What belongs in a WordPress maintenance contract?

Below are ten questions to ask before you sign, with my own answers next to them.

Contract, subscription, or plan: the difference

In practice, it's the same arrangement: someone looks after your site for a fixed amount per month. The word a provider picks mostly tells you how they sell. A contract suggests a fixed term, a subscription suggests you can cancel monthly, and a plan suggests a list of what's included.

But the word doesn't decide anything. You can be tied to a subscription for a year too. So look at three things: how long it runs, how you cancel, and exactly what's included. That's in the terms, not in the name.

What maintenance itself includes, and where it ends, is covered in the guide on maintaining WordPress yourself, in the section what maintenance actually is.

The standard parts

For each part, what you can expect and what to check.

• Updates. How often are things updated: every night, every week, or one round a month? And is anything tested, before or after the update? "I'll update your plugins" says nothing about what happens when an update breaks your contact form.
• Backups. How often is a backup made, and how long is it kept? Can you get a single file back, or only your whole site? Also ask whether a copy is made right before an update. Last night's backup misses everything that changed today.
• Security. A security plugin on your site isn't the same as security on the server underneath it. Ask which of the two you get. And ask what happens when a security hole becomes known in a plugin you use: who notices, and how quickly does the update come?
• Monitoring. What's monitored (whether your site is reachable, your certificate, error messages), and how often? More important still: who gets the alarm? A notification in an inbox nobody reads at night isn't the same as an alarm on someone's phone.
• Recovery. Is restoring a backup included? Finding the cause? Cleaning up after a hack? If it only says "recovery," ask what that covers. Otherwise, you'll only find out with the first invoice.
• Support. Who answers: always the same person, or a help desk? On which days and at what times? And through which channel: a ticket system, email, phone, or WhatsApp?

What's often missing, but should be there

You only notice these points when you need them. So ask about them up front.

• What happens when an update breaks something. Is the previous version put back automatically, or does someone do that by hand? Or do you get an invoice for it? How rolling back automatically works in my setup is explained on How it works.
• Who owns the site and the data. Your text, your photos, your database with customers and orders. If the contract doesn't say, ask.
• What you take with you when you leave. Do you get a full backup of your site? Who moves your mailboxes? In whose name is your domain name registered?
• What counts as extra work, and what it costs. Editing a piece of text, replacing a plugin, getting your site ready for newer server software (PHP): is that included? If not, at what rate? Per hour or per quarter hour?
• Whether hosting is billed separately. Then you're dealing with two parties. If your site goes down, it can bounce back and forth between your host and your maintenance provider over who should fix it.
• What happens when your provider is ill or on holiday. Of the providers I looked at in October 2026, only one mentions it on its own website, without explaining how it's arranged. If your provider works alone, this is the most important question of all.

Contract term and cancellation

You can sign up for maintenance month to month, for six months, or for a year. A few examples, as providers described it on their own websites in October 2026:

• WPHelpdesk: at least one year for Site Service and Business.
• Tussendoor: the first year is fixed, then monthly.
• KeurigOnline: at least six months, then monthly.
• Freelancers: you'll find annual contracts there too, sometimes with automatic renewal.

A long term doesn't have to be a problem. But it ties you to someone before you know how they respond when something really goes wrong.

My advice: choose something you can cancel monthly. A longer term is only worth it if you get something clear in return, such as a lower monthly price. If the contract renews automatically, put the last day to cancel in your calendar right away.

What it should cost

For one site, you'll see roughly four price ranges per month. Doing it yourself only costs your hosting (€2.99 to €32.50) and your own time. Budget maintenance without hosting starts at around €12.50. Maintenance by a person usually costs €44 to €65 on top of your hosting. Premium services and agencies charge €96 to €399.

What you get in each range, with the providers and their sources, is covered in What does WordPress maintenance cost?

Ten questions to ask before you sign

Ask every provider these questions. If a question doesn't get a clear answer, that tells you something too.

1. Who runs the updates, and how are they tested? A person, an automatic round, or both?
2. What happens when an update breaks something, and who pays for the recovery? The answer tells you more than the price.
3. How often are backups made, how long are they kept, and can you get a single file back?
4. Who gets the alarm when your site goes down, even at night? A name, not a department.
5. How quickly do you get an answer, and is that in the agreement?
6. What falls outside the package, and at what rate?
7. How long does the contract run, and what's the notice period?
8. Who owns the site and the data? And what do you take with you when you leave?
9. What happens when your provider is ill or on holiday? Especially if it's one person.
10. What do you still have to do or pay for yourself? Think of licenses for paid plugins, and your own content.

How I answer those ten questions

The same ten questions, with my answers. If I can't promise something yet, it isn't in here.

9. What if I'm ill or on holiday?

I work alone, so for me, this is the most important question. That's why the full answer is here.

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.

10. What do you still have to do or pay for yourself?

Not much, but a few things stay with you. You pay for and renew the licenses for paid plugins and your theme; I update them. If a license has expired, I can't, and I'll raise it with you. Installing or updating plugins: you can do it yourself or leave it to me, whichever you prefer. If you do it yourself, my system doesn't make a copy beforehand and doesn't check that change.

The content of your site (text, photos, pages) stays your work. If you want me to change something, that falls under the 30 minutes a month in Pro or my rate of €95 per hour excl. VAT. And when you start, you give me access to your site, your hosting, and your domain name. You'll find the full list in what I need from you to switch.

Everything else that's in my maintenance packages is listed per package on the services page.

Frequently asked questions about the contract