If you have searched for WordPress maintenance, you have seen prices from almost nothing to hundreds of dollars a month. The difference is rarely the price alone. It is what is inside the plan. This guide explains what drives the price, what to expect at each level and how to compare offers properly.
What drives the price
- Hands-on hours. Whether you get time for your changes, and how much.
- Security. A firewall and scans, or just a plugin.
- Backups. How often, how long they are kept, and whether a restore is ever tested.
- Update process. Applied blindly, or tested on a staging copy first.
- Response time and contact. A ticket queue, or a named person who knows your site.
- Site type. A brochure site is simpler than a WooCommerce store.
What to expect at each level
Entry level. Updates, security scanning, off-site backups, monitoring and a couple of hours a month for small changes. This suits brochure sites and local businesses.
Mid level. More hours, staging so updates are tested before they go live, daily backups and a named contact. This is where stores and busy business sites start.
Top level. A dedicated queue, faster completion and engineer checks on updates, for sites where an hour of downtime costs real money.
Our prices, for comparison
| Essential | Business | Priority | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price per month | $99 | $199 | $399 |
| Hands-on hours | 2 | 6 | 12 |
| Staging for updates | No | Yes | Yes, plus an engineer check |
| Backups | Files weekly, database daily | Daily | Daily |
| Contact | Support team | Named technical contact | Named account manager |
Each plan is month to month, and paying annually gives two months free. You can read exactly what we handle on a WordPress site.
What else a WordPress bill can include
- Premium plugin and theme licences. Some need an annual fee to keep receiving updates.
- Hosting. Usually paid to your host, separately.
- Security extras. Some providers charge for clean-up after a hack. Ours is included in plans, or a single $399 without one.
- Development. New features and redesigns are projects, not upkeep.
Signs a cheap plan is too cheap
- It says "monitoring" but no one makes changes.
- Backups sit on your own server.
- Updates are applied automatically with nobody checking the result.
- There are no hours, or every change is a quote.
- You cannot find out who will answer when something breaks.
The cost of care compared with the cost of a bad week
It helps to put the two side by side. A year of Essential costs $1,188 paid monthly, or $984 paid annually. For that you get updates, a firewall, malware scans, backups with a restore test, monitoring and a monthly report. A bad week, with a hacked site and nobody to fix it, can mean lost enquiries, clean-up work and time you do not have. You will know your own numbers better than we do. If you want to try them, our downtime cost calculator takes about a minute.
Essential or Business?
| Choose Essential if | Choose Business if |
|---|---|
| The site is mostly informational | The site takes orders, bookings or important enquiries |
| You change it a few times a month | You change it weekly or more |
| You are happy with a support team | You want a named technical contact |
| Updates applied after a backup are fine | You want updates tested on a copy first |
Questions about price that are worth asking
- Is the price per site, or does it change with the number of plugins or pages?
- Are there charges for restores, clean-up or extra hours?
- Is there a discount for paying annually, and is it refundable?
- What happens to the price if the site grows?
How to compare two offers
- Compare the hands-on hours, not just the monthly price.
- Ask where backups are kept and whether a restore is tested.
- Ask whether updates are tested first.
- Check the contract terms and what happens to your logins if you leave.
- Ask what is excluded, in writing.
Do I need maintenance if my host does updates?
Hosts usually look after the server, and some update WordPress core. Themes, plugins, security, backups you can restore from and your own changes are usually not covered. Ask your host exactly what they do, and fill the gaps with a plan or with your own routine.
