WordPress Maintenance Plans Perth

Patched Before It Breaks

What’s included in the WordPress Care Plan

WordPress does not break because someone did something wrong. It breaks because it moves. Core releases, plugin updates, PHP versions, expiring integrations and newly disclosed vulnerabilities all arrive on their own schedule. The Care Plan keeps sites on our WordPress hosting updated, monitored and accounted for, by the team that can actually fix them.

Core, theme and plugin updates

Scheduled update runs every week or fortnight, applied in a controlled order rather than left to auto-update. Critical security releases are actioned as soon as we are aware of them, not held until the next run.

A restore point before every run

A backup is taken before updates are applied, so a bad plugin release can be rolled straight back rather than debugged live on your site while customers are looking at it.

Post-update verification

Homepage, key templates and contact forms are checked after every run. You get confirmation that the site still works, not just confirmation that updates were applied.

Vulnerability and advisory monitoring

We track security advisories affecting the plugins and themes actually installed on your site, and act on the ones that matter to you rather than forwarding you a newsletter.

Uptime, error and resource monitoring

Automated availability and error monitoring with alerting to our team, including HTTP 500 and 503 responses, plus platform-level visibility of PHP workers, database load, scheduled task activity and traffic spikes.

Malware scanning and daily backups

Ongoing malware and exploit scanning, plus daily backups on our managed hosting platform, so there is always a recent clean copy of the site to restore from.

Care

$170/mthScheduled maintenance for brochure, business and content sites running a standard plugin set.
  • Every plan includes
    • Monthly developer credit1 hour
    • Scheduled update runsWeekly or fortnightly
    • Restore point before every runIncluded
    • Critical security releases actioned on disclosureIncluded
    • Vulnerability and advisory monitoringIncluded
    • Uptime, error and resource monitoringIncluded
    • Malware scanning and daily backupsIncluded

Store Care

$240+/mthFor ecommerce and membership sites, where checkout, payment and account flows have to be verified.
  • Every plan includes
    • Monthly developer credit2 hours
    • Scheduled update runsWeekly or fortnightly
    • Restore point before every runIncluded
    • Critical security releases actioned on disclosureIncluded
    • Vulnerability and advisory monitoringIncluded
    • Uptime, error and resource monitoringIncluded
    • Malware scanning and daily backupsIncluded

Custom Care

$510+/mthFor large, high-traffic or heavily customised builds with bespoke templates and multiple integrations.
  • Every plan includes
    • Monthly developer creditScaled to the site
    • Scheduled update runsWeekly or fortnightly
    • Restore point before every runIncluded
    • Critical security releases actioned on disclosureIncluded
    • Vulnerability and advisory monitoringIncluded
    • Uptime, error and resource monitoringIncluded
    • Malware scanning and daily backupsIncluded

Why a site that was fine six months ago starts failing

A site that was solid six months ago can start throwing errors, slowing down or quietly exposing a known exploit without anyone touching it. WordPress moves underneath you. A plugin ships a release that conflicts with your theme. A PHP version reaches end of life. An integration token expires. A vulnerability is disclosed in something that was installed years ago and forgotten. None of that arrives in your calendar. It arrives as a 500 error, a slow page, or a note from your hosting provider about resource limits.

See our WordPress hosting plans
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What the monthly hour actually pays for

The hour is not extra work sitting on top of the maintenance. It is what pays for it. Your credit is issued at the start of each billing month, and every scheduled run is itemised against it at around 15 minutes, so a month of weekly runs uses most of the hour.

If a month is quiet and credit is left over, it rolls forward for 90 days. You can bank a little and spend it on a text change, a new page block or a form tweak. Anything beyond your available credit is scoped and quoted before it starts, and each month you get an itemised statement showing what was done, what it cost in credit and what remains.

Three Hatchet team members reviewing work together in the Perth studio

What sits outside the plan

The plan covers the scheduled maintenance and the credit that pays for it. Everything beyond that is scoped and quoted before it starts, so nothing lands on an invoice you did not agree to first.

Beyond your credit

Extra work is quoted first, then billed in 15-minute blocks from $170/hr + GST. Unused credit rolls forward for 90 days and can be spent on small changes. Expired credit is not refundable.

What changes the price

Stores, membership sites and large or heavily customised builds carry more plugins, more integrations and longer verification after each run, so they are quoted above the entry rate.

Not covered

New features, redesigns, bulk content entry, third-party plugin and theme licence fees, and major recovery work such as rebuilding a site after a compromise. Those are quoted separately.

Care Plans are for sites on our hosting

Monitoring, backups, resource visibility and rollback all depend on platform-level access, so the Care Plan is only available on sites hosted on one of our WordPress hosting plans. If your site is hosted elsewhere, we can quote the migration as part of onboarding.

See our WordPress hosting plans

How a WordPress site is actually kept up to date

  • Assess what is queued

    Before anything is applied we take a restore point of the files and database, then read what is actually waiting: core, plugin and theme releases, their changelogs, and whether your PHP version still supports them. Anything flagged as a breaking change is tested on a staging copy first.

  • Update in a controlled order

    Core security and minor releases go first, then plugins, then themes. Major core releases are held until your plugins and theme confirm compatibility rather than applied the day they drop. Database schema upgrades triggered by a plugin are run and checked on their own.

  • Verify and clear down

    Homepage, key templates and forms are loaded and checked, plus checkout and account flows on a store. We clear object and page caches, re-read the error log for fatals and deprecation notices the update introduced, and confirm scheduled tasks (WP-Cron) are still firing.

  • Flag and account for it

    Anything we cannot safely update gets flagged rather than forced: an abandoned plugin with no release in years, a lapsed premium licence, a theme customisation blocking a major core release. The run is itemised against your credit and appears on your monthly statement.

Trusted by teams in Perth and beyond

We’re a collective of sharp-minded creators, explorers and innovators, bound together by a shared curiosity and a desire to build better

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  • a man wearing headphones is sitting in front of a computer in front of a large mural on the wall .
  • a man wearing headphones is standing at a desk in front of two computer monitors .
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Who you are working with

  • We looked long and hard to find a web dev agency that we could trust and we couldn’t be happier that we found Dan and the local team of experts at Hatchet. Not only did they successfully rebuild and relaunch the website on a state-of-the-art framework, but they also guided us through the 6-month process with frank and accurate advice on all aspects of the complex project. We are excited at the prospect of partnering with them for many years to come.
    Luke Whelan
    Luke WhelanPerth is OK!
  • It’s rare that we find a tech partner who gets it. They’re knowledgeable in their disciplines, on time, and have been an anchoring presence on key projects. We’ve come to see them as an extension of the DrawHistory family, and that’s probably the nicest thing we can say about anyone!
    Jeffrey Effendi
    Jeffrey EffendiDrawhistory
  • I have worked with the team at Hatchet for a long time (8 years). They always provide 1st class solutions and service. I am always amazed (but never surprised) by their deep knowledge, willingness to find a way and speed. I will certainly work with them for many years to come.
    David O'Donnell
    David O'DonnellTotal Aviation
  • We've worked with Hatchet for the past 1-2 years to design and manage our corporate volunteering software. From the start, Daniel, Matt, and their team were collaborative and attentive to our needs. Since the launch in early 2024, they've been great at implementing changes and offering ongoing support. We're proud of the software and excited about our partnership with Hatchet.
    Catherine Kelly
    Catherine KellyVolunteering WA

Straight answers about WordPress maintenance

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Get your site reviewed

Tell us the site, where it is hosted and what has been going wrong. We will come back with whether a Care Plan is the right fit, or whether you need a diagnostic investigation first.