Website Maintenance Packages

What is generally included in monthly website maintenance packages, and do you need it? Virtually every website needs ongoing maintenance unless your site doesn't have a backend and consists of static HTML files.

So why do websites need ongoing maintenance?

Address security threats

New updates range from minor bug fixes to serious security patches, that if left unattended can leave your website vulnerable to attacks.

Page loading speed

Some of the greatest performance benefits result from a WordPress website that's totally up to date

New features

if your site is not caught up with the latest accepted protocols and standards, you will probably experience speed, accessibility and general functionality problems, and will be penalised by search algorithms.

Why us?

Having started in E-commerce ourselves we know inside out what is involved in designing, building and maintaining a WordPress website. Having built over 200 websites for our clients, ranging from e-commerce sites to blogs and forums, we will guide you through the entire process, advising on the best options and features to achieve your goals with the website.

Our reviews

Their attention to detail was brilliant with great design innovations where there was room for them.

Hugh Fraser

Doorway

Their comments and feedback are excellent, and they’ve gone beyond the scope of work. They’ve brought in their point of view and delivered excellent results, which will be the starting point for our company.

Aldo Guiducci

Scynce

Their project management is outstanding, always making sure that everything’s clear and participating actively in decision-making processes and delivering great work, extremely fast. Their level of creativity is outstanding and inspiring too!

Gregory T

Meukow Cognac

Their creativity and speed were impressive. Passionate Design Agency's ability to transform our ideas into a top-notch product stood out.

Aaron Ganick

PreddioTech

They were always quick to respond and proactively offered solutions. Their ability to provide solutions to complex problems sets them apart from other vendors.

Freda L.

Scoop Solar

The quality of their work stands out. Passionate always ensure the work is of the highest quality and delivered in a timely manner.

Qadir Hussain

Primed Pharmacy

Very reliable and dependable with great value. They are super knowledgeable and have helped us re design and migrate an entire marketplace.

Amber Weaver

Type Department

They were very patient with our feedback, which gave a very pleasant process and overall experience.

Cecilie Espensen

Nicice

Pricing

WordPress Uptime support

WordPress and Plugin updates

WordPress Website Backups

Website Malware Scans

Web & Graphic Design Support

WordPress Development Support

Timesheet tracked and unused hours rollover

Direct support email

Basic

£99 / month

WordPress Uptime support

WordPress and Plugin updates

WordPress Website Backups

Website Malware Scans

Standard

£599 / month

WordPress Uptime support

WordPress and Plugin updates

WordPress Website Backups

Website Malware Scans

Up to 5 hours/month

of web & graphic design support

WordPress Development Support

Timesheet tracked and unused hours rollover

Direct support email

Advanced

£1,099 / month

WordPress Uptime support

WordPress and Plugin updates

WordPress Website Backups

Website Malware Scans

Up to 10 hours/month

of web & graphic design support

WordPress Development Support

Timesheet tracked and unused hours rollover

Direct support email

Success stories

Their project management is outstanding, always making sure that everything’s clear and participating actively in decision-making processes and delivering great work, extremely fast. Their level of creativity is outstanding and inspiring, too!

Gregory Thevenet

Founder of Lux Lingua

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Featured in UIUX design
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Skild

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Frequently
Asked Questions

Everything from editing banners to polishing images or creating new posts. The software we use primarily includes Adobe Creative Cloud and Figma. Please note that larger tasks may require more time, so if in doubt please contact us for rough estimates.

Everything from adding posts to fixing plugin issues or other errors. We can also create new pages or add new features, however, please note for some larger tasks more time may be needed, so if in doubt, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us for rough estimates.

Request a free proposal

Why are website maintenance packages needed

One primary reason for this is to keep up with updates, and almost every technology has updates, some more frequently than others. In addition to this, generally, the more custom and multifunctional the website is, the more maintenance work it needs. For example, a website like eBay will need a lot more maintenance work than a website like TechCrunch (which, believe it or not, is also powered by WordPress), which in turn will need more maintenance work than a website like colourpop.com (which is powered by Shopify).

So why do more complex and multi-functional websites need more maintenance? First, let’s sort the updates which can affect a website into categories:

  1. Web technology updates
  2. Website core updates
  3. Extension, library or plugin updates

Web technology updates

Updates that happen to the web infrastructure, such as changes in accepted protocols, browser updates, etc.

Think of these updates as something similar to your phone or computer software updates, for example, Windows or IOS updates. These updates fix detected bugs and enable new and improved functionalities to be executed. If you do not update your phone or computer software, your device may be vulnerable or unable to execute some tasks.

Similarly, in the case of websites, if your site is not caught up with the latest accepted protocols and standards, you will probably experience speed, accessibility and general functionality problems. One example of such an update recently was browsers beginning to require an SSL certificate to be installed and showing the website as a threat if it didn’t have one. So even if you have a beautiful website with tons of great content, if there is no SSL certificate installed, your site will appear like malware to potential visitors, completely undermining the efforts you have put into the site.

Another such example is PHP updates. A few years back, the highest stable PHP version was 5.6, so regardless of the web host that you chose, this would be what you’d get. 

Recently, PHP 8.0 was rolled out, which can execute almost twice as many requests per second as 5.6. In the case of most hosts, you need to update to the newest version of PHP manually and then check your website is compatible. So it’s no surprise that to date, just over 10% of WordPress websites are still on PHP 5.6 and below, missing out on amazing performance gains!

As part of our monthly website maintenance packages, we ensure your WordPress site is kept up to date with the latest PHP version.

Web technology updates are generally not very frequent, occurring every 4 – 8 months, but generally have major implications.

WordPress PHP versions, as of October 2021

Website core updates

Updates that need to be made to the engine or core backend code of the site for it to:

  • Remain compatible with web technology updates,
  • Add new features to the core
  • Fix issues in the existing core
  • Address new security threats

These updates are always ongoing, but how you administer them will depend on how your website works.

For example, if you have a custom-made website, then your development team will need to address these on an ongoing basis. If your site is working on a CMS like WordPress or Shopify, then the organisation that provides the CMS will implement the edits. It varies from one CMS to another as well.

For example, in the case of Shopify, because they also host your website and have complete control of the server environment, their development team takes care of core updates behind the scenes without even requesting the site owner’s permission.

On the other hand, WordPress cannot do this for self-hosted instances (i.e., not wordpress.com). One installation with its given hosting and plugin configurations may accommodate the update, whereas another instance may experience fatal errors. This is why WordPress notifies website admins of the new version being available and leaves it up to the website admin to install the update.

Some hosting providers allow you to set WordPress updates on automatic for both minor and major versions. However, we strongly advise not to use this as we have seen far too many websites go down because of these updates. The cause may be an incompatibility with one plugin, a theme, or some code in your functions.php. This is why as part of our website maintenance packages we always ensure to create a backup just before running the update manually, as then we can restore the most up-to-date version of the site if anything happens. We would recommend you also use this approach as automatic backups may be a day or even weeks old, so restoring them will also lose all the website data in the interval!

Web technology updates are generally frequent, occurring every 0.5 – 3 months (depending on the CMS), but typically have medium to significant implications.

Extension, library, theme or plugin updates

Extensions, libraries, themes and plugins are code packages available for free or for a fee, allowing you to extend your website functionality without having to develop the features.

One good example of this is payment gateways. Whether custom-made or based on a CMS, most websites do not develop a custom payment system but integrate a ready solution like Stripe or Paypal. This ensures that the website admin doesn’t need to keep up to date with all financial regulations, such as being PCI compliant and can focus on running the site instead. Paypal and Stripe then bear the responsibility for the infrastructure updates (for a fee per transaction) but request the web admin to make updates every now and then to ensure that code remains functional.

One such example recently was the move to 3D secure cards, as part of which Paypal and Stripe gave instructions that should be implemented (which is generally a few lines of code) for the sites to remain compatible with Stripe and Paypal cores. Failure to enforce this update would mean that the website would no longer accept payments from 3D secure cards, which comprise the vast majority of cards.

These plugins, extensions, themes and libraries are updated for similar reasons to the website core, in particular to:

  • To remain compatible with web technology updates,
  • To add new features
  • To fix issues in the existing code
  • To address new security threats
  • To remain compatible with the target core or software

These sit on top of the website core, usually developed by different developers to the website core. This makes them more likely to have incompatibilities as not all developers are as experienced and familiar with the core and may not account for all interdependencies. Likewise, the theme, plugin, extension or library may lack the testing and quality control or may simply be compatible with the core but incompatible with another extension that’s also used.

Still, although plugins, extensions, themes and libraries generally pose some additional risks, in most instances, the pros of time and money savings outweigh the additional maintenance needed! It is vital to ensure all libraries, extensions, plugins and themes are from trusted and experienced providers as poor choices can also affect the rest of the website.

Assuming you have chosen the right suppliers, it is still essential to always keep plugins, themes, libraries and extensions up to date as new updates range from functionality and compatibility improvements to critical security patches. In fact, in the case of a WordPress website, if your site is experiencing problems, your first action should be to backup your site and update all plugins and themes as this can fix it!

Like core updates, we don’t recommend enabling automatic plugin updates, as this runs the risk of breaking the site without you knowing what caused it. Again we recommend always backing up the site and updating the plugins and themes one at a time (standard practice with any of our clients on our website maintenance packages).

Extension, library, theme or plugin updates are generally frequent, occurring every 0.5 – 3 months (depending on the CMS), but generally have medium to major implications.

Website maintenance packages illustration

If you keep on top of these updates on an ongoing basis, your website downtime and errors will be kept to a minimum (assuming you have good hosting).

Is there any other maintenance that you need? It depends on how you use your site. If the site shows general information and acts more like a digital business card, assuming it was built well at the start, you probably won’t need much more maintenance beyond the above.

However, if you use your website as a marketing tool, run traffic ads, or work on SEO, you will certainly need to undertake some design and content updates. For example, if you have a blog, then the general consensus is to post every two weeks, if not more!

Although we offer custom website maintenance as well, the amount of work generally varies dramatically with the technologies, languages, development practices and features of the custom website.

So if you have a custom-developed website and are looking for maintenance packages, please contact us, and we will find a package that suits your requirements the best once we review the site source code!

For WordPress websites (one of our specialities), on the other hand, it is pretty straightforward to estimate the amount of maintenance work, so we have put together the following WordPress website maintenance packages for our clients:

Speak with a specialist

“We’ve been working with Passionate for over a year now on a number of Web and design projects and it’s been a great experience through and through.
Their project management is outstanding, always making sure that everything’s clear and participating actively in decision-making processes and delivering great work, extremely fast. Their level of creativity is outstanding and inspiring too!”

Gregory Thevenet
Founder of Lux Lingua

We created a multi-lingual WordPress website showcasing their full collection of cognacs plus information on tours and recipes.

The Jaguar liquor

Meukow (pronounced “moo-koff”) Cognac ranks among the most well-known cognac brands in the world. Its distinctive bottle design has led to the brand being known as the “jaguar liquor”, or the “panther liquor”.

In 2022, our website design for Meukow Cognac came in as a top luxury website design on Design Rush.

Independant marketplace

Chosen by creatives at Universal Music Group, WIRED, and Pentagram, Type Department is the independent marketplace of type-focused creative media company TYPE01.

Designers and people from all ends of the creative industry around the world can host their typefaces and sell to the public.

Beautifully distinctive

With unique typefaces created by the industry’s global network of creatives and foundries, it was important for us to create a design that supports their work.

We created a clear structure and hierachy, enabling visitors to easily find what they need despite the immense level of content from dozens of sellers.

The development solution

Having previously existed as a Shopify website, Type Department needed us to develop a seamless multi-vendor solution for their ecommerce site. 

WordPress as the CMS with WooCommerce was the clear option, with sellers able to create their own accounts and manage their own products.

WordPress also offered the flexibility to include font samplers across the site, allowing visitors to type anything on the product pages to preview the typeface before purchase.

We’ve been working with Passionate for the last 6 months and their work has been incredible. They are super knowledgeable and have helped us migrate an entire marketplace, and re-designed the site with very minimal issues. Very reliable and dependable with great value. Definitely recommend.

Amber Weaver, Founding Director of Type 01
Skild Aesthetics cover
Skild Aesthetics cover

A new generation of clinicians

Skild was founded to address the challenges many clinicians face after completing their training in aesthetic medicine.

Their founders recognised that the majority of clinicians do not practice in their chosen field due to fear, inadequate support and a lack of confidence needed to deliver exceptional personal experiences.

Skild recognise the limitations of one and two day training courses and has created a perfect blend of theory, practice and long term support for delegates.

Skild Aesthetics cover
Skild Aesthetics cover
Skild Aesthetics cover
02

Website

To emphasise the content of the website, we created a modern minimalist design. This puts the user experience first, allowing ease of navigation and course booking.

Animated geometric figures accentuate the most important details and draw users’ attention to them.

Course booking

We constructed the site using WordPress with WooCommerce, as this gave us the flexibility to achieve our bespoke design.

We created a booking form using WooCommerce’s booking plugin. This allowed us to create a custom product template on the front end while keeping a familiar interface on the backend, allowing clinicians to manage their courses smoothly.

03

Social media

Several templates were designed for social media posts, following the same minimalist and clean style used throughout the website.

“I have been working with Passionate for well over a year now on a wide range of design projects. My experience has been excellent. Gor and the team always ensure the work is of the highest quality and delivered in a timely manner. The quality of their work stands out.”

Qadir Hussain, Founder

Created by students, for students

Transcend offers bespoke, individual support for future lawyers, with the mission of making law accessible to anyone.

Our minimal, vector-based web design kept the page lightweight, clean and modern, with all the emphasis being on the benefits students can get from the Transcend educational platform.

Media Platform And Agency Shaping Gen-Z Football Culture

Rising Ballers needed a concise, yet impactful one-page landing website. Our web design for the brand emphasises their initiatives, credentials and beautifully shot videos with large typography and vibrant colours. 

The separation between layers is rather prominent, making navigation easy. Each section gradually rises from the bottom to lay atop its predecessor. And this parallax approach is exactly what gives the website its unique feel. Rising Ballers was featured in “Top 10 Elementor Sites of August 2021”.

Do you want to keep your brand assets and designs up to date?

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