The designbox website care and hosting team at work

Website maintenance & WordPress support, UK

Your website, in safe hands

Your business works 24/7, so your website has to. We host it, secure it, back it up, update it and fix it, with a real team that's got your back, so you can focus on running the business, not the website.

See plans & pricing What we handle

★★★★★ 5.0 across 52 Google reviews

Focus on your businessThe website runs, stays up and stays safe without you thinking about it. That’s the whole product.

A team that’s got your backReal people in Essex who know your site, answer fast and fix things properly.

One plan, one priceHosting, security, backups, updates and your monthly changes, from £99 a month.

Fixed prices, published

WordPress care plans and maintenance packages

One monthly price for hosting, security, backups, updates, monitoring, compliance and hands-on edits. Excl VAT. Every plan includes monthly support time from the team, and anything beyond it is charged at £80 an hour rather than our standard £100.

Basic

Brochure sites up to 5,000 visits a month

£99 /month£990 /year

or £990 a year, two months free

£82.50 a month, billed yearly

✓Shared Google Cloud hosting
✓1 hour monthly support time
✓Daily backups, 6G firewall
✓Monthly WordPress maintenance
✓Website dashboard and monthly report
✓Free migration to our hosting

Start with Basic →

Advanced

Growing sites up to 25,000 visits a month

£199 /month£1,990 /year

or £1,990 a year, two months free

£165.83 a month, billed yearly

✓Premium hosting tier
✓2 hours monthly support time
✓Staging server & form testing
✓7G firewall, daily backups
✓Urgent response up to 4 hours
✓Free migration to our hosting

Start with Advanced →

Compare the plans side by side

	Basic · £99	Advanced · £199	Pro · £299	Premium · £499
Annual price, two months free	£990	£1,990	£2,990	£4,990
Migration to our hosting	Included	Included	Included	Included
Suitable traffic	Up to 5,000/mo	Up to 25,000/mo	Up to 100,000/mo	Up to 250,000/mo
Hosting tier	Shared	Premium	Dedicated performance	Dedicated performance
Monthly support time	1 hr	2 hrs	3 hrs	6 hrs
Hourly rate beyond that	£80	£80	£80	£80
General response SLA	1–2 business days	1–2 business days	Up to 6 hrs	Up to 4 hrs
Urgent response SLA	Up to 6 hrs	Up to 4 hrs	Up to 4 hrs	Up to 1–2 hrs
Backups	Daily	Daily	Daily	Hourly
Firewall generation	6G	7G	7G	8G
Storage	5GB	10GB	50GB	50GB+
Website dashboard	✓	✓	✓	✓
Monthly report	✓	✓	✓	✓
Premium plugin licences	✓	✓	✓	✓
Maintenance	Monthly	Monthly	Bi-weekly	Bi-weekly
CDN	—	—	✓	✓
Staging & form testing	—	✓	✓	✓
Link testing	—	—	✓	✓
Success manager	Support team	Support team	Dedicated CSM	Dedicated CSM
Strategy calls	—	—	Quarterly	Monthly
Onboarding audits	Basic	Basic	Full	Full

Not sure which plan you need?

Book a free call. We will talk through the site, what it needs and what it does not, and help you pick the plan that fits. No pressure, no pitch.

Book a free consultation →

Site built elsewhere? Move it to us → · Need a new website as well? Explore web design →

WordPress support, in detail

Hosting, maintenance and support, all in one plan

Tap a question and see exactly how we handle it. All of it is in every plan.

We’d usually know before you do. Your site is checked around the clock, and a human is on it the moment anything looks wrong.

Nothing updates blind. Every update starts with a fresh backup and is checked afterwards, and from Advanced up it is rehearsed on a staging copy before it goes live.

Nightly, kept for 30 days, and we actually test restores, so a bad day costs minutes, not the website.

Speed is looked after, not just measured: server-side tuning, image compression and Cloudflare at the edge.

Message us, it gets done, and the minutes come out of your included support time. If it’s about your website, it counts.

Firewall, SSL, GDPR tooling and premium licences, handled and included, by a Cyber Essentials certified team.

The plan already covers it: detected, isolated, cleaned and hardened the same day, with a plain-English report after. No emergency invoice.

Every month you get a short report in plain English: what happened, what we did, and how your support time was used. The same is always up to date on your website dashboard, in plain English too.

24/7 uptime monitoring

Your website is checked around the clock from multiple locations, with a human alerted the moment anything looks wrong.

Uptime monitorAll systems normal

London42ms

Manchester51ms

Frankfurt63ms

Last 30 days

Zero downtime

Last incident: detected 09:12, fixed 09:26. You were emailed both times.

Managed WordPress updates

Core, theme and plugin updates made safely: a fresh backup and a check every time, rehearsed on staging from Advanced up, never applied blind to your live site.

Update pipelineThis week

Staging ✓Tested ✓Live

WooCommerce 9.4✓ released

Security patch✓ released

Page builder updateheld, conflict found on staging

Never blind auto-updates. If a check fails, live never sees it.

Daily website backups

Automatic nightly backups kept for 30 days, with restores tested so recovery takes minutes, not days.

BackupsLast 14 nights

✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓

Last restore drill: 4m 20s ✓

Nightly, kept 30 days, restores tested monthly. Worst case, we roll back in minutes.

Website speed optimisation

Server tuning, image compression and a Cloudflare CDN keep load times fast for visitors and for Google.

Load timeBefore / after care

2.4s

Images compressed−68%

Server response480ms → 180ms

Requests per page42 → 28

Server-side tuning in-house, images compressed, Cloudflare at the edge.

Hands-on website support

Real people making your updates, edits and fixes, included in every plan’s monthly support time.

Support threadThis morning

You · 9:41Can we swap the homepage hero image for the new one?

designbox · 9:47On it.

designbox · 10:02We’ve implemented the update for you ✓ Is there anything else we can help with?Completed in 14 minutes

Your support time this month

1h 12m of 2h used

No ticket forms, no definitions of what counts. If it’s about your website, it counts.

Website security & licences

Enterprise firewalls, SSL, GDPR tooling and premium plugin licences, managed and included.

Security & licencesAlways on

8G firewall✓ active

SSL certificate✓ auto-renewed

GDPR cookie tooling✓ included

Premium plugin licences✓ £400+/yr included

Run by a Cyber Essentials certified team, and it never appears on an invoice.

Hacked site recovery

If the worst happens, we isolate, clean, restore and harden your site the same day, at no extra cost.

Emergency responseA bad Tuesday, handled

09:12Attack detected, site isolated✓

09:15Clean backup identified✓

10:20Cleaned, patched, back online✓

11:05Hardened, report sent to you✓

Covered on every plan. No emergency invoice, no drama.

Plain-English monthly reporting

A short monthly report covering uptime, updates, speed and how your support time was used.

Your March reportPlain English

Uptime100%

Updates released6, all rehearsed

Support time used1h 12m of 2h

Average load time0.9s

Two minutes to read, sent every month, checked by a person.

The same small team, every time. Our in-house team in Essex looks after every site on these plans. No call centres, no ticket queues, no strangers touching your website.

Got a worry we haven’t covered? Ask us →

Why designbox

An entire web team behind your business

Developers, designers, SEO and marketing professionals who already know your website, aligned with your business and working like your own in-house team. More capability than any single hire, for a fraction of the cost, and as invested in your growth as you are.

An in-house team in Essex

Our whole team works from our Southend-on-Sea office. Nothing is outsourced, and when you message, you’re talking to the person actually doing the work on your website.

WordPress & WooCommerce specialists

Over a decade designing, building and maintaining WordPress websites and WooCommerce stores, so the people hosting your site are the same kind of people who build them.

Certified and accountable

Cyber Essentials certified and a Google Partner, with your website hosted on carbon-offset Google Cloud infrastructure.

One team for the whole website

Hosting, updates, edits and digital marketing under one roof, so nothing ever falls down the gap between your host, your developer and your agency.

We care for websites we didn’t build

Most sites on these plans started life with another agency or freelancer. We migrate them in, audit what we find, fix the urgent bits and look after them like our own.

The designbox support team in the Essex studio

Support, in numbersRecent averages across our care plans

~0minEstimated response time

~0minEstimated fix time

0%Hosting uptime

★★★★★5.052 Google reviews

Response and fix times from our own support desk, 2024 to 2025. Uptime from our hosting providers’ monitoring over the same period.

The cost of neglect

What an unmaintained website really costs

A WordPress site can look fine on the surface while trouble builds underneath. Here’s the same website a year on, left alone versus looked after.

Left aloneOn a designbox care plan

Security✕A hack, days of downtime, an emergency bill✓Detected and rolled back the same day

Plugins & software✕Out of date, buggy and breaking without warning✓Updated and tested on staging first

Enquiry forms✕Failing silently for weeks✓Tested every month

Speed✕A little slower every month✓Kept fast and optimised

Checkout✕Declined orders nobody notices✓Monitored around the clock

Google visibility✕Rankings quietly slide✓Fast, secure and protected

The bill✕A four-figure rescue project✓One fixed monthly price

Every kind of site

Website care for every kind of WordPress site

The plans flex to what you run, from a five-page brochure site to a busy WooCommerce store.

Brochure & business website care

WordPress maintenance for small business websites: hosting, security, backups, updates and hands-on edits, so your site quietly does its job while you do yours.

Usually the Basic or Advanced plan ↑

WooCommerce store maintenance

E-commerce needs more care: checkout monitored, payment and shipping plugins updated on staging first, and fast support when an order page misbehaves.

Usually the Pro plan ↑

High-traffic & membership site hosting

Dedicated performance hosting with a CDN, hourly backups and urgent response cover for WordPress sites where downtime costs real money by the minute.

Usually the Premium plan ↑

Support for sites built by someone else

Agency gone quiet, freelancer moved on? We migrate your website in, audit it honestly, fix the urgent problems and become the team behind it.

Any plan, free migration included ↑

A website that improves, not just survives

Care keeps your website secure, fast and up to date. The same professionals also run SEO, paid ads, email and content for the sites we look after, so when you’re ready to grow there’s no new agency to brief and nothing to re-explain. Your team is already in place.

Explore SEO services →Book a roadmap call

Good questions

Website maintenance FAQs

Can't see yours? Ask us anything on a quick call, no obligation.

What is a website care plan?

A website care plan is a monthly service that keeps your website hosted, secure, backed up, updated and supported, with hands-on time included for changes and fixes. It replaces separate hosting, maintenance contracts and ad-hoc developer bills with one plan and one predictable price, from £99 a month with us. If you are weighing up whether it is worth it, we have written about why website maintenance matters.

How much does website maintenance cost in the UK?

Plans start at £99 a month for Basic, £199 for Advanced, £299 for Pro and £499 for Premium, all excluding VAT. Every plan includes hosting, security, daily backups, updates, monitoring and a monthly allowance of website edits, so there is one predictable bill for everything your website needs.

How fast is your support really?

Measured across our own support desk over 2024 and 2025, our average first response in working hours was around 18 minutes, and the average time to fix a request was around 24 minutes. Hosting uptime of 99.9% is taken from our providers’ own monitoring over the same period. Response times are also guaranteed in writing on every plan. You raise a ticket, a real person picks it up, and it gets done.

What counts as a website edit on my plan?

Every plan includes monthly support time, from one hour on Basic to around six hours on Premium, which covers everyday changes: text and image updates, new pages and articles, navigation and footer changes, form and gallery updates, products and categories, redirects, bug fixes and more. If you need more time in a busy month, additional work is billed at £80 an hour, discounted from our standard rate of £100.

Can you host and care for a website you didn’t build?

Yes. We take on WordPress and WooCommerce websites built by other agencies and freelancers every month. We handle the migration onto our Google Cloud platform carefully, run onboarding SEO, usability and Core Web Vitals audits, and fix what we find. Your site does not need to be perfect to join, that is rather the point.

What security do the plans include?

Server and website firewalls, tiered 6G to 8G firewall rulesets depending on plan, daily malware and vulnerability scans, DDoS detection, spam prevention, SSL management and 24/7 uptime monitoring. Premium plans run the 8G firewall generation with the strongest bot filtering. Behind it all sit Cyber Essentials certified processes.

Are backups included, and how quickly can you restore?

Daily backups are included on every plan, with hourly backups on Premium. Restores are part of your covered support time, so if something goes wrong we roll your site back to the last good version rather than debating whose fault it was.

Do the plans include plugin licences?

Yes, and this quietly saves most clients hundreds of pounds a year. Where your site needs them, plans include premium licences we hold, such as WP Rocket, SEOPress Pro, Elementor Pro, Astra Pro, Fluent Forms and Gravity Forms, JetEngine, CheckoutWC and more, kept updated and properly configured by us.

Why choose designbox for hosting and website care?

designbox is a WordPress hosting and website care agency based in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, supporting businesses across the UK. Your site runs on our Google Cloud platform, is looked after by the same in-house team that designs and markets websites all day, and is backed by Cyber Essentials certification, published fixed pricing and a 5.0 rating across 52 Google reviews.

How should we compare website care plans?

Look past the price at three things: what is actually covered each month, how fast support really responds when something breaks, and whether the provider can also improve the site rather than just keep it alive. A cheap plan that excludes the work you actually need, or answers tickets in days, costs more than it saves. Our guide to the top ten things to look for in website hosting covers what else to check.

Can I pay annually?

Yes. Pay for a year up front and you get twelve months for the price of ten, so two months free: £990 on Basic, £1,990 on Advanced, £2,990 on Pro and £4,990 on Premium, all excluding VAT. Monthly billing is by direct debit and stays rolling.

Is there a contract or a lock-in?

No. Plans are rolling monthly with 30 days notice, and your domain and hosting account stay in your name. If it is not working out in the first 30 days we migrate your site back to wherever it came from, free of charge. We would rather keep you because the service is worth paying for.

Do you charge to migrate my website over?

Not for WordPress and WooCommerce sites moving onto our hosting with a care plan. We plan the move, build and test on staging, handle DNS and email, and go live out of hours, all included. Sites on other platforms need a like-for-like rebuild rather than a migration, so those are quoted separately. See website migration for how the process works.

Do I need a website audit before starting a plan?

If we did not build your site, yes. The audit is £250 plus VAT and takes two to three working days from the moment we have access. You get a full once-over of the site covering what is broken, what works and where the opportunities are, a written report, and two hours of fixes carried out before anything else happens. It protects both sides: you are not signing up to a plan for a site nobody has looked at, and we are not taking on a site we do not understand. The audit is charged separately from any plan, because it is the best part of a day of work in its own right. Plan clients get a free audit every year, twice a year on Pro and Premium. Sites designbox built skip the audit and go straight onto a plan, and get a free audit once a year, twice a year on Pro and Premium.

What is your hourly rate?

Our standard rate is £100 an hour plus VAT. On a care plan or a package it drops to £80, and every plan includes monthly support time before you pay for any extra at all, from one hour on Basic up to around six on Premium. If you are not on a plan yet, a website audit includes two hours of work for £250.

Which platforms do care plans cover?

WordPress and WooCommerce only. Every plan runs on our own Google Cloud hosting, so the site has to be something we can host and maintain. Sites on Shopify, Squarespace, Wix or a bespoke platform cannot go on a plan, but we can still audit them, and if the answer is a move onto WordPress we will scope that for you. See website migration.

WordPress maintenance and website support at designbox

designbox provides WordPress maintenance services, website support and care plans from Southend-on-Sea, Essex, for businesses across the UK, combining Google Cloud hosting, security, daily backups, updates, testing, compliance and hands-on monthly edits in one fixed price from £99 a month. Support is handled in-house by the team that builds and markets websites every day, at £80 an hour rather than our standard £100, with written response guarantees on every plan, an average first response of around 18 minutes in working hours across our own support desk in 2024 and 2025, and 99.9% hosting uptime from our providers’ monitoring. Care plans work hardest alongside the rest of what we do: the websites we design and build land on these plans from day one, our SEO and digital marketing teams keep the sites we care for growing, and every technical fix feeds the same goal. designbox is a Google Partner managing over £2m of advertising spend a year, Cyber Essentials certified, with everything delivered by our own in-house team in Essex, nothing outsourced, nothing white-labelled. Every engagement is measured in uptime, speed, enquiries and revenue rather than vanity metrics, and most of our clients arrive by referral and stay for years.

Ready to never worry about your website again?

Tell us about your site today. We'll help you pick the plan that fits, handle the migration carefully, and have your back from day one.

Get a care plan →Call 01702 416431

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