WordPress maintenance
WordPress maintenance packages
Updates, backups, security and someone to ring when a plugin breaks something. One monthly price with hosting inside it, whether we built the site or not.
- £49 a month, hosting included
- Cancel any time, no exit fees
- Priority help, same working day
What it is
A WordPress maintenance package, in plain terms
WordPress runs a large share of the web, which is exactly why it is worth attacking. It is also built from parts: a core platform, a theme, and plugins that each update on their own schedule and occasionally disagree with each other.
A WordPress maintenance package is somebody taking responsibility for all of that. Updates applied and checked, backups taken and stored off the server, security watched, and a person to ring when something looks wrong.
Ours is £49 a month with hosting included, and it is the same price whether we built the site or somebody else did.
Included
What our WordPress maintenance covers
- Core, theme and plugin updatesApplied and then checked, which is the part that gets skipped. An update that breaks your contact form is worse than no update.
- Daily off site backupsKept away from the server itself, so a server problem does not take the backup with it.
- Hosting and SSLInside the monthly price. You are not paying a hosting company as well as us.
- Security and uptime monitoringWe find out it is down, rather than you finding out from a customer.
- Content changesPrice changes, new staff, a service you no longer offer. Send it over and it gets done.
- Someone to ringPriority help the same working day, from the people who work on the site.
Why WordPress
Why WordPress needs this more than most
Hosted platforms handle their own updates, so there is nothing for you to do. WordPress gives you ownership instead, and ownership comes with the upkeep attached.
The plugins are the specific risk. A typical small business site runs somewhere between ten and twenty five, each written by a different person, each updating on its own schedule. Most updates are uneventful. The ones that are not tend to surface on the pages you check least often.
The other risk is abandonment. A plugin whose author stops maintaining it keeps working for a while and quietly stops receiving security fixes, which is not something a site owner would ever notice unaided.
What breaks
What actually goes wrong on an unmaintained WordPress site
- A plugin update changes the checkoutNobody tests it, and the first sign is a quiet week.
- PHP moves on and the site does notHosts upgrade PHP versions. An old theme or plugin can stop working when they do.
- Contact forms stop arrivingEnquiries keep being sent and stop being delivered. This one can run for weeks unnoticed.
- The backup that was never realPlenty of sites have a backup plugin installed, switched on, and writing to the same server that failed.
- Login attacksAutomated, constant, and not personal. They are looking for any WordPress site with a weak password.
- An abandoned pluginStill installed, still running, no longer receiving security fixes.
The honest bit
You might not need a plan at all
If your site is a handful of static pages, rarely changes, sits on hosting you understand, and you are comfortable applying updates and checking them afterwards, you can run it yourself. Several of our clients do exactly that, and we would rather say so than sell you something you do not need.
A plan earns its place when the site takes bookings or payments, when you would not know where to start if it went down, or when the honest answer to who is looking after this is nobody.
If you want to do it yourself, start with the backups, because that is the one that turns a bad day into an inconvenience.
Talking people out of it
We have told clients not to buy this
That is easy to write and harder to prove, so here is the proof. We talked one client down off the plan entirely, in writing: “I don’t personally think you need the £49 one.”
On hosting we say the same thing: “Obviously you’re free to host anywhere you like, it’s your website.” And when a client wanted to run their own business email, we set it up so that all the logins stay with them and we never hold any of their details.
We make almost nothing on the hosting itself. The reason it is bundled is not margin, it is that when something breaks and the host and the web company blame each other, you are the one stuck in the middle.
Not our build
We take on sites other people built
You do not need to have had your site built by us. A good share of what we look after was built by somebody else, in some cases by a company that has since gone quiet.
We start by looking over what is there and telling you plainly what state it is in. Then we either take it on, or tell you honestly that it needs work first. If it does, we quote that separately rather than folding it into a monthly fee and hoping you do not notice.
Worth reading
Guides on running a WordPress site
- How to back up a WordPress siteThe one job worth doing yourself, and how to check the backup you have is real.
- How to improve WordPress site speedImages, plugins, caching and hosting, in the order that actually works.
- How much website maintenance costsWhat UK agencies charge and what moves the number.
- Website maintenance servicesThe full care plan, including sites that are not built on WordPress.
Tell us about your website
Tell us where the site is hosted now, roughly what it runs on, and what you want looking after. We reply the same working day.
Prefer to message?
WhatsApp usWhatsApp us on 01622 278991Same-day replies on 01622 278991, Monday to Sunday.
Questions
WordPress maintenance questions
How much do WordPress maintenance packages cost?
Ours is £49 a month with hosting included, and that is the total. Across the UK, WordPress maintenance packages for a small business site generally run between about £30 and £150 a month, and some agencies bill hourly instead, which adds up the moment you need a change.
What is included in a WordPress maintenance package?
Core, theme and plugin updates applied and checked, daily off site backups, hosting and SSL, security and uptime monitoring, content changes when you need them, and priority help the same working day.
Do I really need WordPress maintenance?
Not always. If the site is a few static pages, rarely changes and you are happy applying updates and checking them, you can manage it yourself. A plan makes sense when the site takes bookings or payments, or when nobody is currently looking after it.
Do you maintain WordPress sites you did not build?
Yes, and a good share of what we look after was built by someone else. We look at what is there first and tell you plainly what state it is in. If it needs work before it can be maintained, we quote that separately.
What happens if a plugin update breaks my site?
We check the site after updates rather than only applying them, and we keep daily off site backups, so the fallback is restoring a working version rather than debugging under pressure. That checking step is the part most cheap plans leave out.
Is hosting included in the price?
Yes. The £49 covers it, so you are not paying a hosting company separately. It also means there is nobody to point at when something goes wrong, because we own both sides of it.
Is there a contract or minimum term?
No setup fee, no exit fee and no minimum term. The site and the domain stay in your name whatever happens, and if you leave we hand everything over cleanly.