Craft CMS Maintenance Services

• Why is regular maintenance important for my Craft CMS website?
• Does your Craft CMS Maintenance include design or development of additional features?
• What kind of support do you provide for Craft CMS maintenance?
• Does the updates include major Craft CMS version upgrades?
• What if I need additional Craft CMS development work beyond regular maintenance?
• How will I be informed about updates and maintenance activities?
• How often will the maintenance be run?
• How do you deal with outdated or unsupported hosting environments?
• Do you provide hosting?
• How do you manage multiple environments (development, staging, production)?
• How do you handle plugin updates?
• What about custom Craft CMS plugin updates?
• What if a major Craft CMS or plugin update breaks my website?
• How do you handle deprecated Craft CMS plugins?
• Will server updates cause downtime for my website?
• How do you ensure my website’s security?
• Do you provide backups as part of the maintenance plan?
• What if my goes down?
• What happens if my website is hacked despite the maintenance plan?
• How much does the Craft CMS maintenance plan cost?
• Does this include Craft CMS license costs?
• Does this include hosting costs?
• What other costs can I expect to incur?
• What do we need to do to get started?
• What kind of input or resources will you need from our team?
• How long does the onboarding process take?
• How long is the maintenance contract?
• Can I cancel my maintenance plan at any time?
• What happens if I decide to terminate the maintenance plan?
• Can the maintenance plan be customised to suit my specific needs?
• Can you maintain Craft Commerce or Craft Multi-site projects??
• Will the maintenance improve my website’s loading speed?
• What CMS platforms do you support?
• Do you provide Craft CMS training for my team?

Why is regular maintenance important for my Craft CMS website?

Even for a Craft CMS website regular maintenance is crucial to prevent security vulnerabilities, ensure compatibility with the latest web technologies, improve performance, and provide a better user experience.

Without a maintenance plan, your Craft CMS website is vulnerable to security breaches, performance issues, and outdated software, which can lead to downtime, loss of revenue, and damage to your brand.

Does your Craft CMS Maintenance include design or development of additional features?

No – it only includes:

• Craft CMS Updates
• Craft Plugin Updates
• Server Updates
• Disk Space Checks
• Form Testing
• Uptime Monitoring

If you need regular ongoing work then please get in touch about our Craft CMS Support & Development Retainers.

What kind of support do you provide for Craft CMS maintenance?

Our Craft CMS maintenance comes with basic email support, so we’ll always be available to answers questions and guide you with any Craft CMS issues you have with your site.

Please note this service is not a Support Retainer. For priority support and development requests, please see our Craft CMS Support & Development Retainer service.

Does the updates include major Craft CMS version upgrades?

No. As part the monthly maintenance, we will only update Craft CMS and plugins.

Updating refers to installing minor releases within the same major version of Craft CMS. These releases typically include:

• Bug fixes: Corrections for issues and bugs found in the current version.
• Security patches: Updates that address security vulnerabilities to keep the site secure.
• Performance improvements: Enhancements that make the CMS run more efficiently.
• Minor feature additions: Small new features or improvements that do not drastically change how the CMS operates.

Due to the unique complexities of each Craft CMS website, each major version update will need to estimated for individually.

For major Craft CMS version updates, please see our Craft CMS Update service.

What if I need additional Craft CMS development work beyond regular maintenance?

Just let us know. Any additional development work can be requested and will be estimated and invoice for separately from the maintenance plan.

See our Craft CMS development services for more info.

How will I be informed about updates and maintenance activities?

You'll receive a report via email each month, outlining updates performed, checks, performance metrics, and any issues resolved during the period.

How often will the maintenance be run?

Craft CMS updates, Craft CMS plugin updates and Server Updates will be run once per month.

However, we will priorities any critical security patches.

How do you deal with outdated or unsupported hosting environments?

We recommend and assist with migrating to supported hosting environments – such as DigitalOcean or Servd – ensuring your website remains secure and performs optimally.

Do you provide hosting?

No. However, we’re happy to recommend and set up and maintain server environments on:

• DigitalOcean
• Servd

If your Craft CMS website exists on another hosting in platform, please get in touch to see how we can work with you.

How do you manage multiple environments (development, staging, production)?

We use best practices to manage multiple environments, ensuring updates are thoroughly tested in development and staging environments before deployment to production.

How do you handle plugin updates?

We regularly monitor and test plugin updates in a staging environment before applying them to your live website to ensure there are no conflicts or issues.

What about custom Craft CMS plugin updates?

We support custom plugins and include them in our update and maintenance processes.

If your Craft CMS website currently relies on a custom plug-in, please get in touch and provide any documentation (development brief, scope of work, user intrusions, etc) so we can assess how we can best support you.

What if a major Craft CMS or plugin update breaks my website?

We test all updates in a staging environment before deploying them to your live site. If an update causes issues, we will revert the update, troubleshoot the problem, and find a solution to ensure your site remains functional.

How do you handle deprecated Craft CMS plugins?

We can and replace deprecated plugins with supported alternatives, ensuring functionality and compatibility are maintained. Each plug-in replacement will need to be estimated for individually and is not included as part of maintenance.

Also see our Custom Craft CMS Plugin Development service.

Will server updates cause downtime for my website?

We strive to minimise downtime during server updates. However, that’s not always possible. We’ll aim to schedule any necessary downtime during off-peak / low traffic hours, and you will be notified in advance.

How do you ensure my website’s security?

As part of our on boarding process, we will do a thorough technical review of your site and highlight any current security issues which need addressing before we bring you into our development ecosystem.

Once on boarded, we use security best practices to ensure the security and confidentiality of your data:

• All passwords are strong and stored in a password manager
• 2 Factor Authentication is enabled on all Honcho accounts where this is an option
• Structural changes to your website database are only enabled on local development
• Websites are only served over HTTPS

We also utilise:

SSH-only connection

The servers we use can only be accessed via SSH, meaning the connection is limited to predetermined machines so even if the password was leaked, the server cannot be accessed.

No root connection

The server cannot be connected to via the root user, so sudo tasks cannot be performed without an SSH connection and additional password authentication.

Firewall

Uncomplicated Firewall (UFW) is installed and enabled, only allowing traffic on port :80 and :443

fail2ban

IP addresses of brute force attackers are automatically blocked from the server with fail2ban.

Updates

Ubuntu and any dependencies are updated once per month, and critical security updates are performed automatically.

Craft CMS

Craft CMS follow many best practices related to security, which you can read about on their Security FAQ.

Particularly relevant is their use of CSRF tokens, encrypted cookies, HTML sanitisation, and granular user permissions. Passwords are also stored encrypted, not in plain text.

Do you provide backups as part of the maintenance plan?

Yes, if your hosting with our preferred suppliers (DigitalOcean or Servd) regular backups are included to ensure data can be restored in case of an emergency. The frequency of the backup can be tailored, depending on your requirements.

For other hosting environments, please get in touch to discuss how we can support you and meet your backup requirements.

What if my goes down?

If the downtime is due to our maintenance we’ll investigate and resolve the issue as a high priority. For any other issues, not attributed to our maintenance updates – we’ll investigate the issue as a priority but won’t be able to guarantee a resolution time.

For priority support for mission / business critical website’s check out our Craft CMS Support & Development Retainers.

What happens if my website is hacked despite the maintenance plan?

In the unlikely event of a security breach, we will promptly work to resolve the issue, restore your site from backups, and implement additional security measures to prevent future incidents.

As a precaution, we would also refresh any API keys and passwords.

How much does the Craft CMS maintenance plan cost?

£250 per month.

Does this include Craft CMS license costs?

No. All Craft CMS and login licenses will need to be paid for separately via Craft Console.

Does this include hosting costs?

No. Your hosting costs are separate and will come directly from the hosting provider. The hosting costs will vary depending on your server requirements.

What other costs can I expect to incur?

Yes, there will be initial costs to move you into our maintenance ecosystem.

Before taking you on as a maintenance client, first we will need to do a Technical Review to make sure we can fully support you.

After the review, we’ll be able to estimate an onboarding cost.

What do we need to do to get started?

The first step is always a call – so we can find out what you need and how we can support you.

If we feel we can help, the next step would be to do a Technical Review. That would mean getting access to the code base, any scope or documentation you have, and (if possible) a conversation with the developer(s) that built the site.

Our code review will delve into:

• Craft CMS Setup
• Plugins / Custom Plugins
• Routing
• Multi-site setup (if applicable)
• 3rd Party Connections / APIs

From there we’ll be able to estimate an onboarding cost.

What kind of input or resources will you need from our team?

This will be defined in full during the onboarding process but usually involves your technical lead, IT support or previous developers (when possible).

Typically to onboard a project successfully, we will need:

• Repository access – which should contain the following:
  • composer.json
  • Source files (scss, js, images)
  • package.json
  • Compiler config (gulpfile.js / webpack.js / mix.config.js / etc
• An Admin user to the Craft site
• Database backup (Could be via Craft Admin)
• SFTP details
• An export of any uploaded assets
• The .env file
• API keys for any external services
• DNS access or email access for someone who manages this
• Google Analytics access (if applicable)
• Any original artwork files (XD, Figma, PSD, etc)

How long does the onboarding process take?

The onboarding process typically takes 1-2 weeks, depending on the complexity of your website.

How long is the maintenance contract?

Rolling 3 months.

Can I cancel my maintenance plan at any time?

Yes, you can cancel your maintenance plan with a notice period of 90 days.

Our plans typically allow for flexibility, but specific terms regarding early termination will be outlined in your service agreement.

What happens if I decide to terminate the maintenance plan?

If you choose to terminate the plan, we provide a transition process that includes handing over all relevant documentation, backups, and access credentials to ensure a smooth handover.

Can the maintenance plan be customised to suit my specific needs?

Maybe. Lets chat : )

Can you maintain Craft Commerce or Craft Multi-site projects??

Yes, we can work with you on your Craft Commerce or multisite / multi-lingual / multi-language project.

Will the maintenance improve my website’s loading speed?

Potentially, yes. But there are many factors to consider with load speed which sit outside of Craft CMS updates, such as:

• Unoptimised code
• Too many HTTP requests
• Image sizes and compression
• Lack of caching
• Not using a content delivery network (CDN)
• Hosting provider
• Server location
• Slow server response time
• Ads and trackers
• Heavy web fonts
• And more..

Any of the above may required dedicated development time to resolve.

What CMS platforms do you support?

Only Craft CMS.

Do you provide Craft CMS training for my team?

Yes, we do. Please get in touch to let us know your requirements.