Do I Need Managed Plugin Updates?

As a website owner, you may wonder whether you need managed plugin updates for your website. Updating plugins is a pretty simple task, depending on the size and functionality of your website.

While all websites require regular plugin updates to ensure security and functionality, not every site owner needs a managed service to handle these updates.

In this document, we'll discuss why plugins need to be updated, the benefits of a managed plugin update service, and how to determine if the Essential Care Plan from Maple Creative is sufficient or if you would benefit from upgrading to a tier that includes managed plugin updates.

Why Plugin Updates Are Important:

1. Security: Outdated plugins can create security vulnerabilities that can be exploited by hackers. Regular updates help protect your website from potential attacks and keep your data safe.
2. Functionality: Plugin updates often include bug fixes and improvements to ensure that your website continues to run smoothly. Updating plugins regularly helps prevent potential issues that could negatively affect your site's performance.
3. Compatibility: Updates ensure that plugins remain compatible with the latest version of your website's content management system (CMS). This compatibility is essential for maintaining the site's overall stability and functionality.

What are Managed Plugin Updates?

Managed updates are a process in which we update plugins on your website weekly. We use advanced monitoring tools to run a before and after review on your website to make sure nothing breaks after a plugin update. If we discover a problem we can jump in and solve it – even restoring a backup if we need to.

Benefits of Managed Plugin Updates

1. Time savings: With managed plugin updates, you can focus on growing your business instead of spending time on technical maintenance tasks.
2. Peace of mind: A managed service ensures that your website's plugins are always up-to-date, reducing the risk of security breaches and functionality issues.
3. Expert support: Managed plugin updates come with the expertise of professionals who understand the intricacies of maintaining a high-performing website.

When should I upgrade to Managed Updates?

As your website grows and becomes more complex, the number of plugins and features you rely on is likely to increase. This can make managing updates more challenging and time-consuming. You may also want to delegate this task to free up your time to focus on other important aspects of your business.

If your site has grown beyond what the Essential Care Plan covers, you can upgrade to Standard, Professional, or Enterprise — each includes full managed plugin updates with staging and automatic rollback.

Wondering how those plugins stay up to date? See Updating plugins for how plugin updates work on each Care Plan tier — including which plugins we update automatically and which ones we review manually.

In Conclusion…

Managed plugin updates are essential for maintaining the security and functionality of your website. The Essential Care Plan offers a cost-effective solution for website owners with simple sites or those who prefer to handle plugin updates themselves. By carefully considering your website's complexity and your own technical skills, you can determine if you need managed plugin updates for your website.

To request any changes to your care plan simply contact us at support@buildwithmaple.com.