Looking for the best WordPress maintenance services to protect and maintain your site?
WordPress site maintenance is a critical part of being a site owner, but what happens if you just don’t know where to start or don’t have the bandwidth?
Fortunately, there are services you can use to streamline your maintenance activities. In this post, we’ll take a look at several of those options to help you find which is best for you.
What Do WordPress Maintenance Services Do?
WordPress maintenance services provide website backups, security, WordPress and plugin updates, and expert support. Though offerings can differ by service, these are core features you need and will want to have in your maintenance service provider.
TL;DR – Best WordPress Maintenance Services Overview
Running short on time? Here’s a quick overview of the plugins we reviewed. Use the table of contents below to skip directly to any section.
| Plugin | Free Version? | Starting Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Duplicator | ✅ | $49.50/year |
| WP Buffs | ❌ | $66/month billed annually |
| GoWP | ❌ | $39/month/site |
| FixRunner | ❌ | $49/month billed annually |
| WP Maintainer | ❌ | $99/month |
| SiteCore | ❌ | $990/year |
| ClickWP | ❌ | $25/month |
Best WordPress Maintenance Services
Now let’s take a look at some of the best WordPress maintenance services out there to find out which one is right for you.
1. Duplicator
Topping our list is Duplicator. If the idea of setting up WordPress maintenance makes you break out in a cold sweat, fear not. Duplicator is user-friendly, customizable, and you don’t need to know any code to use it.
One of the features we loved most was the simple automatic backup scheduling. Regular backups are so important, but they’re often something we easily forget about until it’s too late.
If something happens to your site and you need to restore a backup to get things back in order, you don’t want to be without one. You also don’t want one that’s really old. With this feature, you’ll never have to worry.
It took us only seconds to create a weekly schedule for an automatic backup. That’s super easy for the peace of mind it brings.
One of the most unique features you’ll find with Duplicator is empty site support. Empty site support means that Duplicator can start with a totally empty site, install WordPress there for you, and configure it all with minimal effort on your part.
That’s a great option if you’re setting up a WordPress site from scratch.
More than 1.5 million users trust Duplicator, and with good reason! There’s a lot of functionality in this plugin.
Other Features We Loved:
- Easy site migration lets you drag and drop a backup to the new site
- Zero downtime migration
- One-click backup recovery
- Cloud backup storage
- Archive encryption
- Email alerts for any issues that come up so you can give it quick attention
- Multisite support
Cost
There is a free version of Duplicator. Paid licenses begin at $49.50/year.
To learn more about the plugin, read our detailed Duplicator Pro review.
2. WP Buffs
WP Buffs is a solid option for anyone with a WordPress site. If you need help managing your own site, their service options cover everything you need. Even better, if you’re a freelancer or an agency managing client sites, WP Buffs offers white-label management.
We found 24/7 support services were a feature we didn’t even know we wanted until we had it. Especially if you’re building a site on the side, you never know when you’ll find yourself working in the middle of the night.
But what’s more, the 24/7 support means that no matter where you are in the world and no matter what time it is, you can get the help you need, when you need it.
Other Features We Loved:
- 24/7 uptime monitoring
- Cloud backups
- Malware cleanups
- Malware removal
- Speed optimization
- Support for membership, eCommerce, and custom development sites
- All plans include premium plugins at no additional cost
Cost
Pricing plans for WP Buffs starts at $66/month when billed annually
3. GoWP
If you’re looking for an end-to-end service that will really supplement your team, GoWP‘s got you covered. In addition to basic WordPress maintenance, you can pay for a dedicated member of their team to work as your developer, VA, designer, or copywriter.
Outsourced offerings include WordPress maintenance, content writing, content edits and tweaks, and landing page builds. We like the range this service covers, not only in what they offer but in cost, as well.
For the purposes of this review, we looked specifically at what the maintenance plan included.
Key Features:
- Regular WordPress updates for core and plugins
- Visual Validator ensures updates won’t negatively impact your site
- Daily scans and other proactive measures to keep your site secure
- Daily off-site backups
- Dashboard for you to view all the updates and regular maintenance activities they run each day
- Monthly reports to your clients
Cost
The maintenance plan on its own runs $39/month per site.
4. FixRunner
FixRunner has plans for maintaining both small and large websites. This means your enterprise website is never shortchanged, and your small website is never overpriced to cover features you won’t need.
Features are similar but there are some key differences depending on whether you’re a small site or a large one. For instances, you’ll get more cloud backups per day as a larger site, and you’ll receive priority support.
One thing to note is that support is not unlimited. On the least expensive plan for small sites, you get 90 minutes total of support time per month. On the most expensive plan for large sites, you get 12 hours of total support time per month.
FixRunner has great features, but it’s a good idea to anticipate if and how much support you might require when you select your plan.
Key Features:
- WordPress core, plugin, and theme updates
- WordPress support via email, chat, and phone for small sites
- Zoom/screen share support for large sites
- Support for eCommerce shops
- Security scans
- Uptime monitoring
- Cloud backups
- Optional 1-click staging website
Cost
Plans begin at $49/month, billed annually. FixRunner offers monthly, quarterly, and yearly plans, with yearly being the best deals.
5. WP Maintainer
WP Maintainer will help take all the stress out of your WordPress website maintenance. After you sign up for an account, they’ll work to onboard you so you can securely hand over everything they need to maintain your site.
We found that the services and pricing were really straightforward. There’s a core package that takes care of pretty much everything, but if there are any issues that require on-demand or emergency support, it’s billed by the hour. They won’t do anything without your permission first, so you don’t end up with surprise charges.
There are also addons you can include in your package if you want performance optimization or to add a firewall.
Key Features:
- WordPress core updates
- Plugin updates
- Sucuri security monitoring and cleanup
- Scheduled site backups
- Image optimization (addon)
- Minify files (addon)
- Managed Web Application Firewall to block malicious traffic (addon)
- CDN to improve speed by up to 80% (addon)
- IP blocking/blacklist (addon)
Cost
WP Maintainer’s core package costs $99/month.
6. Sitecare
SiteCare can also offer its customers a range of maintenance and digital marketing services, making it a valuable multi-tool. We found that it really shines when it comes to maintenance and support.
You can’t purchase your plan directly through the SiteCare website. Instead, you select the plan you’re interested in and SiteCare will give you an intake form to fill out. This form helps them understand your site setup and how they can help.
It’s worth noting that SiteCore doesn’t offer a lot of extra features on its least expensive plan (which is $990/year). If you want features like developer-tested WordPress core and plugin updates, which come standard with so many others, or eCommerce support, you will need to upgrade.
Key Features:
- Daily or real-time backups
- WordPress core, theme, and plugin updates
- Staging updates
- Uptime monitoring
- eCommerce support
Cost
Pricing for SiteCore starts at $990/year.
7. ClickWP
ClickWP knows that the technical nature of WordPress maintenance can take the fun out of running your business. That’s why they offer friendly, affordable site care plans for every need and budget.
There are 2 plans: ClickProtect, which costs $25/month, and Foundations, which costs $35/month. Both will get you nightly website backups, email support, software updates, and security monitoring. The Foundations plan also gives you access to a variety of business tools and plugins, valued at $1000.
To avoid feature bloat, they offer support passes that are good for 3 days to a month, depending on which one you purchase. Those passes will give you a period of time to get additional care and maintenance on your site. We really liked this feature because it means you can tailor the service to what you need when you need it, and everything stays affordable.
Key Features:
- Nightly backups
- Support at either the virtual assistant level or developer level
- Discounted support passes
- Optional website hosting
- Premium membership access
Cost
Pricing for ClickWP starts at $25/month.
FAQ
What Does a WordPress Maintenance Service Typically Include?
Basic maintenance services should provide WordPress core, theme, and plugin updates, as well as security checks and daily backups. These are core features of any good maintenance service. Beyond that, speed optimization and uptime monitoring are also a plus.
Why Is WordPress Security Important?
WordPress security is important because old and outdated versions of WordPress installs make your site vulnerable to malicious attacks. Regular WordPress maintenance keeps you safe from malware and hackers so that you don’t become the easy target of an attack.
Should You Update WordPress Plugins Automatically or Manually?
Some site owners like to update WordPress plugins manually so they have more control over them, but it’s completely fine to set up automatic updates, too. Automatic updates will run in the background to make sure your plugins are always current and not a security risk.
What Is the Benefit of Speed Optimization?
Speed optimization improves user experience, SEO rankings, and conversion rates. The longer it takes your site to load, the more likely it is that a potential customer will go elsewhere. That matter of additional seconds is critical, which is why it’s important to optimize for speed.
What Is Uptime Monitoring?
When WordPress maintenance services say they monitor uptime, it means they are continually checking that your site is live. Should your site go down, you’ll receive an alert so that you can quickly address the issues causing the outage and get your site back up to minimize traffic loss.
Next, Learn More About WordPress Site Maintenance
Interested to learn more about the importance of WordPress site maintenance? Check out some of our other articles on the topic to keep your site safe and running at optimal speed.
- 7 WordPress Monthly Maintenance Tasks (Checklist)
- How to Put Your WordPress Site Into Maintenance Mode (The BEST Way)
- How to Create a Low Maintenance Website With WordPress
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