Freelancing since 2012
About me
I'm Jorijn Schrijvershof, a freelance DevOps engineer and developer from Oosterhout, the Netherlands. I've been building and maintaining software since 2004, and freelancing since 2012. For business owners, I maintain and host WordPress sites. For teams, I help with DevOps and cloud infrastructure.
Background
I went freelance because I wanted to set my own quality bar. As an employee, I too often had to carry out decisions I didn't believe in. Now I can say no when something isn't right. And yes to work I can be proud of. So there's one thing I always tell clients: good work takes time.
Most of my work involves PHP (Symfony, Laravel) and cloud infrastructure. I've worked for the Dutch National Police, Schiphol, Nike, and MijnOverheid. I'm driven by complex problems, long-term working relationships, and cleaning up what others left behind.
I work with AI every day, in my own management system and in my work for teams. Business owners ask me more and more often how to get started with it in their own company: what it can do, what's safe, and what's allowed with customer data. Those questions are welcome in an intro call. What I have to say about it is in the guide A safe start with AI in your business.
Why I maintain WordPress sites the way I do
At the large organizations I've worked for, this is completely normal: whatever you do often, you automate, and a change isn't done until it's been checked. At the Dutch National Police the work wasn't about WordPress, but it showed what automation gets you:
(...) the application runs stably and its management (...) is almost fully automated and barely takes any time anymore.
I used to maintain WordPress sites by hand: going through each site, clicking update, and checking for myself that everything still worked. I didn't like making those rounds, or the uncertainty after an update. That's why I now work with a management system that I built myself.
Before an update, my system makes a copy of what's about to change. After the update, it checks that your most important pages still load and that there are no new serious errors. If something goes wrong, a fixed rule puts that copy back automatically. On an online store with new orders, only the files go back, so those orders stay in place.
Before a larger update, I have an AI model summarize the changes. I make the decision myself.
If you notice something that isn't right within seven days, I'll still put the copy back. The whole process, step by step, is covered in how I run an update.
How I work
- You deal with me directly. No helpdesk and no ticket number. You email me, call me, or send me a WhatsApp message, and I reply myself. That doesn't scale to hundreds of clients. That's exactly the point.
- Plain words. I explain what I'm doing and why, without technical terms.
- I also tell you what something doesn't do. My system checks your site after an update and rolls it back if needed. What you don't get is a guarantee that nothing will ever go wrong.
- Better right than fast. In my setup, a new plugin or theme version waits three days before it's installed automatically. Only an update that fixes a security hole that's being actively exploited doesn't wait that long.
Here's how clients put it:
What I appreciate most is his clear, no-jargon communication and how quickly he helps when something comes up.
He responds quickly, thinks pragmatically, and feels like a reliable partner (...)
(...) has the rare ability to explain technically complex matters to non-technical stakeholders.
When I'm away
I work alone, so it's a fair question what happens to your site when I'm ill or on holiday.
My management system keeps working when I'm not around. Every five minutes, it checks that your site is reachable, new security holes in your plugins are matched against your versions, the error log is read every half hour, and the daily backups keep running. With Plus and Pro, the shielding of known security holes stays active. Small updates also go ahead at night, with a copy beforehand, a check afterward, and the copy put back automatically if something goes wrong. In that case, my system also schedules security updates for holes that are being actively exploited, without waiting for me.
I do big updates and every WooCommerce update by hand, so those wait. If there's a serious security hole that has no update yet, I'll only discuss with you what to do once I'm back. An alarm goes to my phone.
For urgent matters, I've arranged a stand-in who can step in when needed. Questions and regular changes can then take longer. If you want to get at your files and backups yourself, you get access to cPanel.
You're not locked in either. You can cancel in any month; your package then runs until the end of the current month. You get a full backup of your site to take with you. See also what you get when you cancel.
More about my work
Want to see what I've done for teams and large organizations?
- Work and results
projects for the Dutch National Police, Schiphol, and MijnOverheid.
- DevOps consultancy
for teams looking for help with automation and cloud (CI/CD, Kubernetes).
- My CV (PDF)
my projects and skills at a glance.
- LinkedIn
my career and recommendations.
- Arbory for Plausible
my own iPhone app that shows the visitor statistics from Plausible, also as a widget on your Home Screen.
Want to have an intro call?
Tell me what kind of site you have and what you're running into. Then I'll tell you honestly whether I can help.