Someone who actually looks at it each month
Most maintenance plans are an automated updater and a PDF of green ticks. Mine involves testing updates before they go live, checking the site still works afterwards, and telling you in plain language what changed and what we fixed.
Why unattended systems break
Live systems don’t fail suddenly. They fail slowly, in ways nobody notices until something visible goes wrong:
- An auto-update changes a plugin’s markup and quietly breaks a page template.
- A PHP version bump on the host deprecates something the theme relies on.
- A plugin gets abandoned by its developer and stops receiving security fixes.
- Backups run for two years and have never once been test-restored.
- Database tables fill with transients and dead options until the site slows down.
- A contact form stops delivering and nobody finds out for a month.
None of that is dramatic. All of it is cheaper to prevent than to fix.
What’s in every plan
Updates, tested first
Core, theme and plugin updates applied on a staging copy, checked, then pushed live. Not auto-updated and hoped for.
Offsite backups
Stored away from the host, with a restore actually tested — a backup you’ve never restored isn’t a backup.
Security monitoring
Hardening, file-change and malware monitoring, login protection, and abandoned plugins flagged before they become a problem.
Uptime monitoring
You hear from us when the site goes down, rather than from a customer.
Monthly performance check
Core Web Vitals and page weight, with the specific cause named when something regresses — a new plugin, an unlazy image, a script added to the header.
A report you can read
What was updated, what broke, what we fixed, what we’d recommend next. One page, in English, not a dashboard export.
Plans
Pick by how much the site matters to your business, not by how many pages it has.
Essential
Brochure sites and small business sites.
- Monthly tested updates
- Weekly offsite backups
- Security & uptime monitoring
- Monthly report
- Email support, 2 business days
Standard
Sites that generate leads or revenue.
- Everything in Essential
- Fortnightly updates
- Daily offsite backups
- Monthly performance review
- 1 hour of development time included
- Support within 1 business day
Store & Custom
WooCommerce stores and sites with custom plugins.
- Everything in Standard
- Weekly updates with checkout testing
- Extension conflict monitoring
- Custom plugin compatibility maintained
- 3 hours of development time included
- Priority support, same business day
Monthly, cancel any time, and your site stays yours — no proprietary dashboard to get locked into. Multiple sites and agency arrangements are priced per site; ask.
Why us rather than a plugin
We run this exact process on ten of our own WordPress properties every month. The difference between an automated service and a developer is what happens when an update breaks something — the automation tells you it succeeded, and we tell you what went wrong and fix it.
Because we also do the development work, the person who maintains your site is the person who can change it. The included hours mean small requests just get done, instead of turning into a quote and a project.
What’s not included
- New features and redesigns — those are projects, quoted separately.
- Content writing and publishing — unless you want it scoped in.
- Hosting — we’ll advise on it, and work with whoever you’re with, but we don’t resell it.
- Hack cleanup on arrival — if a site is already compromised, that’s a one-off fix before a plan starts.
Common questions
Can you take over a site you didn’t build?
Yes, and most care plan sites are exactly that. It starts with an audit so we know what we’re inheriting — if there’s a backlog of problems, we’ll quote those separately rather than quietly absorbing them.
What if an update breaks our site?
That’s the point of testing on staging first. If something still slips through, fixing it is included — it happened on our watch.
Do unused hours roll over?
They don’t. The included time is for small requests so they don’t need quoting; if you have a month with real work in it, that’s a project.
Can we cancel?
Any time, with a month’s notice. You keep your site, your backups and your access.
Do you offer this to agencies for their clients?
Yes, white-label — reports under your brand, your client never has to know we exist. Get in touch for per-site pricing.
Stop thinking about your site
Send us the URL. We’ll look at what it’s running, tell you which plan fits, and flag anything that needs fixing before a plan starts.