Key takeaways
- A care plan exists for one reason: WordPress, its theme and its plugins get updates every week, and an unmaintained site gets hacked or breaks, usually at the worst moment.
- Swiss plans cost CHF 45 to 89 a month for updates and backups, CHF 125 to 149 with an hour of changes included, and CHF 250 to 350 and more for shops.
- Check three things: whether updates are tested before they go live, whether change time is included, and what the response time is in writing.
Why a WordPress site needs looking after
WordPress runs a large share of the web, which makes it the most attacked platform on the web. Most attacks are automated and look for one thing: a plugin with a known hole that nobody updated. The fix is boring and relentless: update, back up, check. Every week.
A site that is not maintained does not fail loudly. It gets slower, a form stops sending, a plugin conflicts with a newer PHP version, and one day the site shows a pharmacy ad instead of your homepage. The repair then costs more than two years of a care plan.
What has to be in it
Updates. WordPress core, the theme and every plugin, at least monthly, weekly for shops. The important question is not whether updates happen, but whether they are tested first. The good practice is a staging copy of the site: update there, check the pages and forms, then update live. Plans that update live and hope are cheaper for a reason.
Backups. Daily, stored somewhere other than the web server, kept for at least 30 days. A backup on the same server as the site is not a backup.
Uptime monitoring. A check every few minutes that the site answers, with an alert to a human. You should hear that the site is down from your provider, not from a customer.
Security. A firewall in front of the site, a malware scan, login protection. Not a plugin dashboard that nobody looks at.
A report. Once a month, in plain words: what was updated, what was found, what was fixed.
What is nice to have
- Change time. Thirty to ninety minutes a month for text, image and layout changes. This is what makes a plan useful rather than just safe. Check whether unused minutes carry over.
- Speed checks every quarter, because sites slow down as content grows.
- Form and link checks, because a form that quietly stopped sending is the most common and most expensive silent failure.
- For shops: a test order after every update, and checkout monitoring.
What should not be in it
Hosting. Some plans bundle hosting, which ties your site to the provider. When you leave, you move. I set up hosting in the client's name and keep care separate, so the site stays yours whatever happens between us.
Vague promises. "Priority support" and "proactive optimisation" mean nothing without a number. A response time in working days is a promise. An adjective is not.
Long lock-ins. A minimum term of three months is reasonable; twelve months paid in advance is a bet on a provider you have not worked with yet.
What it costs in Switzerland
| Tier | What you get | Swiss market 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Basic | updates, backups, uptime, security, report | CHF 45 to 89 / month |
| With changes | the above, updates on staging, about an hour of changes | CHF 125 to 149 / month |
| Shop | weekly updates, test orders, checkout monitoring, more change time | CHF 250 to 350+ / month |
Anything below CHF 45 is too thin to be done properly; the hours do not add up. Anything above CHF 350 for a plain website should come with a lot of included change time.
For reference, my own plans sit at CHF 69, 129 and 249, with the scope above written out on the pricing page.
Three things to check before you sign
- Are updates tested on a staging copy before they touch the live site? If the answer is a pause, the answer is no.
- Is change time included, and what does an extra hour cost? Both numbers, in writing.
- What is the response time, and what counts as an emergency? A site that is down should be a same-day matter. A typo can wait a day.
FAQ
Can I maintain the site myself?
Yes, if you are willing to log in weekly, read what each update changes, keep backups off-site and know what to do when an update breaks the site. Most business owners can, and most would rather not.
What happens if an update breaks the site?
With a staging copy, nothing: the break is caught before going live. Without one, the site is restored from the last backup and the faulty update is held back. That is why daily backups matter.
Do I need a care plan for a small five-page site?
A small site needs fewer hours, not zero. The basic tier exists for exactly this: updates, backups and monitoring, nothing else.
Does the care plan include hosting?
Mine does not, on purpose. Hosting is in your name with a Swiss or EU provider, so you own the site and its data regardless of who maintains it.
Twenty minutes on the phone, a written quote within two working days.
Sources: Care plan prices and scope from 16 Swiss WordPress providers and two maintenance guides, researched November 2026. Prices excl. MWST.