A New Website Care Plan Topic

[ianscott]

I see there is a topic from 2021 on this subject, but not a whole lot of information or ideas, so I thought I’d start a new one. I’m interested in what folk here are charging for Website Care Plans and what they might include. I’ve seen a range of rates on the internet; some seem to cheap and some seem to expensive to me.

I have a range of clients, and have been in the business since 1997 (yeah, back when we hand-coded ecommerce sites with PERL!).

I also have experience with having my own Linux server administration experience - back in the day, when T-1’s were running at 3,000.00 a month, and my location was basically the end of the fibre in my town, I had my own “facility” in my house. We even ran telephone copper to some local businesses so they could access my connectivity… ahhh… those were the days.

So having been in this business so long, there has been so much “Free” stuff I’ve done for clients, but I realize it actually takes up more time than one thinks until they start tracking it.

So I have to change things. Up to now, I’ve been including updates and website management as a favour to clients who host with me (I now use powerful Linodes) and who I do web design/development for. But my hosting fees are competitive with many others, although my servers are kept at a very minimal number of accounts.

For years, I’ve probably “ripped myself off” for never having maintenance plans with most of my clients. I have about 50 clients, 10 are pretty active and keep me busy with other WordPress site updates (new feature requests, product additions for e-commerce sites etc).

So I’m trying to figure out how others charge for Website Care plans that include remote backups, WordPress and Plugin update management, and whatever else you do.

[wpexpert (Frederic)]

Hi @ianscott,

Well, the offers on care plans are really standard and we are offering usually the same services updates, backup, monitoring, security check, hosting and for higher plan hours/tasks of support. You can see our plans here https://wpexpert.ca/wordpress-website-maintenance/#maintenance-pricing - we are in Canada so pricing is CAD not USD. Most important part of our business is customer services which is what bringing new clients.
We are managing more than 200 websites and we are using third party for the hosting part (wpcloud.ca) as we don’t want to deal with servers maintenance. Hope it answers some of your questions. Also, in the US, there are big players like WPBuff, GoWP, FocusWP… etc. Google WordPress support or maintenance and you are going to find a lot.

[ianscott]

Thank you very much for the reply, @Frederic - most of my clients are in Canada as well, although I have a few in the US and even the UK and Greece I took a look at what you are offering, and it’s in the ballpark of some of my ideas of costs and care plans.

I may have more questions for you later but appreciate you reaching out and replying to with some helpful information!

[wpexpert (Frederic)]

You’re welcome Ian! Feel free to reach out to me directly, my email is the one on the contact page. Good luck and start to be buy for your services!