The boring monthly work that keeps a site healthy.
WordPress sites need someone looking after them. Updates that run reliably, backups that actually work, security patches applied quickly, performance kept in check, and a human to email when something looks off. Most of it is unglamorous. All of it matters.
These retainers aren’t open to walk-ins. Every retainer starts with a project, a takeover, or an audit-and-fix – so I know what I’m maintaining. If you’ve inherited a site you want looked after, start with a takeover. If you’re already a client whose site has drifted, get in touch and we’ll work out where to pick up.
Sounds familiar?
You're tired of being your own webmaster
Updating plugins on a Friday afternoon. Wondering whether that error in the dashboard is serious. Realising the backup hasn’t run for three weeks. You’d rather be running your business.
You had someone, and they're gone
The freelancer disappeared, the agency dropped you, the in-house person left. The site is technically fine for now, but nobody is watching it – and that situation tends to age badly.
You want a real backup and recovery plan
You know your hosting provider says they back things up. You don’t actually trust that. You want backups stored somewhere external, tested at least once, and someone who’d actually know how to restore the site if it came to it.
You want predictable costs
You’re done with surprise invoices when something breaks. A flat monthly fee, scope you understand, and a human who picks up when you need them.
You're approaching a busy season
Black Friday, conference launch, product release, end-of-financial-year traffic spike. You want the site checked over and monitored properly during the period, not just hoped over.
What's included
Updates with discipline
WordPress core, plugins, and themes updated on a weekly cadence. Every update preceded by a backup and followed by a check that nothing broke. If something regresses, I roll it back and figure out what to do next. The boring work that prevents most outages.
Backups that actually work
Daily automated backups stored externally – not just on the hosting account. WPvivid handles this for most sites. Restore tested at least once before it’s ever needed. Two backup destinations where the data is critical.
Uptime and integrity monitoring
Monitoring runs every few minutes from external locations. If the site goes down or starts returning errors, I know before your customers do. Same for file integrity – if something on the server changes unexpectedly, that’s flagged.
Security patching
Vulnerability scanning runs continuously through Patchstack. Plugin updates that close known security holes get applied quickly, not on the regular weekly cycle. Login security, file permissions, and access logs reviewed periodically.
Performance monitoring
Site speed and Core Web Vitals tracked over time. When the numbers drift the wrong way – usually because new plugins, content, or tracking pixels have been added – I find what changed and fix it before it affects rankings or user experience.
Quarterly review
Every three months, a structured review of the site. What’s changed, what’s at risk, what’s worth doing next, what to plan for. You get a short written summary you can actually use.
A human to email
The bit you can’t automate. Something looks off, a customer reported a strange error, you’re considering a change and want to know if it’ll break anything – you have someone to ask. Looking after the site, so you don’t have to.
Two tiers
Essentials
from €100/month
Everything in “What’s included” above: updates, backups, monitoring, security patching, performance monitoring, quarterly review, email support. No included change hours – small changes billed hourly when you need them. Reply within a day or two, weekdays. Right for presentation sites and lower-complexity setups where most months pass quietly.
Plus
from €250/month
Everything in Essentials, plus an hour or two of small changes included each month, same-day response on weekdays, direct chat access for urgent questions, and coverage of premium plugin licenses where they apply. Right for eCommerce stores, sites with regular content changes, or sites that need a more responsive partner.
Both tiers price up for site complexity – a large eCommerce store with twenty integrations isn’t the same as a brochure site. Final price quoted after the initial project completes. Returning clients with sites I haven’t touched for a few months get a check-in first to see what’s changed.
Beyond WordPress
Other platforms and stacks
Most of my maintenance work is WordPress, but it’s not all I touch. I have a sysadmin background and have worked across stacks for years. If you have a SureCart store, a static site, custom server configuration, or a hybrid setup that needs someone keeping an eye on it, get in touch – I’ll tell you whether it’s something I can take on directly, or recommend someone who can.
Monthly maintenance is operational work – keeping things running. When questions come up that go beyond that (should we migrate hosts? does it make sense to rebuild rather than maintain? what’s the next platform decision?), that’s technical consulting territory. It’s a different engagement, scoped separately.
Retainer clients get the first conversation for free because it’s usually how the bigger questions surface.
What I don't cover
24/7 support. I’m one person, not a help desk. For an active outage during evenings or weekends, your hosting provider’s support is the right first call – they’re staffed for it. I’ll deal with the follow-up and root cause when I’m back at the desk.
Process
Step 1
Once the initial project is done (build, takeover, audit-and-fix, or hardening), I propose a retainer tier based on what's appropriate for the site. You can take it or not - the project stands on its own.
Step 2
If you take a retainer, we agree on the tier and start date. First month is prepaid, then monthly thereafter. Cancel anytime with thirty days' notice.
Step 3
You get a short email at the start of each month summarising the previous month - what was updated, anything that came up, anything you should know. Quarterly reviews are longer.
Step 4
Throughout the month, you email when you need something. I'll flag whether a request is in-scope or out-of-scope so we can plan accordingly.
For retainer clients, the work continues until you cancel. There’s no annual contract and no minimum term beyond the first month. The point is reliability, not lock-in.
If you’re a new client, the retainer follows the project – the project comes first because I need to know the site before I can keep it running.
Let's talk
Tell me what you need looked after. I'll tell you the right starting point.
If you’re already a client, get in touch and we’ll work out the retainer tier. If you’re new, the conversation starts with Takeovers or one of the project pages – the retainer follows from there. A few sentences about your site, what’s working, what’s worrying you, and we’ll go from there.