Update application and verification
Not just applying the update, but scoring its risk first, taking a restore point, testing the result and rolling back if it fails.
Maintenance software
WordPress maintenance software that does the routine work for you
Updates applied and verified, backups taken and tested, security watched continuously, reports written from what actually happened. The parts of maintenance that never needed a human decision, handled without one.
Free during early access. Connects to any host.
Updated
What you get
Included on every plan
- Update application and verification: Not just applying the update, but scoring its risk first, taking a restore point, testing the result and rolling back if it fails.
- Backup and restore testing: Taking the backup is the easy half.
- Vulnerability matching: Comparing published advisories against your actual installed versions, so alerts mean something.
- Availability and performance: Continuous external checks rather than a spot test when someone remembers.
What is WordPress maintenance software?
WordPress maintenance software runs the recurring work of keeping WordPress sites up to date, backed up, online and secure: applying updates, taking backups, watching uptime and security, and reporting what was done, usually for many sites from one dashboard. The good ones also check their own work and can undo a change that goes wrong.
WPCentrify is a WordPress maintenance platform for anyone responsible for more than one site. It updates plugins, themes and core with a restore point first and automatic rollback for plugin and theme updates, backs sites up off the website, checks uptime every 60 seconds from 3 locations, watches security with Sentinel, and sends client reports built from what actually happened on each site.
WPCentrify maintenance at a glance
- Safe and bulk updates for plugins, themes and WordPress core, with a restore point first and automatic rollback for plugins and themes.
- Backups stored off the website, with restore of a whole site, the database or chosen files.
- Uptime checked every 60 seconds from 3 locations, with email alerts.
- Sentinel security monitoring with a plain verdict for every site.
- Client reports built from each site's record, sent on a schedule.
- Hosting neutral: any self-hosted WordPress site on any host.
What WordPress maintenance actually consists of
Strip away the terminology and WordPress maintenance is four recurring obligations: keep the software current so known vulnerabilities are not sitting exposed, keep a working copy so mistakes are recoverable, watch the site so problems are found before customers find them, and record what was done so the work is accountable. A WordPress maintenance dashboard exists to make all four visible across every site at once, rather than one site at a time.
Almost none of that requires judgment most of the time. A patch release from a well-behaved plugin on a low-risk site was always going to be applied. The backup was always going to run. The judgment is concentrated in a small number of genuinely ambiguous cases, and the routine work crowds out the attention those cases deserve.
Capability
What website maintenance management software should automate
Backup and restore testing
Taking the backup is the easy half. Verifying that it restores is the other half.
Vulnerability matching
Comparing published advisories against your actual installed versions, so alerts mean something.
Availability and performance
Continuous external checks rather than a spot test when someone remembers.
Reporting
Generating the monthly summary from a real activity log rather than from memory.
Decision routing
Working out which of the above needs a human and interrupting only for those.
Approaches
Software cannot do everything, and should not claim to
Genuinely automatable
- Applying and verifying routine updates
- Taking and testing backups
- Monitoring availability and performance
- Matching vulnerabilities to installed versions
- Generating reports from a change log
Needs a human
- Deciding whether to replace an abandoned plugin
- Judging whether a design change is acceptable
- Talking a client through an incident
- Choosing what a care plan should include
Recommended
Where WPCentrify draws the line
- Automate the routine, escalate the ambiguous
- Every automated decision is logged and explainable
- Notify-only mode until you trust the behavior
- You can override any automation at any time
Getting there
Moving from manual to automated maintenance
Start in observation mode
Connect sites and let uptime monitoring and backups run while you keep updating manually. You get the inventory and the safety net without changing your workflow.
Automate the obviously safe
Low-risk patch releases on non-critical sites. Watch the risk scoring for a few weeks and see whether you agree with its judgment.
Add verification, then rollback
Once you trust the scoring, let verification and automatic rollback run. This is the step that changes how updates feel.
Automate reporting last
Reports are the easiest thing to automate and the thing people are most nervous about, because the client sees them. Review mode holds each report for approval until you are comfortable.
Answers
Frequently asked questions
Software that automates the recurring work of keeping WordPress sites secure, available and recoverable: applying updates, taking and testing backups, monitoring uptime and security, and reporting on what was done. Good maintenance software also verifies its own work and can undo a change that goes wrong.
No. A security plugin like Wordfence blocks malicious traffic in real time on a single site. Maintenance software manages the operational lifecycle across many sites: patching, backing up, monitoring and reporting. They are complementary and most portfolios run both.
Unverified automatic updates cannot really be trusted, which is why so many people turn them off and then fall behind on security. Verified automatic updates are different: risk scoring beforehand, a restore point, testing afterwards and automatic rollback on failure. The verification is what makes automation safe.
It depends on how much of your work is routine: checking for updates, applying and verifying them, managing backups and assembling reports. Those are the jobs WPCentrify automates; judgment calls and client conversations stay with you. The calculator estimates it against your own numbers.
The one that covers updates, backups, uptime, security and reports for all your sites in one place, checks its own work and can undo a bad update. WPCentrify does all of that from one dashboard for any self-hosted WordPress site on any host, and is free during early access.
Prices range from free tools for a few sites to per-site plans for agencies. WPCentrify is free while it is in early access. Plan prices are announced at launch, with one price per site and every core feature included on every plan.
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Free during early access. Keep your data, export any time.