How to sell WordPress care plans: when to offer one, what to say and how to answer objections

A care plan sells when three things are true. It is offered at the right moment, it is described as outcomes the client already wants, and it is written so the client can see what is and is not included.

The hardest moment to sell one is after launch, as an afterthought. The project is paid for, the site works, and the plan reads as a fee nobody mentioned.

When to offer a care plan

There are four moments. Each needs different words.

In the build proposal, as a line of its own

This is the best moment. The client is deciding what the site will cost, and upkeep is part of what a WordPress site costs to own. The honest place to say so is beside the build price.

Give the plan its own line and its own monthly figure. A separate line can be declined without declining the project, and nobody discovers it later.

Words to adapt:

After launch, the site needs updates, backups and someone watching it. This line is what that costs with us each month. If you would rather do it yourselves, the last page lists what the job involves.

At launch, with the handover

Launch is the day responsibility for the site passes from the project to someone. A handover says who holds the logins, the hosting, the domain and the licenses. The WordPress launch checklist covers those. Add one more line: who looks after the site from tomorrow.

That line needs a name, yours or the client's. WordPress describes an Administrator as somebody with access to all the administration features of a site, so whoever is named needs an account with that role. The outcome to avoid is a blank.

Words to adapt:

The site is live, and updates for it will start to arrive. Either we apply them and check the site afterward, under the plan in the proposal, or someone on your side does. Whose name goes on the handover sheet?

After an incident

Offer it after the site is fixed, never while it is down. An offer made during an outage reads as a condition of the repair.

Once the site is back, write a short account: what happened, what would have caught it sooner, and whether a plan would have prevented it. If a plan would not have, say so. A client who is told that has reason to believe the rest.

To clients you already have

Send one clear message per client, with facts about their own site. A hint at the foot of an invoice asks for no answer and gets none. An example message is further down this page.

What you are selling, in the client's words

"Updates and backups" are tasks. A client pays for what the tasks prevent, or for what they bring back.

For each part of a plan, the table gives what the documentation says goes wrong without it, and a sentence to put in front of the client. The words in square brackets are stand-ins for your own schedule.

Two parts of a plan need no documentation, because the client already feels them:

• Edit time. "The small changes you email about come out of time you have already paid for. No quote and no invoice each time."
• The report. "Once a month you see what was done and whether anything needs a decision from you."

Each sentence says what is done and what it is for. None says the site cannot fail. WordPress's own guide calls security "risk reduction, not risk elimination", and a plan is sold on the same terms.

What WordPress maintenance includes describes each job in full, from the client's side.

How to structure the offer

Offer two or three plans, recommend one, and say what none of them covers.

What separates one plan from the next

Plans should differ in things a client can see and count.

• Edit time. Minutes a month for small changes, from none upward.
• Updates tested on a staging copy first. WooCommerce's documentation describes a staging site as a copy of the live site where updates are tested before customers are affected, and says: "Do not test updates directly on your production site." This is real extra work, so it belongs in a higher plan.
• Store checks. After updating, WooCommerce says to open the storefront, add a product to the cart, place a test order and check the shipping, tax, payment and email behavior the store depends on. A site with a checkout needs a plan that includes this.
• Response. The hours in which someone reads requests, and how soon a reply comes.

Here is one shape. The figures in square brackets are stand-ins.

Sell only a plan you can already deliver. A plan that promises staging-tested updates needs a staging copy of every site on it.

Recommend one

Say which plan fits this client, and why, in one sentence: "Your site takes bookings, so we recommend the middle plan. The first has no time for the changes you ask for most months."

The client hired you so as not to make technical judgments alone, and a recommendation is part of that. It is believable only if it is sometimes the smallest plan.

Why one price sells worse than two or three

This is reasoning, not a measured result.

• One plan asks "yes or no". Several ask "which one". With a single plan, refusing is half of the choices. With three, it is one answer in four.
• One plan cannot fit both a brochure site and a store. Scoped for the store, it charges the brochure site for checks it does not need. Scoped for the brochure site, it leaves the store's checkout untested.
• A client who finds a single price too high can only say no. With a smaller plan on the page, they can say "less".

More than three works against you: each added plan is another comparison for the client and another routine for you to run. If your clients' sites are all alike, one plan may serve.

Name what is excluded

Put the exclusions on the same page as the inclusions: hosting, the domain and email; new pages, new features and redesigns; work beyond the allowance; and malware cleanup, if you quote it separately. A client learns a plan's limits either from the proposal or from an invoice. From the proposal is better.

Price

Price follows what the work costs you and what it is worth to the client. The care plan margin calculator works out what a plan leaves you per site, from your own price and your own costs.

The objections, and an honest answer to each

Each of these is a fair question. Answer it as one.

"My host does this"

Sometimes it does, so check before you argue.

WordPress's hardening guide draws the usual line: "Web hosts are often responsible for the infrastructure on which your website sits, they are not responsible for the application you choose to install." On most sites, WordPress applies its own minor and security releases in the background. Plugins and themes update by themselves only where an administrator has opted in, one plugin or theme at a time.

Hosting plans differ, though, and some cover part of the work inside WordPress. Ask the client for the name of their plan and read what it covers together. What your web host covers and what a care plan covers shows how, with the questions to send the host.

Then be led by the answer. If the host updates plugins and keeps backups the client can restore, offer only what is left: the look at the site after updates, the changes, the report. If that is too little to be worth a plan, say so.

"I'll call you if something breaks"

That is a fair choice for a small site with a backup. Say so, then say what it costs on the day.

• Nobody is watching. The first person to notice is a visitor.
• The repair starts on a neglected site. The updates that were waiting are still waiting. For an upgrade across more than two major releases, WordPress says to consider going in steps, "to avoid potential conflicts and minimize the risks of database damage."
• The repair depends on a backup existing. WordPress's guide for a hacked site can only say: "You hopefully have a backup of your website".
• You may not be free that day. A call is answered when you are available. A plan is a commitment about when someone looks.

What a break costs when nobody is watching sets out the three stretches of time a fault costs. Is WordPress maintenance worth it says which sites this choice suits. Send it to the client. It tells some of them they do not need you every month, and that is better heard from you before they sign than worked out afterward.

"Why is it monthly?"

Because the work is.

WordPress's release archive lists every release with its date. WordPress 7.1 came out on August 19, 2026, and three more releases of that branch had followed by October 6. The archive says that only the most recent release of the current series "is safe to use and actively maintained." Plugins and themes publish on their own schedules. For stores, WooCommerce's documentation says "a monthly cadence works well for most stores", with sooner updates when a release fixes a security problem.

A level fee also changes what you are paid for. Billed by the hour, you earn more in the months when more goes wrong. Under a plan, a quiet month suits you and the client alike.

"Can I cancel?"

The answer should be yes, and the proposal should say how: how much notice either side gives, and what is handed over at the end. That means the newest backup, the logins you hold, and anything registered in your name on the client's behalf.

A plan that is easy to leave is easier to agree to. A client held by a term they regret is not a client who chose to stay.

How an agreement can be ended depends on what was agreed and on the law where you and your client are. This page is not legal advice.

"What if I want to do it myself?"

Hand them the list. Some clients should do it themselves: a small site, few plugins, and a person who will do the round every week.

Send the WordPress maintenance checklist and show them two screens. Dashboard, then Updates lists what is waiting for WordPress, the plugins and the themes. Tools, then Site Health groups what it finds into critical issues, recommended improvements and passed tests. Check that they hold a working administrator account, and tell them how a single request is quoted if they get stuck.

A client who tries it and finds it more than they expected comes back knowing what the plan is for. A client who manages well did not need one.

What the proposal and the monthly report must contain

The proposal is where the plan becomes a promise. It must say:

• what is done and how often;
• what is not included, and how extra work is quoted;
• the price and the billing day;
• where to send a request, the hours in which someone reads it, and how soon a reply comes;
• how either side ends it and what is handed over;
• what you need from the client to start.

The care plan proposal template has all six, with stand-ins for your own terms.

The report is what keeps the plan sold. From the client's side, a quiet month looks the same as a month in which nothing was done. The report is the difference. It must show what was updated, the backups and the last test restore, uptime, what the security checks found, the changes the client asked for with the time each took, and any decision you need from them. Every figure comes from a record you can point to.

The monthly maintenance report template is the report to send, with notes on where each figure comes from.

Selling it to clients you already have

Before you write, look at the client's site. Count the updates waiting on the Updates screen, and find the date of the newest backup. Then the message states what you saw on their site. A general warning about what can happen to websites is easy to ignore, and it is not something you can back.

If you no longer have access, say that instead.

This is an example to adapt. Replace everything in square brackets, and delete any line that is not true of this client.

Subject: Looking after [SITE ADDRESS] from here on

Hi [CLIENT NAME],

Since [SITE ADDRESS] launched in [MONTH AND YEAR], I have handled
requests as they came in, such as [ONE OR TWO REAL EXAMPLES]. I
would like to put that on a clearer footing for both of us.

When I looked at the site on [DATE], this is what I found:
- [NUMBER] updates waiting, for [WORDPRESS, PLUGINS, THE THEME]
- Newest backup: [DATE AND WHERE IT IS KEPT, OR "NONE I CAN FIND"]
- [ANYTHING ELSE YOU SAW, OR DELETE THIS LINE]

From [START DATE] I am offering a monthly care plan. Each month I
would [WHAT YOU DO, WRITTEN AS OUTCOMES] and send you a short
report. It includes [ALLOWANCE MINUTES] minutes of small changes.

It does not include [WHAT IS NOT INCLUDED].

It costs [MONTHLY PRICE] a month, and either of us can end it with
[NOTICE PERIOD] notice. The full proposal is attached.

If you would rather look after the site yourself, that is a fair
choice, and I will send you a checklist of what to do and when.
Requests outside a plan would then be quoted one at a time.

Could you tell me by [DATE] which you would prefer?

[YOUR NAME]

The message asks one question and gives a date. If there is no reply, follow up once, then leave it and keep a note of what was offered and when.

Doing the work once it is sold

A plan is a promise to do the same work every week, including the weeks you are busy, ill or away. Decide who does it before you sell the first one.

With a partner, read what they do and do not do before you write your own proposal. Your plan cannot promise more than the partner's work and your own add up to.

WP Ministry's white label is its Essential care plan, delivered under your agency's brand, for agencies with three or more client sites. It covers the updates, backups, monitoring and security scanning, and the reports and the support address carry your name. The plan has no edit time, so the changes your clients ask for stay with you or come out of a block of agency hours.

What not to do

• Scare tactics. Fear sells a plan once. In each quiet month afterward, the fee looks like the price of a threat that never came. Say what the documentation says and what you saw on their own site.
• An allowance with no number. "Anything you need" becomes whatever the most demanding client says it is. Give minutes.
• A promise that the site will never be hacked or never go down. Nobody controls that. Promise the work, and say what you do when something goes wrong.
• Cover at all hours, unless a person is reading requests at all hours. Write the hours someone is there.
• Holding the keys. Do not make a plan stick by keeping the only administrator account, or the domain in your name. The client should be able to leave with everything they own.