What is a website care plan and do you need one?

Your website isn't a "set it and forget it" asset. It's more like a car—it needs regular servicing to stay safe, fast, and reliable. A website care plan is essentially a maintenance and support package that keeps your site in top condition. Here's what you need to know.

What does a website care plan include?

Different agencies offer different things, but a good care plan should include the essentials that every website needs:

Software updates. WordPress, plugins, and themes release updates regularly—often to fix security vulnerabilities. Ignoring these updates is like leaving your front door unlocked. A care plan ensures updates are applied promptly and tested to make sure nothing breaks.

Security monitoring. Malware scanning, firewall management, and proactive protection against the most common attacks. If something does get through, your care plan covers the cleanup.

Daily backups. Automatic backups of your entire website, stored securely off-site. If anything goes wrong—a bad update, a hack, accidental deletion—your site can be restored quickly.

Performance monitoring. Regular checks on page load speed, uptime, and Core Web Vitals. Slow websites lose visitors and rank lower on Google.

Managed hosting. Many care plans include hosting as part of the package, so you have one provider managing everything.

But here's where a good care plan goes further

The basics above are essential, but they're table stakes. What separates a genuinely useful care plan from a glorified hosting package is included support hours.

Our care plans include hours each month that you can use for anything website-related: content updates, new pages, design tweaks, new features, bug fixes, performance improvements—whatever your website needs. Think of it as having your own web developer on retainer.

This means your website isn't frozen in time after launch. It evolves with your business. New service? We add the page. Updated pricing? We change it. Want to add online booking? We build it. All covered by your monthly plan.

How much does a website care plan cost?

Website care plans in Northern Ireland typically range from £30-£150/month depending on what's included. At the lower end, you get basic updates and backups. At the higher end, you get managed hosting, security, support hours, and priority response times.

Our care plans start from around £50/month and include everything: hosting, updates, security, backups, support hours, and priority access. For most small businesses, this represents exceptional value compared to paying ad-hoc rates every time something needs changing.

Do you actually need one?

If your website runs on WordPress (or any CMS), the short answer is yes. Here's why:

WordPress releases security updates regularly. Plugins release updates even more frequently. Every week you don't update is another week of known vulnerabilities sitting on your server. Over 90% of hacked WordPress sites are running outdated software.

Beyond security, an unmaintained website gradually degrades. Plugins stop working with newer PHP versions. Page speed slows as server configurations change. Google's algorithm evolves, and sites that don't keep up lose rankings.

A care plan prevents all of this. It's insurance against problems and investment in ongoing improvement—not an unnecessary expense.

What to look for in a care plan

When comparing care plans from different agencies, make sure you understand exactly what's included. Key questions to ask:

Are software updates tested before being applied, or just auto-updated? (Auto-updates can break sites.) Is hosting included or separate? How many support hours are included, and what's the response time? Are backups stored off-site? What happens if your site is hacked—is cleanup included? Can you use support hours for content updates and new features, or just bug fixes?

Ready to protect your website?

Take a look at our care plans to see what's included, or get in touch to discuss the right plan for your business.