Build and sell WordPress care plans
clients actually renew.
Package three service levels, price from delivery cost and target margin, and use monthly reporting as proof of ongoing value — instead of guessing at a number and hoping it covers the work.
Last reviewed 17 August 2026 by the Stack2 team — we run our own agency hosting operation the same way.
"We update your plugins" is not a reason to pay monthly.
Clients don't wake up worried about plugin versions. They worry about the site going down before a launch, a hack costing them customers, or not knowing who to call when something breaks. A care plan sells reassurance and outcomes — the update itself is just the mechanism.
Define the promise and the boundary in one sentence.
Before pricing anything, write one sentence for each tier: what this plan protects the client from, and where it stops. If you can't state the boundary, clients will assume the plan covers everything — and every scope conversation becomes an argument.
Package three service levels without delivery chaos
A simple, illustrative structure — not mandatory pricing advice, adapt it to your own delivery cost and market:
Essentials
Includes: Scheduled updates, backups, uptime monitoring.
Excludes: Content changes, priority response, reporting beyond a basic summary.
Standard
Includes: Everything in Essentials, plus a monthly white-label report and a set allowance of minor content changes.
Excludes: Major feature work, custom development.
Priority
Includes: Everything in Standard, plus faster response times and a quarterly strategy check-in.
Excludes: Still not a blank cheque for unscoped work — priority is about speed, not scope.
Illustrative structure only — set inclusions, exclusions and pricing to match your own delivery cost, team capacity and market. This is not mandatory pricing advice.
Calculate price from delivery cost, risk and target margin
Start from cost, not a competitor's public price. Add labour minutes per site (updates, checks, reporting) at your loaded hourly rate, your per-site share of software costs, and an incident allowance for the occasional site that needs real troubleshooting. That's your break-even price. Add your target margin on top — the pricing calculator does this arithmetic for your own numbers in seconds, including a recommended price range for whatever margin you're targeting.
Use monthly reporting as proof of ongoing value
A report that shows updates applied, uptime over the month and any incidents resolved is the single highest-leverage retention tool a care plan has. It converts invisible background work into something the client can see and forward to their own boss. Send it on the same day every month — consistency reads as competence.
Handle exclusions, incidents, legacy sites and unsupported plugins
Document exceptions per client rather than rewriting your standard terms for every edge case: a legacy plugin that can't be updated safely, a site that needs a custom release window, a client who insists on approving every update first. Keep the standard plan standard; keep the exceptions visible and reviewed quarterly.
Onboard existing clients and migrate them to recurring care
Frame the move around what changes for the client, not a bill increase in isolation: proactive maintenance instead of reactive fixes, a monthly report instead of silence, and a faster response when something breaks. Give existing clients advance notice and, where it makes commercial sense, a short introductory period rather than switching straight to full price.
Review margin and renewals quarterly
Pair every quarterly access review (from the maintenance SOP) with a margin review using the same numbers from your monthly profitability check. Sites that have quietly grown in complexity — more content, more traffic, more integrations — often need to move up a tier, and this is the natural moment to have that conversation.
White-label reports create the visible deliverable. AutoCare does the fulfilment.
Stack2's white-label reports are the "proof of value" this guide talks about — generated and emailed to the client automatically after AutoCare applies each update run. No screenshotting, no monthly document-building.
14 days free. No credit card required.
Keep going.
WordPress Care Plan Pricing & Profit Calculator
Enter your site count, labour minutes and software costs to see your real margin, break-even price and a recommended pricing range — instantly.
The WordPress Agency Maintenance SOP: Daily, Weekly, Monthly and Quarterly
A complete maintenance rhythm your whole team can follow — daily checks through quarterly reviews — plus an editable SOP pack with escalation fields.