Skipping WordPress maintenance is sort of like not brushing your teeth. It won’t wreck your day today. Or tomorrow. Maybe not even next week. But sooner or later, something’s going to break. And when it does? You’re going to wish you’d kept up with the basics.
Same deal with WordPress.
Let’s break down what WordPress maintenance actually means, who needs it, what happens when you skip it—and why “we’ll fix it when it breaks” isn’t a strategy.
What Even Is WordPress Maintenance?
WordPress isn’t a crockpot. You don’t get to set it and forget it.
There are plugins, themes, PHP versions, server resources, and a core platform that’s always changing. Sometimes in small ways. Sometimes not.
A good WordPress maintenance plan keeps all of that stable and running. It prevents bugs and performance issues from piling up in the background.
Here’s what that includes:
- Reviewing and testing plugin and theme updates
- Running daily offsite backups
- Speed and performance optimization
- Uptime monitoring
- Security hardening and malware scanning
It’s real, technical work. And without it, things slowly stop working the way they should.
Do WordPress Sites Need Maintenance?
Short answer? Yes.
WordPress is always evolving—just like the internet, your customers, and your business.
Even if your site was built well (we hope it was), WordPress support and regular maintenance is what keeps it healthy. Plugin changes, security patches, server updates—those all happen whether you’re watching or not.
Skipping maintenance doesn’t just risk downtime. It risks your reputation.
What Happens If You Don’t Update WordPress?
Here’s what we see most often:
- Plugins or themes stop working—especially if you go months without updates
- Security issues build up—leaving your site open to attacks
- Your site gets slower—or breaks on modern browsers and devices
- You miss out on core improvements—like better performance and SEO
- Recovery becomes harder—no backup, no quick fix
A solid WordPress maintenance plan avoids all of this. It’s insurance against the “why is the site broken?” panic that hits at the worst possible time.
What’s Actually Included in Hey Reliable’s WordPress Maintenance Plans?
Every plan includes actual developer time—no bots, no automated tools pretending to know what they’re doing.
Here’s what’s included:
- Daily offsite backups
- Plugin, theme, and core updates (reviewed, tested, then deployed)
- Performance optimization
- Image and media cleanup
- Security monitoring and hardening
- Technical SEO support (broken links, crawl errors, etc.)
- Uptime monitoring
- Developer support (real humans)
- Account check-ins
- Staging environment setup
- Minor layout/design tweaks
- Troubleshooting and plugin advice
- Site-specific documentation
- Access to select premium plugin licenses (Agency plans)
- White-label client reporting (Agency plans)
- Dedicated Slack channel (Agency plans)
- Custom support videos (Agency plans)
Plus, every plan includes 1 full hour of dev time per site, per month—use it however you want.
Can You Work on Sites You Didn’t Build?
Yep. Happens all the time.
Whether your WordPress site was built by another agency, pulled together with a Themeforest template, or created five years ago and hasn’t been touched since—we can help.
We maintain custom themes, pre-built themes, page builder setups, and pretty much everything in between. You don’t need to be an existing Hey Reliable client. If your site needs real WordPress maintenance, we’re ready to help.
Hosting, Handled
Don’t want to deal with hosting? We’ve got you.
We offer fully managed WordPress hosting through WP Engine, one of the most trusted platforms in the space. If you host with us, we’ll manage it for you—monitoring uptime, running updates, and keeping everything dialed in.
And if you’re a WordPress maintenance subscriber, our WP Engine hosting add-on is cheaper than going direct.
Prefer Kinsta? We’re good with that too. We have affiliate partnerships with both WP Engine and Kinsta—so we can help you pick the best fit and handle the setup either way.
We Don’t Recommend Automatic Update Plugins
There are plugins out there that auto-update everything for you.
We don’t use them.
Here’s why: automatic updates can and do break things. Conflicting plugin versions. Unannounced changes. Unpatched bugs. The whole point of WordPress support is control—and blindly updating core files and third-party code removes that control.
We handle all updates manually. In a staging environment first. Reviewed by humans. Pushed to production only after we’ve verified nothing’s broken.
That’s how you avoid downtime. And surprises.
What Can Happen Without a WordPress Maintenance Plan?
If you’re wondering what’s really at stake, here’s what we see most often:
- Updates become a nightmare—and break your site
- Plugins stop working—or stop being supported altogether
- Performance drops off—and your rankings go with it
- Broken forms, layout issues, display bugs—all invisible until customers complain
- No backups when it counts—making recovery slow and expensive
- Compatibility issues with modern devices and browsers
- Time, money, and opportunity wasted—trying to fix something preventable
Which WordPress Maintenance Plan Is Right for You?
We keep it simple:
- Essentials — $185/month
For solo sites or businesses who want stable, proactive WordPress support. - Agency — $750/month
Covers up to 5 sites. Includes more dev time, white-label reports, and deeper support. - Custom — Let’s Talk
Need something specific? More hours, more sites, something unusual? We’ll build it with you.
So… Is WordPress Maintenance Really Necessary?
If your WordPress site matters to your business, then yes—maintenance matters too.
It keeps your site fast, safe, and working the way it should. It saves time, money, and headaches down the line. And it gives you a team who’s actually watching your site—so you don’t have to.
Check out Hey Reliable’s WordPress maintenance services.
No pressure. Just answers, pricing, and a plan that actually works.
Maintenance shouldn’t feel like a mystery.
It should feel like relief.
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