Why Do You Need WordPress Support Services?
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What are you in the business of? Developing WordPress websites? No? That’s odd. Then why do you spend an hour every day with your website when you could be focusing on your business?
Websites are a lot of work. It’s not as simple as picking a theme, adding some copy, and pushing the “Publish” button. Once your website is live, there is a lot to monitor, maintain, and update on a regular basis like:
- Themes
- Plugins
- Coding
- Broken links or images
- Changes in copy or design
- Site backups
- Performance optimization
- Security
- Hosting issues
- Analytics and activity monitoring
- WordPress upgrades
- And more
Anything that takes you away from your job is only going to hurt your business. You’re already aware of this. That’s why if you had severely out-of-date office machinery that was sucking up time in troubleshooting and money in repairs, you’d probably ditch it in lieu of a more efficient cloud-based software. The same should be true of your website (except the ditching part).
Your main focus should be on your business—delivering a service to your customers and doing so in an efficient and consistent manner. But, as you know, your website is an essential part of your business (one could even call it your business’s online face) and it takes a lot to keep it up and running. This is one of those rare instances where striking a balance might not be the solution. Some of the best WordPress support services can help relieve you of that burden effectively—in time, cost, and quality—so you can put all your attention into your business.
What Are Managed WordPress Support Services?
Your time is valuable. Your budget is limited. But you know you need to get certain things done in order to keep your website running and looking as professional and well-maintained as you believe it deserves to be. WordPress support services are like any other managed service solution. Rather than burn the candle at both ends, you outsource one of your business activities to an expert who can manage it for you.
But how do you let go? The website is the virtual face of your business and your first instinct is probably to hold onto it for as long as you can. You might not trust that an outsider will take care of it as well as you would. And you’re not sure if the money paid to them will be worth it in the end. Your solution is to just do it on your own.
WordPress is a great tool. With an easy-to-use interface and plugins to help you optimize and manage many aspects of your website, there is a lot you can do on your own. Be that as it may, once you start looking into what a managed WordPress support service offers, that fear of letting go may loosen when you realize how much you’ll get in return—time, more conversions/sales, a stronger web presence, and more—for a personal support service dedicated to the maintenance of your website.
How Do You Choose a WordPress Support Service Provider?
Once you’re ready to take that leap of faith and hand your WordPress website over to a support service provider, it’s time to start your research. There are a lot of providers out there and they are not all going to be a good fit for your specific needs.
Some points to consider while conducting your research:
- What are they offering to help with? Will it cover all of your WordPress needs?
- What is the cost of these services? Is it within your budget? And, more importantly, will it cost less than if you were to do it yourself?
- What do the reviews say about these services? Are they reliable? Are they professional? Can you trust them?
- What sort of support do they offer? Are they on-call 24/7 or do you have to wait around for them to become available?
- Are there any added benefits to what they offer? Do they have design, SEO, or consultative services?
Entrusting the care of your website to someone else is a big step in the right direction. Make sure to take your time in finding the right one to trust it to.
What Are the Best WordPress Support Services?
There are a lot of WordPress Support Services available, so how do you know which one is best for you? Well, we’ve broken out the 10 top-ranked services below with some high-level details you should know about. Save time in conducting initial research and use this information to narrow down your choices.
ClickWP
Pricing: $25-$60/month
Target Customer: Bloggers, Small Businesses
What You Get to Start: Basic tech support, daily backups, plugin and core updates, security and monitoring, email support, access to themes
Special Notes: These guys are very clear that they themselves are a small business and want to cater to the small business in need. So while they only offer the basics in technical support, they do have a few added features like server management, Google services, Facebook analytics, and email marketing.
FixMyWP
Pricing: $50/month and up
Target Customer: Businesses of all sizes
What You Get to Start: WordPress updates, plugin updates, spam cleaning, database optimization, backup, 24/7 email support
Special Notes: Pricing for these services is a little high for the level of support you get. Most of the starter services are weekly maintenance, so unless you’re willing to pay over $100/month, you may not receive the amount or frequency of support you were looking for.
GoWP
Pricing: $39-$295/month
Target Customer: Small Businesses, Agencies
What You Get to Start: unlimited support for small tasks, security monitoring, experienced support (during business hours), month-to-month plans, core and plugin updates, daily backups, WordPress tutorials
Special Notes: It looks like this company is relatively new (founded either this year or last). While they do have a decade of experience working for a web agency, it’s important to note their relatively new experience running a WP support services company, which may indicate that their level of support and responsiveness may not match others who are more well-established.
Maintainn
Pricing: $49/month and up
Target Customer: Businesses of all sizes
What You Get to Start: Website staging, data migrations, custom development, backups, WordPress updates, 24/7 security monitoring, personalized support (during business hours)
Special Notes: Maintainn has a lot of impressive features: a nice-looking website, a friendly looking team of developers, numbers showcasing how many websites they’ve worked on, and a list of clients that showcase their breadth of experience (Microsoft is one of them).
WP Curve
Pricing: $79-$199/month
Target Customer: Medium-sized businesses and up
What You Get to Start: 24/7/365 support, unlimited small jobs, detailed notes on jobs
Special Notes: These guys are busy! They have completed 44,000+ jobs in the last three years and have 39 team members around the globe who offer 24/7 coverage. However, for the lowest level of services, you only get assistance with small jobs/fixes, not with WordPress upgrades, plugin updates, or security maintenance. They also require that you sign a minimum contract, so this can be a pretty hefty investment with little payoff if these services aren’t right for you.
WP Fix It
Pricing: $39/issue or $57/month
Target Customer: Websites that require infrequent but major fixes
What You Get to Start: Unlimited 24/7 support, major issue fixes, daily backups, stable hosting, security protection, software updates
Special Notes: This company is interesting. For the most part, their big sell is the WordPress issue “fix”. So if you need help with serious problems (white screen of death, website migration, code clean-up, etc.), they can help with it for a per-issue fee. They do also offer managed support services, but it seems more like an afterthought, so only go with WP Fix It if you’re more interested in one-off assistance than ongoing support.
WP Site Care
Pricing: $79-$999/month
Target Customer: Businesses of all sizes
What You Get to Start: 24/7 security monitoring, daily backups, WordPress updates, WordPress tutorials, real-time activity tracking
Special Notes: WP Site Care is one of the more expensive services featured here and is definitely catering to businesses with more spending power and who expect to get a lot for their money. They have a lot of glowing reviews, a steady social media presence, a blog, and a newsletter—all signs that these guys really know what they’re doing.
WP Maintainer
Pricing: $99/month
Target Customer: Businesses of all sizes and website designers
What You Get to Start: WordPress upgrades, plugin updates, scheduled backups, security monitoring and cleanup, preventative audits, discounted site customizations
Special Notes: WP Maintainer makes it very simple: one plan, one price for everyone. Their offerings seem to be pretty comprehensive and cover all the essentials you’d need from a managed support services provider. There isn’t any mention though regarding how responsive they are, so it’s safe to assume that you’ll only get assistance during business hours.
Barrel Roll
Pricing: $49-$299/month
Target Customer: Businesses of all sizes
What You Get to Start: Automated backups, WordPress and plugin updates, 24/7 security monitoring
Special Notes: Pricing seems a little high for the amount of support Barrel Roll offers in the basic support level. However, they do have a professional looking website, testimonials, and very straight-forward and transparent messaging about who they are and what they do, which is a good sign they’ll be as equally responsible and professional to work with.
Cinch Web Services
Pricing: $49-$149/month
Target Customer: Small Businesses, eCommerce, Corporate
What You Get to Start: 24/7 security monitoring, daily backups, malware removal, software updates
Special Notes: Most of the support services you’ll read about here offer their support to “businesses of all sizes”. However, Cinch seems to really know their audience and how to cater to different business’s needs. By honing in on three different segments, they offer more specifically tailored services based on your unique website needs.
As far as we’re concerned, there is no clear winner here. All of these companies provide a set of services that are meant to help relieve the burden of managing your WordPress website on your own. What may be right for another website may not be right for yours, so take the time to research these services before making any solid commitment to one over the other.