There are three common ways to look after a WordPress site: do it yourself, call a freelancer when needed, or pay for a care plan. Each works for some businesses and fails others. The right choice depends less on price than on how critical the site is and how much attention you can give it.
Doing it yourself
Good for: simple sites, technically confident teams, tight budgets.
- Strengths: lowest direct cost, full control, no waiting for anyone.
- Weaknesses: it depends on someone remembering — every week. Restores often go untested, and when something breaks, the person fixing it is also the person who should be running the business.
If you go this way, use the WordPress maintenance checklist and put the tasks in a calendar.
An hourly freelancer
Good for: occasional changes, sites that rarely need attention, specific projects.
- Strengths: you pay only for work done, and a good freelancer brings real expertise.
- Weaknesses: work usually happens on request, so routine maintenance slips between calls. Availability varies, and in an emergency you may be one of several clients asking at once.
A care plan
Good for: sites that bring in enquiries or sales, teams without time for the routine, businesses that want predictable costs.
- Strengths: the routine happens on a schedule whether you ask or not — updates with checks, off-site backups, monitoring, a report. Plans with included hours also cover regular small changes.
- Weaknesses: a monthly cost even in quiet months, and scope limits — larger projects are quoted separately.
Side by side
- Predictability: care plan > freelancer > DIY.
- Direct cost: DIY < freelancer (for rare work) < care plan.
- Routine actually done: care plan is designed for it; DIY and freelancer depend on someone remembering.
- Flexibility for big projects: freelancer or agency projects; care plans cover the ongoing work.
How to choose
- How much does a day of downtime, or a week of lost enquiries, cost you?
- Does anyone on your team have a few reliable hours a month for the routine?
- How often do you need changes to the site?
- Does the site take payments?
If the site matters to revenue and nobody owns the routine, a care plan is usually the calmest option. Our guide to what a maintenance plan should include helps compare providers, and you can see ours on the plans section.
Frequently asked questions
Is it cheaper to maintain WordPress myself?
In direct costs, often yes. In time and risk, not always: updates, backups, testing and troubleshooting take hours, and problems tend to arrive when you’re busiest.
What’s the difference between a freelancer and a care plan?
A freelancer typically works on request and bills by the hour. A care plan runs a defined routine on a schedule, with monitoring and a report, whether or not you remember to ask.
Can I combine options?
Yes. Many businesses keep content editing in-house and hand the technical routine — updates, backups, monitoring — to a care plan.
When is DIY a good choice?
When the site is simple, someone on the team is comfortable with WordPress, and there’s time every week for the routine — including testing restores and checking forms.
