Retainers for web studios and freelancers

Sell retainers as the technical partner to your client's marketing team.

Marketing managers need a landing page this week, a form that reaches the CRM and a pixel that fires. This kit shows you how to sell developer hours for that work, and how to report them each month so the client sees what the hours did for their campaigns. Updates, security and backups stay as the base of the plan, not the pitch.

From a web studio with ~60% of clients on retainer: a guide and nine templates on one set of rules, so the proposal, the agreement and the report never contradict each other.

Kit + AI Pack — $45 Kit only — $29

Launch prices (regular $39 and $59). One-time payment, USD. 14-day refund, no questions asked. Compare the two options.

  • Word / Google Docs
  • Excel / Google Sheets
  • Markdown
  • Instant download
05-monthly-report · filled-in example Excerpt

Monthly Report — September 2026

Kestrel Bay Outdoor Co. · Growth plan, 10 h/month

Value delivered

  • The Fall Trail Sale page was live on Sep 4, one day before the campaign. Tested on staging and checked with your campaign UTMs before launch.
  • You can now see the campaign in your numbers. Add-to-cart, product-view and lead events fire in GA4 and Meta, and form leads carry their UTM source into HubSpot.
  • The next campaign page will take less time. With the new campaign blocks, we estimate 2 h for the Black Friday page instead of the 4.25 h this one took.

Hours balance

FromAvail.UsedLeftExpires end of
Aug2.252.250.00Oct
Sep10.0010.000.00Nov
Total12.2512.250.00

Overage: 14.50 h used of 12.25 available. 2.25 h × $120 = $270, approved by email on Sep 23, on the October invoice.

Template 05, filled in for a fictional client. This one was drafted by the AI Pack from a ClickUp export; the hours were rechecked in Python.

Care plans beyond WordPress. The model runs on hours and boundaries, not plugin updates.

  • WordPress our work
  • Next.js / headless our work
  • Webflow compatible
  • Framer compatible

What the hours look like

The request as it arrives, and the engineering decision behind it.

The guide walks through three typical requests in this format. You can reuse it in your own sales material.

Marketing manager · Monday 10:14

Can we get a landing page for the Black Friday campaign by Thursday? Same look as the site. Ads go live Friday 6 a.m.

What we did
Built a reusable “campaign landing” template instead of a one-off page: hero, offer block, countdown, FAQ and form, all as components the marketing team can fill in from the CMS. Added UTM handling and a thank-you page that fires its own conversion event.
Why
They'll ask for another campaign page in six weeks. A template costs a couple of extra hours now and saves most of the build time on every campaign after this one. The next page can be assembled by the marketing team alone.
Hours
~7 h 5 h template and components · 1 h tracking and thank-you page · 1 h mobile testing and review on the preview link
Reusable
The template, the countdown component, the conversion-event setup. The next campaign page takes the client's team well under an hour, and you about 0.5 h for a tracking check.

An illustrative composite of requests the studio gets often, not an account of a specific client. Hours are typical figures. The other two cases in the guide: a demo form that has to reach the CRM (direct API, UTM fields, a fallback when the call fails), and missing ad conversions plus a server-side A/B test.

Where retainers go wrong

Most retainer problems are a disagreement about what's included.

You've probably heard some of these. Each one is answered by a rule further down the page.

And the one that isn't a contract clause: Can you upload this PDF and swap the banner?

The kit writes a CMS boundary into the proposal, the scope matrix, the client one-pager and an email script. You don't refuse the request: do it once, take the time from the bank (usually 15 to 30 minutes) and send a short screen video showing how it's done in their CMS. Next time their team does it; if they ask again, it's charged again. Seeing 0.5 h on the report for a banner swap teaches the boundary better than a contract clause, and the bank goes to work that needs a developer.

Marketing team does (CMS operations)

  • Posts and pages from existing blocks or templates
  • Images, text, prices, team members, products
  • CMS collection items, headless CMS entries

You do (from the bank)

  • Campaign pages and templates, forms, CRM, tracking, A/B tests
  • Components, integrations, schema changes, fixes
  • The base: updates, security, backups, hosting, monitoring

Paraphrased from recurring threads in web design communities (r/web_design, r/webdev, r/Wordpress, r/freelance) and from the studio's own client conversations. Common situations, not quotes from specific people.

What's inside the kit

A guide and nine templates. One way of running retainers.

Everything follows the same rules (hour bank, rollover, response times, CMS boundary, overage multiplier), so the proposal, the agreement and the report never contradict each other.

Look inside

First page of the proposal template (02): the prepared-for block, the how-to-use note, and the sections About us, Where things stand, What we're supporting and What this retainer does for you. Fill-in fields are highlighted in yellow.
02 · Proposal template The first page, as it opens in Word. Yellow marks what you fill in.
Calculator sheet of the pricing spreadsheet (06) with its default numbers: $14,000 of fixed costs, a 30% margin and 190 billable hours give a $96 package rate, a $120 overage rate, and tier prices of $384 for Care (4 h), $960 for Growth (10 h) and $1,920 for Partner (20 h).
06 · Pricing calculator The Calculator sheet with its default, hypothetical numbers. Yellow cells are inputs; green cells are formulas.
First page of the monthly report template (05): a summary with hours used, uptime and the hours that expire next, then a Campaign support delivered table with sample rows. Fill-in fields are highlighted in yellow.
05 · Monthly report The first page: summary, then campaign support delivered, before tasks and hours.

Read two sample pages (PDF) The guide's opening page and the pricing worked example, as typeset pages. About 120 KB.

  1. 01

    The Guide DOC

    About 5,900 words in 14 sections: who buys, the CMS boundary, three annotated cases, scope, pricing with a worked example, plans, rollover as owed work, SLA options, contract terms, onboarding, reporting, objections, renewal.

  2. 02

    Proposal template DOC

    Addressed to the marketing manager. What we're supporting, included and excluded work up front, plan table, response times and terms in brief.

  3. 03

    Retainer Agreement Template DOC

    US-generic: term, usage review, hour bank, rollover, overage, SLA, ownership, access, liability. Optional clauses clearly marked. Have a local lawyer review it.

  4. 04

    Scope matrix + change request DOC

    Campaign support, development, the base and CMS operations, per platform. Plus a change request with campaign date and effect on the balance.

  5. 05

    Monthly report DOC

    Campaign support delivered first, then tasks and hours, the hour balance with what expires next, and the base. Free on its own.

  6. 06

    Pricing calculator SHEET

    Costs, margin and billable hours in; hourly rate, tier prices, overage multiplier, after-hours add-on and a 12-month rollover tracker with the value of hours you owe out.

  7. 07

    Onboarding checklist DOC

    Access by platform, including the marketing stack (analytics, tag manager, pixels, CRM), a tracking audit, the campaign calendar and a week-by-week first month.

  8. 08

    Email scripts (11) DOC

    Offer at handoff, pitch to a marketing manager, follow-up, “the market is bad,” CMS request, change request, overage heads-up, report note, renewal, step-down, offboarding.

  9. 09

    “What we do every month” DOC

    A one-page sheet for the client: campaign support, the base, response times, and what their own team handles.

  10. 10

    Platform checklists DOC

    Monthly and quarterly checks, a “before each campaign launch” list, and specifics for WordPress, Next.js/headless, Webflow and Framer.

Every template marks the spots for your studio name, rates and terms, and offers marked alternatives where studios differ. Each file comes as Word/Google Docs (or Excel/Google Sheets) and as Markdown.

How the model works

Five rules that keep a retainer clear for both sides.

They stay the same whatever plan size or platform you sell. The guide explains each one; the templates put it in front of the client.

01

Hour bank, overage at 1.25x

The client buys developer hours each month, and those hours serve their campaigns.

Plans fall into two shapes: about 3–4 hours for a stable site, and up to about 20 hours for a marketing team that ships something most weeks. Named tiers in the kit: Care (4 h), Growth (10 h), Partner (20 h). Hours beyond the balance are billed at 1.25x the package rate by default, or 1.5x if your capacity is tight. The client hears about it before it happens, not on the invoice.

Worked example from the guide (hypothetical $96/h package rate)
MultiplierOverage rateUse it when
1.25x (default)$120/hOverage is occasional and you have room in your schedule
1.5x (alternative)$144/hOverage regularly pushes other clients' work back
02

Rollover for 3 months

Unused hours roll over for up to 3 months. The oldest hours are used first. Then they expire.

Rollover removes the “use it or lose it” complaint. But every rolled-over hour is work the client paid for and you haven't delivered yet. The guide shows how to track that balance across the studio, and why expiry keeps a client from saving 60 hours for a project at retainer rates.

Example from the guide: a 10-hour bank over four months
MonthAddedUsedBalance after
Jan1064 (Jan)
Feb1059 (Feb) — Jan's 4 used first
Mar10217 (7 Feb + 10 Mar), $1,632 of work owed
Apr10320 (10 Mar + 10 Apr) — Feb's last 4 expire
03

Response times you can keep

A typo and an outage don't get the same response time. After-hours response is optional.

The default, and the right choice for most solo freelancers, is business hours: Critical issues reported after hours get a response first thing the next business day. If you offer after-hours Critical response, sell it as a monthly add-on or include it only in the top plan. You promise when you'll respond and start, not when it'll be fixed.

Default response times from the guide (you set the numbers)
SeverityExamplesResponse
CriticalSite down, forms broken, tracking broken during a paid campaignWithin 2–4 business hours, else next business day. Optional: any time, as an add-on
HighMajor feature broken, site still upWithin 1 business day
NormalSmall fixes, CMS requestsDelivered within 4–5 business days
PlannedCampaign pages, features, integrationsScheduled together, estimate first
04

Short terms, no exit fee

3- or 6-month terms that renew, with a usage review at the end of each one.

Before every renewal you look at the hours actually used and adjust the bank up or down. It's written into the agreement, so it happens as routine, not as a negotiation. By default there is no early-termination fee: the client can leave with 30 days' written notice and pays through the notice period, nothing more. An early-termination clause is included for studios that want one, marked OPTIONAL.

05

A report for marketing

Every month the client gets each task, the hours it took, and what it did for their campaigns.

Write it for the marketing manager, who will copy parts of it into their own report: campaign support delivered first, then tasks and hours, the balance, and the base (uptime, updates, backups). Always list expiring hours. “4 hours from August expire at the end of this month” fills more wishlists than any sales email.

AI Pack

From a time-tracker export to the monthly report draft.

The AI Pack turns the kit's templates into drafts you review and send. The main prompt reads a ClickUp, Jira or Toggl CSV and writes the report in the kit's order, with the hours math shown so you can check it in a minute.

toggl-detailed-export-2026-09.csvBefore

Last month's Toggl export

Client,Description,Billable,Start date,Duration,Tags
Harrow & Finch Bakery Co.,"WordPress core + 11 plugin updates, tested on staging first",Yes,2026-09-03,00:52:00,updates
Mossgate Architects,Portfolio filter bug,Yes,2026-09-08,01:35:00,fix
Harrow & Finch Bakery Co.,"Checkout: shipping zone rule broke after WooCommerce update, fixed",Yes,2026-09-10,00:35:00,"fix,high"
Harrow & Finch Bakery Co.,Internal: invoice prep,No,2026-09-12,00:25:00,admin
Harrow & Finch Bakery Co.,"Google Ads purchase conversion tag for autumn promo, verified with Tag Assistant",Yes,2026-09-17,00:20:00,"campaign,tracking"
Harrow & Finch Bakery Co.,"Monthly check: backups, uptime, SSL/domain dates",Yes,2026-09-30,00:14:00,maintenance

Rows unchanged; scroll sideways to read them in full. Plus a short client sheet: plan, opening balance, uptime, incidents, campaign context.

output-monthly-reportAfter, excerpt

Monthly Report — September 2026

Check before sending: 2 rows dropped (other client; not billable). 121 min logged, billed as 2.50 h in 15-minute increments. Opening 8.00 + added 4.00 − used 2.50 − expired 1.50 = closing 8.00 h ✔

Value delivered

  • Your autumn promo can be measured in Google Ads from day one. The purchase conversion tag is installed and verified, so from Oct 1 you'll see which ads lead to online preorders, not only clicks.
  • Local delivery orders work again. The checkout problem flagged on Sep 10 was fixed the same day.

Hours balance

FromAvail.UsedLeftExpires end of
Jul4.002.501.50Sep (expired)
Aug4.000.004.00Oct
Sep4.000.004.00Nov

Heads-up: 4.00 hours from August expire at the end of October. The holiday preorder page you mentioned in August is about 3 hours. If we start it in October, it's covered by hours you've already paid for.

Real output from running prompt 01 on the sample files in the pack, trimmed for length. Names are fictional. The hours were recomputed independently in Python and match.

Assistant setups

Paste-ready instructions for a Claude Project and a Custom GPT, plus one agency-profile.md you fill in once (rate, plans, overage multiplier, rollover, SLA option, tone), so the assistant uses your numbers instead of guessing.

8 tested prompts

Time export → monthly report, meeting notes → proposal, CMS and out-of-scope replies, change request from a vague ask, renewal review, pitch email to a marketing manager, overage heads-up, incident summary. Each with sample inputs and the output it produced.

Claude Code and Codex

CLAUDE.md and AGENTS.md for a folder of client retainer docs, 4 skills in SKILL.md format (report, proposal, scope reply, renewal review) and a standard-library Python script that computes the hour balance.

The assistant drafts; you send. Nothing connects to your tracker or your email: you export a CSV or paste text. Updates to the pack are updates to the prompts and instructions, not tool integrations. Use an assistant that can run code (or Claude Code / Codex) for the hours math, and read every draft before sending.

Pricing

Two options. One-time payment.

Launch prices, in USD. Both include free updates for all of version 1 and a 14-day refund, no questions asked.

Kit

$29$39

The guide and nine templates.

  • The Guide (about 5,900 words)
  • Proposal, Retainer Agreement Template, scope matrix and change request
  • Monthly report, onboarding checklist, client one-pager
  • Pricing calculator (Excel / Google Sheets)
  • 11 email scripts, platform checklists
  • Word / Google Docs and Markdown versions
Get the Kit — $29

Includes everything in Kit

Kit + AI Pack

$45$59

The kit, plus drafts from your own data.

  • Everything in Kit
  • Claude Project and Custom GPT instructions
  • 8 tested prompts with sample inputs and outputs
  • Time export (ClickUp / Jira / Toggl CSV) → monthly report
  • CLAUDE.md, AGENTS.md and 4 skills for Claude Code / Codex
  • Prompt updates through version 1
Get Kit + AI Pack — $45

License per studio: use it with as many of your own clients as you like. No resale or redistribution. Checkout and delivery by Gumroad.

Free

Get the monthly report template free.

Template 05 from the kit, the one in the excerpt at the top of this page: campaign support delivered, tasks and hours, the hour balance with expiring hours, and the base. Word / Google Docs and Markdown. Enter your email and the file arrives in your inbox.

Get the free template

$0 checkout through Gumroad. No card needed.

Fit

Who it's for, and who it isn't.

A good fit if you

  • Build sites for clients as a freelancer or a studio of a few people.
  • Have clients with a marketing team that keeps asking for pages, forms and tracking.
  • Work on more than WordPress, or on WordPress plus custom or headless builds.
  • Already sell a care plan but clients cancel because they can't see what they get.
  • Prefer editing a Word doc or a spreadsheet to setting up another SaaS tool.

Not a fit if you

  • Want a $49/month “updates and backups” plan run by automation. Free vendor guides cover that well.
  • Want to handle all your clients' content edits. The kit is built on the opposite rule.
  • Want to run ads or campaign strategy. The kit covers the technical side only.
  • Need a contract reviewed for your state or country. That needs a lawyer.
  • Expect software or tool integrations. These are documents, a spreadsheet and prompts.

Who wrote it

From a studio that runs on retainers.

I run a web studio in southern Brazil. About 60% of our clients are on a monthly retainer; the rest are one-off projects.

That split is why the studio is stable. Project money arrives in lumps. Retainer money arrives on the first of the month and covers fixed costs before we close a new deal. Nothing in this model depends on where we are.

For years we called it “maintenance,” and in the sales conversation that was a mistake. The retainers that last are the ones where we work as the technical partner to the client's marketing team. The updates, security and backups are still there. They're the reason the campaign pages don't break.

Our own work is WordPress and Next.js with a headless CMS. Where the kit covers Webflow and Framer, it applies the same model to how those platforms work; it doesn't claim we build on them every day.

Mateus, founder of the studio · LinkedIn

FAQ

Questions before you buy.

What formats are the files in?

The guide and templates come as Word documents that open in Word, Google Docs or Pages. The pricing calculator is an Excel file that works in Excel and Google Sheets. Every document is also included as Markdown, which is what the AI Pack and tools like Claude Code read. You download everything right after checkout.

What's the difference between the two options?

Kit ($29 at launch) is the guide and nine templates. Kit + AI Pack ($45 at launch) adds Claude Project and Custom GPT instructions, eight tested prompts with sample inputs and outputs, and CLAUDE.md, AGENTS.md and four skills for Claude Code and Codex. The kit files are identical in both.

Which platforms does it cover?

WordPress, Next.js/headless, Webflow and Framer. The scope matrix, onboarding checklist and platform checklists have a column or section for each.

Where it comes from: the studio works on WordPress and Next.js with a headless CMS. Webflow and Framer are compatible with the model, and those parts are based on how the platforms work publicly. Check them against your own setup.

Is the agreement legal advice?

No. The Retainer Agreement Template is a generic starting point written with US clients in mind. It is not legal advice and doesn't create a lawyer–client relationship. Laws differ by state and country, so have a lawyer where you work review it before you use it.

Does the AI Pack connect to ClickUp, Toggl or my email?

No. You export a CSV or paste text, and the assistant returns a draft. That keeps it working with whatever tracker you use. Updates to the pack are updates to the prompts and instructions; there are no tool integrations to maintain. You need your own Claude or ChatGPT account, or Claude Code / Codex.

My client already has a marketing agency. Is there still room for me?

Usually, yes. Agencies handle strategy, ads and design, and they're rarely set up to make a form talk to the CRM by Thursday. You're the developer they hand the technical part to. The guide's objections section covers this conversation, and the email scripts include a pitch to a marketing manager.

I work alone. Does it still apply?

Yes. The calculator takes the number of people as an input, so you can set it to one. The default response times are business hours only, with after-hours response as an optional add-on, because that's the promise a solo freelancer can keep.

Can I put my name on the templates and send them to clients?

Yes, that's what they're for. The license is per studio: edit, rebrand and use the templates with as many of your own clients as you like. You can't resell, redistribute or share the kit or the AI Pack.

Will it be updated?

Yes. All v1.x updates are free and arrive by email; for the AI Pack, that means updated prompts and instructions. A future major version (v2) may be a paid upgrade, and v1 buyers will get a discount.

What if it isn't useful to me?

Email us or use the link in your Gumroad receipt within 14 days of purchase and you get a full refund, no questions asked. Questions before buying? [email protected].

Next month, send a report your client’s marketing manager forwards to their boss.

The guide, proposal, agreement template, scope matrix, monthly report, pricing calculator, onboarding checklist, 11 emails, the client one-pager and the platform checklists. Add the AI Pack for drafts from your own exports.

$45$59

Get Kit + AI Pack — $45

Or the Kit alone for $29. One-time payment, USD. 14-day refund.