Our WordPress Update Service Print

What we do

WordPress needs regular updates, its core software, its themes, and its plugins all release fixes constantly, and out-of-date WordPress is the single most common way a website gets hacked. Keeping on top of it is tedious, easy to forget, and nerve-wracking if you have ever had an update break a site.

So we do it for you, weekly, at no extra charge. On WordPress sites where we manage the updates, we keep the WordPress core and all eligible plugins current every week, which closes the security holes that outdated software leaves open before they can be used against you.

The two conditions

This service applies where both of these are true:

• You have given us admin access to the WordPress site. We cannot update what we cannot log in to. If we installed WordPress for you, or you have shared admin access with us, you are covered. If not, the site is not part of the service until access is arranged.
• The plugin licence is owned. We can only update plugins that are properly licensed to your site, because a licensed plugin is the only kind that can legitimately receive updates.

The plugin catch worth understanding

This is the part that surprises people, so it is worth explaining plainly. Many premium themes come bundled with premium plugins thrown in for free, page builders like WP Bakery are the classic example. The theme author has paid for the right to include the plugin, but that plugin is not licensed to you. It works, but it cannot receive its own updates, because the licence that would entitle it to them sits with the theme, not with your site.

So a bundled plugin like that will keep running, but it will not be updated by us or by anyone, and over time it becomes exactly the kind of outdated component that puts a site at risk. If a bundled plugin is important to your site, the safe move is to buy your own licence for it, which then brings it into the update service and entitles it to support from its own developer. We are happy to advise on which of your plugins fall into this category, just ask.

What updating does not replace

Keeping software current protects against known vulnerabilities, which is most of the battle, but it is not the whole of it. It does not replace having your own backups, and the two work together: updates prevent most problems, and a backup rescues you from the rare update that misbehaves or the compromise that slips through anyway. Our article on backups covers your options, and taking one before any significant change remains the cheapest insurance there is.

Good to know

If you would like your site added to the update service and we do not currently have access, open a support ticket and we will arrange it. And if you maintain your own updates rather than using our service, do them weekly and take a backup first, the same rhythm we follow, because the goal is not who does it but that it genuinely gets done.