Updates, backups, security, emergencies — WordPress needs ongoing care. Three routes get you there. Here's the honest comparison of which fits your site.
Maintaining WordPress yourself saves money but takes time and expertise — and leaves you on your own in an emergency. A freelancer is flexible and cheap, but remains a single point of contact (holidays, illness, availability). A maintenance agency costs a predictable bit more but offers defined response times, a team as backup and proactive monitoring. Rule of thumb: maintain non-critical sites yourself if you have the time and know-how, use a freelancer for occasional tasks, and an agency for business-critical sites.
Update core, plugins and themes regularly — and check after each update that nothing breaks. A faulty update can take the site down.
Automatic backups are only half the job. Only a tested restore proves they work when it matters.
Login protection, hardening and ongoing monitoring for malware and outages — before Google or your host blocks the site.
When the site is hacked or goes down, every hour counts. Without a fixed response time you're relying on luck.
DIY makes sense if your site is non-critical, you have the time and you know your way around updates, backups and security. Perfectly fine for a hobby project.
A freelancer is flexible and cheap — but a single point of contact. On holiday, ill or booked out, your emergency waits. For business-critical sites, that's a risk.
A maintenance agency like Forge12 costs a predictable bit more but takes it all off your plate: controlled updates, tested backups, security monitoring and a fixed emergency response time — with a team behind it instead of one person.
Yes — if you have the time and expertise. That means regular updates with checks afterwards, automatic and tested backups, login protection and hardening, plus monitoring for malware and outages. Doable for non-critical sites; for business-critical sites the effort and risk grow quickly.
A freelancer is flexible and often cheaper, but remains a single point of contact — on holiday, ill or busy, your emergency waits. An agency provides a team as backup, defined response times and proactive monitoring. For sites that must run reliably, the agency is the safer route.
At Forge12, maintenance plans start from €59 per month and include updates, backups, monitoring and security. Higher tiers offer more scope and shorter response times. The price is a predictable fixed fee — not an open hourly account.
Updates should be applied regularly and promptly (security updates ideally at once), backups should run automatically and be tested, and monitoring runs continuously. Maintenance isn't a one-off — it's an ongoing process.
If you maintain it yourself, you're on your own; a freelancer helps if reachable and free. An agency with a fixed response time starts cleanup or recovery within an agreed window — which is exactly what counts in an emergency.
Controlled updates, automatic and tested backups, security monitoring and hardening, plus a defined emergency response time — the details per plan are on the maintenance page.