Short answer: choose website maintenance services by the person, not the package. You want someone who replies when you email and tells you what they did each month. Whoever it is, your domain, hosting account and website login should stay in your own name, so you can always move on.
Most people never really choose who looks after their website.
It defaults to whoever built it. Or to the hosting company, on the assumption that hosting covers it. Or to nobody at all.
That works until the day something stops. A form goes quiet, a browser warning appears, or an email to your web person sits unanswered for a week. That is usually when you find out who was looking after your site, and whether anyone was.
This is the last of five articles I have written on website maintenance services. The others cover what maintenance includes, what it costs and what breaks without it. This one is about the choice underneath all of them: who you hand it to.
What do website maintenance services actually involve?
The work is much the same whoever does it. Software updates for WordPress, the theme and the plugins. Backups kept somewhere other than the website’s own server. Security checks. Someone noticing when the site goes down, and someone to email when it does.
I have covered that list in detail in what a website maintenance plan should include, and the going rates in what maintenance packages cost in the UK, so I will not repeat them here.
What changes from one provider to the next is who does the work, how much a person looks at your site rather than leaving it to a tool, and how easy they are to reach. Those are the things to choose on.
Who can look after your website? Five options compared
There are five usual options. Each one suits somebody.
1. You
This works well if you are comfortable logging in to WordPress every week or two, running the updates and checking the site afterwards. Plenty of sole traders do exactly that.
The risk is rarely skill. It is attention. Updates are easy to put off in a busy week, and a backup you have never restored is untested. If you go this way, put it in the diary like an appointment, and learn how to restore a backup before you need to.
2. The person who built it
Often the natural choice. They know how the site was put together, which makes problems quicker to find.
Check whether they still look after sites they have built, or whether they built yours and moved on to other work. If you cannot remember the last time you heard from them, ask them plainly what they do each month.
3. Your hosting company
Hosting and maintenance are easy to confuse because they are often sold together. Hosting keeps the server running. Maintenance looks after the website that sits on it.
Some hosts offer managed WordPress plans that cover some of the updates. Read what is listed, and ask whether a person checks your site after an update, or whether it all runs automatically.
4. A freelancer or small local provider
This is where I sit, so read this part with that in mind.
The upside is that you deal with the person doing the work. You email them, they reply, and over time they get to know your site. One client described the difference like this, in words that now sit on my hosting page:
“My past experiences with website builders and developers have been people who are just interested in taking an annual hosting fee at inflated fees and who have turned out to be unavailable for resolving any issues with my website. Richard is the complete opposite.”
The weak spot is that a one-person business is one person. Ask what happens when they are ill or on holiday, and how you would get your logins if they stopped trading. Those are fair questions to put to me too.
5. An agency
An agency has more people, so holidays and illness are covered, and there may be specialists for jobs a freelancer would not take on. For a large or complicated site, that can matter.
For a small practice website, the trade-off is usually distance. You may deal with a support desk rather than the person doing the work. Ask who will actually look at your site, and whether you can speak to them.
The five side by side
| Option | Suits you if | The question to ask |
|---|---|---|
| You | You will log in every week or two and check the site afterwards | Have I ever restored a backup? |
| The person who built it | They still look after the sites they build, and still reply | What do you do on my site each month? |
| Your hosting company | You only need the server looked after, or they offer a managed plan | Does a person check my site after updates? |
| A freelancer | You want one person who knows your site | What happens when you are away? |
| An agency | Your site is large or complicated | Who will actually work on my site? |
Whoever you choose, keep the keys in your own name
This matters more than which option you pick, because it is what lets you change your mind later.
- Your domain name. For a .uk address, the registry, Nominet, records a registrant for every domain. Its own definition is “the company or individual whom the domain name is registered on behalf of”. You want that to be you or your business, not your web person.
- Your hosting account. Know which company hosts your site, and have a login of your own, or at least make sure the account is in your name.
- Your own WordPress login. WordPress describes an Administrator as “somebody who has access to all the administration features within a single site”. Keep one of those for yourself, and give your provider their own rather than sharing yours. If you part company, you remove theirs.
- Your backups. Know where they are kept and how you would get a copy.
If someone has set things up in their own name, it is not necessarily anything sinister. It is often done for convenience when a site is first built. Ask for it to be moved into your name anyway, while everyone is on good terms.
Signs it is time to change who looks after your site
- Emails take days to get a reply, or get none.
- You do not know what they do each month, and you have never had a report.
- When you log in to WordPress, the Updates screen shows a list of updates waiting.
- You have asked for your logins and not received them.
- A problem you reported has been “on the list” for months.
- You have never sent yourself a test enquiry, and nobody else has either. A contact form can stop working without any warning.
None of these on its own is a disaster. Two or three together usually mean nobody is really looking.
How to switch without any drama
- Gather what you have. Who your domain is registered with, which company hosts the site, and every login you hold. Keep them somewhere safe.
- Check the domain is in your name. Your domain registrar’s account should show who the registrant is.
- Ask for a full, recent backup of the files and the database before anything changes.
- Let the new person look before they take it on. A careful provider checks what is on the site and tells you what they found. I wrote more about what to ask before you sign up in last week’s article.
- Tidy up afterwards. Change the passwords, and remove the old provider’s administrator account.
- Leave on good terms. You may need to ask them something about the site later.
If you are on a monthly plan where the website itself is part of the package, the steps are a little different. I covered those in what happens when you cancel a pay monthly website. And if you are still deciding whether your site needs looking after at all, what breaks when nobody looks after a WordPress site covers the quiet failures.
Frequently asked questions
What do website maintenance services include?
Website maintenance services usually cover software updates for WordPress, the theme and plugins, regular backups stored away from the website's own server, security scanning, uptime monitoring and a person to contact when something goes wrong. Better services add a short report each month, so you can see what was updated and whether the backups ran. Design changes, new pages and content writing are normally separate, or counted as small changes with a time limit. The list varies less than you might expect between providers. What varies is how much a person looks at your site after the updates run, and how quickly they reply when you email. Read the list of inclusions, then ask about those two things, because they are where the real difference between providers sits.
How much do website maintenance services cost in the UK?
For a small business website, most UK maintenance packages sit between £39 and £85 a month, and agency retainers can run to £280 a month or more. The lower end usually covers updates, backups, security and monitoring. The higher end tends to add more support time, reporting and design changes. My own Website Care Plan is £39 a month. Price on its own tells you surprisingly little. A cheap plan where someone checks your site after every update can be better value than an expensive one where everything runs automatically and nobody looks. Ask how much support time is included, whether the price includes VAT, and what happens when you need something outside the plan. Clear, quick answers to those questions are a good sign whatever the monthly figure.
Should the person who built my website also maintain it?
Often, yes. The person who built your website knows how it was put together, which makes problems quicker to find and fix. The thing to check is whether they actually offer maintenance after the build, or whether they built the site and moved on. Some designers only do builds, and the site is then left with them in name while nobody is updating it. If you cannot remember the last time you heard from the person who built your site, ask them directly what they do each month. If the answer is nothing, you are free to choose someone else. Whoever looks after it, make sure your domain name, hosting account and your own administrator login are in your name, so a change of provider never leaves you locked out.
Does web hosting include website maintenance?
Usually not. Hosting keeps the server your website sits on running, connected and secure at the server level. Maintenance looks after the website itself: WordPress, the theme, the plugins, the backups and the checks after each update. The two are easy to confuse because they are often sold by the same people and paid for together. Some hosting companies offer managed WordPress plans that include some updates, so read what your plan lists rather than assuming. A useful question to ask your host is whether a person checks your site after updates are applied, or whether they run automatically with no one looking. If nobody can tell you who updates your plugins, the safest assumption is that nobody does, and the site needs someone to look after it.
Can I maintain my own WordPress website?
Yes. Plenty of sole traders look after their own WordPress site, and the tasks are not difficult. You log in, run the updates waiting on the Updates screen, then check the pages and the contact form still work. You also need a backup that is stored somewhere other than the website's server, and you need to know how to restore it. What tends to slip is the routine, not the know-how. If you do it yourself, set a regular slot every week or two. If that sounds like one more job you will not get to, that is a perfectly good reason to hand it to someone else.
How do I switch to a new website maintenance provider?
Start by gathering what you have: who your domain is registered with, which company hosts the site, and every login you hold. Check that the domain is registered in your name or your business's name. Ask your current provider for a full, recent backup of the files and the database. Then let the new provider look at the site before they take it on, so they can tell you what they find. Once the move is done, change the passwords and remove your old provider's administrator account. Most changes of provider are uneventful when the domain, hosting and logins are already in your name. They only become difficult when someone else holds the keys, so sort that out while everyone is still on good terms.
Before you hand your website to anyone
It helps to know where your site stands first. My free website checklist takes about 20 minutes to work through. It covers things like the warning browsers show before anyone reads a word of your site, and whether your contact form is working the way you think. It is also a useful way to see what your current web person is, or is not, keeping an eye on.
I host over fifty websites, mostly for counsellors, therapists and small local businesses, and I am the person who replies when you email. If you would like me to look after yours, my Website Care Plan is £39 a month, and the Pay Monthly plans include maintenance from £59 a month.