WordPress Maintenance Packages
WordPress must be kept up-to-date to minimise the risk of security vulnerabilities and ensure the continued performance and compatibility of the website.
By default, WordPress automatically applies security updates, minor version updates and major version updates on a regular schedule. However, these updates can occasionally cause compatibility issues that may break parts of a website if they fail or conflict with plugins or themes.
A decision should be made as to how ongoing plugin updates and major WordPress updates should be performed, depending on what factors are more important to the business.
Maintenance & Security Packages
Automatic Updates & Monitoring
- Continuous monitoring (checks every 1 minute)
- Security & minor updates automatically applied
- Major updates not applied
- Costs apply to resolution of failed WordPress updates
- No manual tests are performed after updates
- Precedence receives system emails and acts on them
$264 per year
Managed Updates & Monitoring
- Continuous monitoring (checks every 1 minute)
- Security updates automatically applied
- Major & minor updates manually applied every quarter
- No cost to resolve simple WordPress update problems
- Key functionality tests performed after major updates
- Precedence receives system emails and acts on them
$720 per year
Call us: 1300 363 460
Package details
Note: For sites not built by Precedence, there is an additional one off setup cost of $330.
Automatic Updates & Monitoring Package
Investment
This package costs $264 per year incl. GST for a single website.
Inclusions
This package includes:
- Automatic Security & Minor Version Updates and Testing: As a fully automated process, both Security and Minor Version updates are applied as they are released. This is done within a staging environment which performs simple tests that the update succeeded prior to applying the updates to the production website. This minimises, but does not eliminate, the risk of the website breaking after an update. Major Version updates are not done, as they are at greater risk of breaking the website due to incompatibilities.
- Monitoring: Continuous (1-minute intervals) automated monitoring of your website’s home page (or any other key page of your choosing) to ensure it is loading correctly and that no errors are displaying, such as those caused by changes or a hacked website, with an immediate notification to our support team in the event of a problem being detected.
- System Emails: Precedence’s support team will receive the WordPress system emails that notify of updates, problems, and other messages. We will identify if the email needs actioning, and if so, we will either act on it if the work required is trivial, or forward it to you with a recommendation.
Exclusions
The monthly price does not include additional work that may be required following the above services.
For example, if the monitoring service notifies our support team of a problem with the website, and the cause of that problem is related to the website functionality (e.g. a failed automatic update or a hack); we will carry out the minimum work required to resolve the problem and this will be charged at our schedule rate (currently $165/hr incl. GST) to ensure the website is back up and running as quickly as possible.
If the work involved in resolving a problem or acting on a system email is not trivial (for example, if a required plugin is no longer being maintained), we will contact you with recommendations before proceeding with the work required.
Major Version updates are not applied at all as part of this maintenance package. These updates can bring new features, bug fixes, compatibility improvements and performance optimisations to the website, but are usually not essential or time-sensitive. You can request that we perform Major Version updates manually from time to time, or we may suggest it in the course of doing other work if the updates will bring about improvements or improve reliability.
Managed Updates & Monitoring Package
Investment
This package costs $720 per year incl. GST for a single website.
Inclusions
This package includes:
- Manual Major & Minor Version Updates: Once a quarter, we will perform a manual update of WordPress (core platform, plugins, and themes) to the latest major & minor versions, then check the main pages of the website for any compatibility problems. The update will be done in a test environment first to check for errors before being applied to the production website.
- Key Functionality Test: After performing a manual update, we will test 1 critical function of the website (such as an enquiry form) as a smoke test that the critical function of the website continues to work after a WordPress update.
- Automatic Security Updates: As a fully automated process, security updates released by WordPress are applied as they are released. This is done within a staging environment which performs simple tests that the update succeeded prior to applying the updates to the production website. Security updates are intended to be fully compatible with the installed version of WordPress, so together with the staging environment tests, the risk of the website breaking after this type of automatic update is minimal.
- Resolution of Failed Updates: In the unlikely scenario where an automatic security update has caused a problem with the website, we will resolve the problem at no additional cost, provided the problem can be fixed by adjusting software versions and settings to achieve compatibility.
- Restoration of Hacked Website: In the unlikely scenario where, despite WordPress being kept up-to-date, an attacker manages to compromise the website due to a security vulnerability, we will restore the website at no additional cost, investigate the cause of the hack, and recommend a course of action where possible.
- System Emails: Precedence’s support team will receive the WordPress system emails that notify of updates, problems, and other messages. We will identify if the email needs actioning, and if so, we will either act on it if the work required is trivial, or forward it to you with a recommendation.
- Monitoring: Continuous (1-minute intervals) automated monitoring of your website’s home page (or any other key page of your choosing) to ensure it is loading correctly and that no errors are displaying, such as those caused by changes or hacking attempts, with an immediate notification to our support team in the event of a problem being detected.
Exclusions
The monthly price does not include additional work that may be required following the above services.
For example, if an update is not possible due to a required plugin no longer being maintained, we will contact you with recommendations before proceeding with significant work. Any additional work required will be charged at our schedule rate (currently $165/hr incl. GST.