in between. The problem is, by the time the next redesign rolls around, the site is once again outdated, bloated, and riddled with technical debt.
And the cost of fixing it isn’t small. A full website redesign can take 3,000 to 5,000 hours of work, and for large institutions, it can creep up to 6,000 hours (OHO Interactive). That’s months of labor. Dozens of stakeholders. And a budget that eats into everything else.
There’s a better way.
Instead of letting your website decay into irrelevance and then starting from scratch, invest in regular, incremental maintenance. Fix the navigation before it collapses. Clean up the code before it breaks. Refresh the design before it looks dated.
Small, consistent updates prevent big, expensive emergencies. And in the long run, they save everyone time, money, and frustration.
Accessibility that pays for itself
When most universities hear “accessibility,” they think compliance. Legal requirements. Risk mitigation. A checklist to avoid lawsuits.
But what if accessibility was also a budget decision?
According to a case study from the University of Twente, websites built with accessible design were not only easier to use, they also reduced ongoing maintenance costs by 66%.
Why? Because accessibility demands structure. It forces you to write clean code, use consistent components, and think through every interaction. The result is a site that’s more stable, more predictable, and far easier to update.
In practice, that means fewer emergency fixes. Fewer user complaints. Less technical debt building up behind the scenes.
It also means your developers spend less time untangling messy code and more time improving what matters.
So yes, accessibility is about inclusion. But it’s also about efficiency. The most accessible sites tend to be the most sustainable, financially, technically, and operationally.
Berklee College of Music also prioritized accessibility as part of a broader digital strategy. OPTASY supported their transition to a more inclusive and compliant web experience, ensuring that design supported the diverse creative community Berklee is known for. Explore the case.
The high cost of falling behind
It doesn’t start with a dramatic breach. More often, it’s a missed update. An ignored security patch. A plugin that hasn’t been checked in months.
And then one morning, the university website is offline. Not for an hour, but for days.
This is happening across the education sector. Ransomware attacks have forced university and K–12 websites offline for an average of 11 days, with each day of downtime costing about $550,000 in lost productivity, reputation damage, and recovery expenses (Campus Technology).
Since 2018, these attacks have racked up over $2.5 billion in losses across the U.S. education system alone.
Poor maintenance, skipped patches, unmonitored systems, forgotten backups, is a financial liability.
The institutions that avoid these costs treat maintenance as a priority, not an afterthought. Their websites are monitored, patched regularly, and backed up often.
How universities can actually reduce the website maintenance costs
Every university wants a secure, modern, user-friendly website. But few have the budget or the bandwidth to maintain it the right way.
Reducing website maintenance costs requires making smarter choices upstream so you’re not constantly paying for problems downstream.
Here’s how forward-thinking institutions are lowering costs without sacrificing quality.
1. Consolidate and standardize
The fastest way to slash maintenance costs is to simplify your digital ecosystem.
Most universities have dozens of websites. Department sites, faculty pages, alumni portals, research microsites, often built at different times, by different teams, using different platforms. This creates a nightmare for maintenance: multiple CMSs to update, plugins to track, and style guides to enforce.
Tyndale University faced a familiar challenge: fragmented digital properties, outdated architecture, and inconsistent user experience across departments.
OPTASY helped them consolidate and rebuild their entire online presence using a scalable Drupal framework, making content easier to manage and significantly reducing maintenance overhead. See the full case study.
Start by auditing your digital properties. Identify outdated microsites, duplicate content, or systems that no longer serve a purpose. Then consolidate them into a centralized, scalable CMS, ideally one with multisite functionality, shared components, and consistent branding controls.
2. Switch from reactive to proactive maintenance
Too many institutions treat maintenance like a fire extinguisher. They only act when something breaks.
This is where money quietly leaks away into emergency fixes, last-minute developer hours, or long-term technical debt that becomes harder (and more expensive) to untangle.
Proactive maintenance flips the script. It means setting up automated systems for backups, updates, uptime monitoring, and accessibility scans. It means checking performance metrics monthly, not waiting for complaints. And it means catching small issues before they become big ones.
Agencies that specialize in higher ed maintenance can build this kind of system for you. You get peace of mind, lower risk, and far fewer surprise invoices.
3. Outsource the right way
Done well, outsourcing gives you access to specialized talent at a fraction of the cost of hiring in-house.
The key is choosing the right partner, one who understands the complexities of higher education websites, from governance structures to accessibility compliance to academic calendars.
Instead of hiring full-time developers or scrambling to find freelancers, many universities are now working with web maintenance agencies on monthly retainers. These teams handle everything from updates and security to performance optimization, freeing up internal staff to focus on strategy and content.
This model is predictable, scalable, and far less stressful than trying to build every capability internally.
4. Build with maintenance in mind
The best way to reduce future maintenance costs? Plan for them now.
When you build or redesign your site, choose themes, plugins, and tools that are actively maintained and well-supported. Avoid over-customization unless absolutely necessary. And document everything, from design decisions to content workflows, so future updates don’t turn into detective work.
Clean, modular, well-documented websites cost less to run. Always.
This long-term mindset paid off for OISE, the University of Toronto’s education faculty. OPTASY helped rebuild their site on a future-friendly Drupal platform, aligning content governance, accessibility, and long-term performance.
The result was less reliance on ad-hoc fixes, and more confidence in a digital presence that could grow with them. Read more here.
In the end, website maintenance is a strategic choice. And the more intentional your choices are, the lower your total spend, year after year.
At OPTASY, we’ve spent over 15 years helping universities across North America turn complex, outdated websites into stable, scalable digital ecosystems.
From CMS updates and accessibility audits to security hardening and performance optimization, our maintenance plans are built for higher ed. That means flexible retainers, fast response times, and a team that understands the difference between a faculty microsite and an enrollment landing page.
And in recognition of our ongoing work in education, OPTASY was officially recognized as a Drupal Open Education Management ECM Supplier Partner, a badge awarded to trusted agencies with a proven track record of delivering excellence in the higher ed space.
Whether you’re managing one site or fifty, we help you cut costs, reduce risk, and focus on what matters: delivering a seamless digital experience for every student, staff member, and stakeholder.
Let’s build a website that works as hard as your institution does.
