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Website Care Plans: What to Offer Your Clients

By Jeremy Kenerson, Founder and CEO at DeskTeam360

Last updated . The WordPress guidance and the prices were checked October 1, 2026. DeskTeam360's details were checked September 25, 2026.

Offer a monthly plan that names each upkeep task, how often it runs, and what you tell the client each month. Start with what WordPress.org itself calls for: always update WordPress to the latest version, and back up the site first. Then add the checks your clients will notice.

What's a website care plan?

Write your care plan as an offer: the upkeep tasks you'll run after launch, how often, and what you'll report each month. One agency in DeskTeam360's case studies sells website upkeep to its clients, with reports and updates, as a new monthly income line.

What tasks belong in a website care plan?

Start with the tasks the platform itself calls for, then add the checks your clients will notice. Here's a plain list for a WordPress site.

Task Why it's in the plan What your monthly note tells the client
WordPress updates Since WordPress 3.7, most sites apply minor and security updates on their own. Decide who runs the other updates, and when Which updates ran
Plugin updates WordPress.org says to keep plugins up to date for security and speed Which plugins were updated or removed
Backups WordPress.org says to back up the database regularly, and always before an upgrade When the last backup ran, and that it restores
Speed checks Google says a good page shows its main content within 2.5 seconds This month's page speed next to last month's
Caching WordPress.org says caching gives the biggest speed gain for the least effort That caching is on

For the full WordPress task list and how often each one runs, see WordPress maintenance.

To hand off the care plan tasks on your list, you can get DeskTeam360's Task Delegation Template.

Get the Task Delegation Template

What should you check before a site joins your care plan?

Check the site before you take it on, and write down what you find. Run this intake list on every new site.

  1. Which WordPress version is it on? Older versions of WordPress don't get security updates. If it's behind, plan the update as a one-time job.
  2. Which plugins are installed, and are they current? Remove the ones nobody uses.
  3. Is there a working backup? Make one before you touch anything, and test that it restores.
  4. How fast is the home page? Write down the starting speed, so you can show progress later.
  5. Whose name are the hosting, domain and logins in? They should be in the client's name. Get your own login, not a shared one.
  6. What does the client expect each month? Write it down in plain words before the first bill.

What do published care plan prices look like?

WordPress maintenance plans are listed at $39 to $99 per site a month on GoWP's pricing page, and $89 to $359 a month on WP Buffs' pricing page, as of October 2026.

For how to set tiers and what to charge, see website maintenance packages.

For what it costs a site owner to keep a site running, see what it costs to maintain a website.

Who does the work behind your care plan?

You can do it yourself, hire for it, or hand it to a white label partner.

Take DeskTeam360 as one example. It works for agencies under the agency's brand, so the agency's clients never see DeskTeam360. A North American account manager assigns each task, manages it and checks the work before the client sees it. Ask any partner the same two things: who checks the work, and whose name is on it?

For whether to white label WordPress upkeep, see WordPress maintenance plans.

More on WordPress and website maintenance

To list the care plan tasks you'd hand off first, you can get DeskTeam360's Task Delegation Template. For how a handoff works from start to finish, see how to outsource, step by step.

Get the Task Delegation Template

Sources

All checked October 1, 2026. DeskTeam360's pages and the case study were checked September 25, 2026.

What changed

  • October 17, 2026: First version of this page.