Make no mistake: Running a website is hard.
There are so many areas to focus on, from content creation to admin, to maintaining a site via updates. This is to say nothing of security—you (and your visitors) really don’t want your site hacked.
The good news is that WordPress maintenance services can take a load off users’ shoulders, keeping their sites up to date and allowing them to spend their time elsewhere.
These services offer support and can help with website downtime, theme modifications, site backups, and more.
I’ve put together a list of the best WordPress maintenance and management services to help you get started.
#1 – WP Buffs Review — The Best for Site Security
WP Buffs is a top maintenance service for those who want full confidence in their site’s security. When users purchase the service, they’ll be able to use the iThemes Security plugin—considered to be one of the best security plugins available.
The plugin exists to protect a site from nasty malware and spam, but it’s also useful for its cache feature that improves the loading speed of a site—something crucially important for good rankings.
Users also have the option to back up their entire site with WP Buffs and store it in the cloud for extra peace of mind.
Other key features of WP Buffs include:
- 24/7 site edits
- Speed optimization
- Ongoing security
- Weekly updates
- Emergency 24/7 support
On the pricing front, WP Buffs offers multiple plans. The key ones are Maintain, Protect, Perform, and then there are a series of custom plans for those with advanced needs.
Itemized, these are:
- Maintain / Annual or monthly / $66 a month when billed yearly
- Protect / Annual or monthly / $133 a month when billed yearly
- Perform / Annual or monthly / $183 a month when billed yearly
- Custom / Annual or monthly / $290 a month when billed yearly
- Custom Pro / Annual or monthly / $373 a month when billed yearly
The iThemes Security Pro premium plugin is included from the second package onward or the Protect tier in this case. The third level of pricing, Perform, includes four daily cloud backups, priority support, and complete malware removal.
Learn more and get started at WP Buffs.
#2 – GoWP Review — The Best for Agencies
GoWP is an ideal WordPress maintenance service for agencies and web developers. Whether you want to expand your team or outsource more of your services, GoWP can completely support you.
It positions itself as a white-label service, which allows an agency to layer its own branding and SOPs on top of the maintenance services GoWP provides as if those services are now part of the agency’s own back end.
The white-label focus allows GoWP to create a dedicated mailbox using a domain, provide help and support to all requests to that email, and share a white-labeled dashboard with clients.
On top of that, you have WordPress plugin updates, security monitoring, and automatic site backups with 90 days of offsite storage.
Other powerful features of GoWP include:
- Unlimited content edits
- Dedicated account manager (premium)
- Dedicated WordPress developer (premium)
- Daily security scans and malware cleanup
- White-label help desk
GoWP has these main tiers of pricing:
- Maintenance / $29 monthly per site
- Content edits / $79 monthly per site
- Landing page builds / $1,299 monthly
- Dedicated developer, copywriter, virtual assistant, or designer services / Starting at $1,099 monthly
The second tier gives agencies access to a 24/7 team of experts, a support ticket dashboard, and Visual Validator WordPress updates.
The next tier jumps up in price but does provide you with a dedicated WordPress developer for it. Learn more at GoWP.
#3 – FixRunner Review — The Best for Tech Support
FixRunner is a great choice for dedicated tech support.
The service features monthly support time from 90 minutes to four hours—this does depend on the plan you opt for—and additional help is available if you need it.
You’ll be able to use this support time to make all sorts of tweaks to a site, including full debugs, performance improvements, and more.
I was particularly impressed with FixRunner’s 30-day satisfaction guarantee that offers a full refund, no questions asked if you’re unhappy with the service.
FixRunner also offers:
- Speed optimization
- WordPress core updates
- Plug-in and theme updates
- Uptime monitoring
- Security scans
The service provides plans for both small websites and bigger, enterprise-level ones. There are three core plans available for smaller websites:
- Premium / Monthly, quarterly, or yearly / $69 monthly
- Rocket / Monthly, quarterly, or yearly / $99 monthly
- Advance / Monthly, quarterly, or yearly / $179 monthly
If you sign up for a full year, the price drops considerably. For example, the Premium plan drops to $49 per month.
For bigger websites or Enterprise-level business, we have the following:
- Advance + / Monthly or quarterly / $300 monthly
- Advance ++ / Monthly or quarterly / $500 monthly
- Custom / Monthly or quarterly / Call for price
If you run a smaller website, I think the Rocket package is a good starting point—it includes support for online shops, on-page SEO optimization, and a faster response time for sites, making it a notable offering all around.
#4 – Valet Review — The Best for Ecommerce Store Owners
Valet should be a top pick for those that run ecommerce stores.
It’s a comprehensive service that provides manual updates and includes uptime monitoring, security scanning, and full examinations of checkout workflows, all of which help ensure everything is running smoothly for your customers.
Some of the other highlights include:
- Code checks
- Reports and analysis
- Remediation for website accessibility
- Up to five hours of dedicated support per month
The first paid plan with Valet starts at $300 per month and includes two hours of support.
should check out the professional plan that costs $750 a month but includes five hours of dedicated support every month.
The top-tier plan with Valet is the Elite Plan that offers over ten hours of support each month, and this is quite clearly catered towards large companies that have the extra funding available.
General consultations with Valet are available and cost $175 per month.
#5 – SiteCare Review — The Best for Performance Optimization
SiteCare is the best option on my list for site performance optimization. If you want a service that will optimize a site so it loads as quickly as possible, this is your top choice.
SiteCare gets to work by first looking at aspects of a site that could be causing it to slow down. This can be due to anything from poorly optimized images to faulty plugins or a web host’s quality.
Once that’s done, the service implements a series of best practices, removing the website’s weaknesses step by step until it’s responsive and efficient.
SiteCare offers the following to those that use the service:
- Hack cleanups
- Daily backups
- Real-time monitoring
- Theme and plugin updates
- Mobile optimization
In terms of pricing, things are clear and simple. There are four key plans available:
- Standard (annual plan only) / $82.50 per month
- SiteCare Plus / $299 per month
- SiteCare Pro / $499 per month
- SiteCare Premier / $1,200 per month
The Standard plan includes access to the essentials, such as daily backups, malware cleanup, and access to support.
The more advanced plans are quite a jump, but for that, you get access to custom development hours with a specialist and a few extras such as ecommerce support and Sucuri firewall.
#6 – The WP Butler Review — The Best for Custom Plans
Only want specific parts of a service? Well, The WP Butler is unique because it allows users to customize their service plan.
For example, maybe you’re just looking for caching and speed improvements but don’t require anything else.
Monthly services with The WP Butler include malware scans, daily or weekly backups, and plugin or theme updates.
The itemized one-off service includes everything from configuring HTTPS to a custom security inspection.
Additional features of The WP Butler include:
- Weekly site reviews
- Uptime monitoring
- 30 minutes of development time on retainer
- Emergency site restoration
- Security plugin configuration
As there are quite a few options with The WP Butler, pricing varies significantly depending on what you need.
If the monthly packages are more suited to you, these come in the following tiers:
- The Basics / $39 a month
- The Solopreneur / $69 a month
- The Small Business / $129 a month
- The Company / $299 a month
- The Enterprise / $599 a month
One-off services range from $100 to $250, and there’s even the option of a monthly retainer. With this, you pay for a set number of hours of development work each month. Lots to choose from here.
#7 – Emily Journey & Associates Review — The Best for Site Development
Don’t you want WordPress experts building your WordPress site? Then Emily Journey & Associates is who you need to call. This women-owned and led company is an excellent choice for website maintenance services if you want direct access to a dedicated website manager.
Founded in 2012 by Emily Journey, the EJ&A team has developed a reputation for its high standard of professionalism.
Companies choose Emily Journey & Associates for their consultative approach and depth of experience with the WordPress platform.
EJ&A clients can count on:
- Direct communication with their website manager
- A 24-hour response time during the workweek
- Options for WordPress training
- A strong focus on SEO
In terms of pricing, Emily Journey & Associates is among the higher-priced agencies for website maintenance services.
Their service package options are as follows:
- Basic Website Maintenance / $199 per month billed monthly
- Premium Website Maintenance / $450 per month billed monthly
- Custom Website Maintenance / Pricing varies
The website managers at EJ&A are also WordPress instructors. If you’re looking for responsive website service, they’ll do the work for you or even teach you through an informative training course. This is a valuable plus when you want to understand the capabilities and limits of your website.
What I Looked at To Find the Best WordPress Maintenance and Management Services
There are two primary ways that people outsource the maintenance and management of WordPress.
One is to pay for a managed WordPress hosting plan, which means the provider takes over a lot of the technical legwork that goes into running WordPress sites. They also provide premium customer support that goes above and beyond what you usually get with web hosting.
Companies like WP Engine, Bluehost, SiteGround, and WordPress.com (not WordPress.org) all offer managed WordPress hosting plans. These can be a great way to offload your site maintenance responsibilities, though you have to pay more than you do for “unmanaged” hosting.
Not every web host offers a managed WordPress option, though, so your other option is to use a WordPress maintenance and management service.
You really want to find a single service that covers all the WordPress responsibilities you want outsourced. There’s no sense in getting more than one, which would be confusing for everyone.
Here are the core areas you need to consider.
Security Monitoring
It goes without saying how important security is for a site in the internet age. With the increase in threats and cyberattacks, knowing someone has got your back can bring great comfort.
Most of the maintenance services on this list include top security monitoring as part of their monthly packages, although not every service will.
Some, for example, might include security monitoring as an optional extra. If that’s the case, I say it’s worth the add-on cost. At the very least, get a WordPress security plugin to cover
How essential this is depends on the size of a company, but in most cases, monitoring a site for threats and knowing what to do if attacked is key. A maintenance service removes a great deal of worry here, so I think it’s a vital area to consider.
Site Optimization
Site optimization is a broad term, but in the case of WordPress maintenance and management services, I’m mainly talking about making a site more responsive and quicker to load.
A slow website can lead to people leaving sites rapidly in today’s fast-paced world, not to mention that Google actively penalizes slower websites by pushing them down in the search results.
A WordPress maintenance service can optimize a site to load quickly, making it responsive and pleasurable to use. This is important for every single site on the internet.
Almost all the WordPress maintenance services on this list include site optimization in some form, though the exact service carried out can vary.
Backups
A site that’s a victim of a cyberattack could find itself damaged and beyond repair—that’s where site backups come in. These allow users to restore a healthy and fully working version of said site.
In fact, it might not be a cyberattack, mistakes that delete files or whole databases can happen, sometimes inexplicably.
Having a maintenance service ready and waiting to install a healthy backup of a site if something goes wrong is beyond useful. It removes a lot of the stress from potentially losing everything.
Companies of most sizes will find this a vital feature, although site backups are easy enough to do if you’re an informed solopreneur—in the case of the latter, they might not need this particular service.
Frequently Asked Questions
How to put WordPress into maintenance mode?
Create a maintenance page (.maintenance file) for your blog to inform readers when it is being updated or to create a coming soon page for a new website. The front end of the blog is fully accessible to users with admin credentials. When the plugin is activated, your blog enters maintenance mode, is operational, and only authorized users can access the front end.
What is the best WordPress maintenance service for agencies?
The list of WordPress maintenance services I recommend to agencies are:
- GoWP
- WP Buffs
- FixRunner
- Valet
- WP Site Care
- The WP Butler
- Emily Journey & Associates
What are the best ways to secure your WordPress site?
A great path to securing your WordPress site starts with choosing a good hosting company. Install WordPress plugins to help with security that can scan for malware and monitor security, activity auditing, and other features. Make sure you install an SSL certificate to help protect sensitive information. Keep everything in WordPress updated and your site secure from hackers and you’re good to go.
What do WordPress maintenance services do?
They aid with website speed optimization, WordPress upgrades, security audits, emergency support duties, and more. In addition, they provide a variety of digital marketing services, including SEO optimization, pay-per-click management, content marketing, and more.
Conclusion
WordPress maintenance and management services can be crucially important to the right person. There’s a considerable amount of choice out there too, and knowing where to start can be difficult.
My list covers all of the key areas to consider:
- GoWP — Best for agencies
- WP Buffs — Best for site security
- FixRunner — Best for tech support
- Valet — Best for ecommerce store owners
- WP Site Care — Best for performance optimization
- The WP Butler — Best for custom plans
- Emily Journey & Associates — Best for site development
These are respectable choices, and thinking about exact needs can help make the decision process a little bit quicker.
There’s a lot to think about when running a site, from site backups to security and optimization.
WordPress maintenance services will allow the process to become more manageable, saving precious time for use elsewhere.
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