A WordPress or Shopify site is software — and software left alone degrades. Plugins go out of date, security vulnerabilities emerge, performance drifts, and small issues become expensive emergencies. Our monthly plans keep all of that under control, invisibly.
What’s included in every plan
- WordPress core, plugin and theme updates — tested on staging first, deployed safely to production
- Shopify app and theme version management — updates evaluated, breaking changes flagged, regressions caught
- Daily off-site backups — full database and files, restorable within minutes
- 24/7 uptime monitoring — we know your site is down before you do, and we usually fix it before you notice
- Security monitoring — file-change detection, malware scanning, firewall rules, login protection
- SSL certificate management — renewal handled, mixed-content issues caught
- Performance monitoring — Core Web Vitals tracked monthly, regressions flagged and addressed
- A fixed number of small content edits each month — text changes, image swaps, banner updates, no extra invoice
- Monthly health report — what we did, what we found, what to plan for next month
Why maintenance is non-negotiable for ecommerce
For a marketing site, going a few weeks without an update is usually fine. For an ecommerce store, it isn’t. A broken payment integration on a Friday evening loses you a weekend of sales. A WordPress vulnerability exploited on a Shopify-comparable WooCommerce site can mean stolen customer data and regulatory exposure. A theme update that subtly breaks the checkout costs you in conversion rate before you even notice.
We’ve seen all of these. They’re cheap to prevent and expensive to fix after the fact. Our maintenance plans aren’t a luxury — they’re the most affordable insurance you can buy on a site that drives revenue. If your site does break, our fixing and debugging service is the emergency response — but the goal of maintenance is to never need it.
How updates are handled (the safe way)
Every update — core, plugin, theme, app — is tested on a staging copy of your site before it touches production. We click through critical paths (homepage, contact form, key landing pages, checkout if ecommerce) and only deploy when the staging copy passes.
If an update breaks something, we don’t just push it live. We hold it, investigate, and either find a compatible version or coordinate with the plugin/app developer. You get a monthly log showing exactly what was updated, what was held, and why.
This is the difference between automated WordPress auto-updates and managed maintenance. Auto-updates assume nothing will break. Managed maintenance assumes things sometimes do, and catches them before they reach your customers.
Plan tiers — pick the one that matches your risk
- Essentials — best for small WordPress marketing sites. Monthly updates, daily backups, uptime monitoring, monthly report. Suits sites where downtime is annoying but not revenue-critical.
- Growth — best for active WordPress sites and small Shopify stores. Everything in Essentials, plus weekly performance check, quarterly SEO review, and 2 hours of small edits each month.
- Ecommerce — best for active Shopify stores and WooCommerce shops. Includes Growth scope plus priority response on checkout/cart issues, monthly conversion review, and 4 hours of small edits.
- Enterprise — custom plan for Shopify Plus and large WordPress installations. SLA on response time, dedicated point of contact, monthly strategy call, included development hours.
Frequently asked questions
What’s the difference between Shopify’s own updates and your maintenance plan?
Shopify updates the platform itself — that’s automatic and not something you need to manage. Our Shopify maintenance plan covers the theme, the apps, and the storefront code. Theme updates can break Liquid customisations. App updates can change pricing or break integrations. Our role is to monitor those layers, test changes safely, and keep your store running without surprises.
Do you maintain WordPress sites you didn’t build?
Yes — about half of our maintenance clients started with sites built by other agencies. We start with a short onboarding audit to understand what you have, document the plugin and theme stack, identify any pre-existing risks, and then take over monthly care. The audit is included in the first month.
What happens if my site is hacked while on your plan?
If you’re on Growth, Ecommerce or Enterprise, we restore from backup, investigate the entry point, clean the installation, and harden the site at no additional charge. Essentials plans include restore-from-backup; deep cleanup is billed separately if needed. Either way, we treat compromise as an urgent event — see our fixing and debugging service for what cleanup involves.
Can I cancel my plan anytime?
Yes. Plans are month-to-month with no long-term contract. We don’t lock clients in — if you’re not getting value, the door is open. Most of our maintenance clients have been with us for over a year, which we take as the better indicator.
Do you handle hosting management too?
We handle hosting configuration and optimisation as part of the plan — caching, CDN setup, performance tuning. We don’t resell hosting (we’re not in that business), but we recommend providers we trust (Kinsta, WP Engine, Cloudways for WordPress; Shopify is hosted by Shopify) and manage your account on your behalf if you authorise it.
What’s included in the “small content edits” hours?
Text changes, image swaps, adding new pages from existing templates, updating banners, adjusting prices or product info, small layout tweaks. What’s not included: new page designs, custom feature development, significant restructuring. Those are scoped separately as small project work — usually quoted as a flat fee.
Related services
Move your site onto a maintenance plan
Tell us what you’re running — WordPress, Shopify, or both — and we’ll recommend the right plan tier. No pressure, no long contracts.