If your agency builds WordPress sites, your clients will eventually ask who keeps them running. White-label WordPress maintenance is one way to answer without hiring a support team: a partner does the work behind the scenes, and your client sees only your brand.
What White-Label WordPress Maintenance Means
White-label maintenance is ongoing WordPress upkeep performed by a partner under your agency's name. You keep the client relationship, the branding, and the pricing decisions. The partner handles the technical work and invoices you, usually once a month, rather than billing your client directly.
It is different from handing a client off to another company. The client never has to learn a new vendor's name, and their emails, reports, and support requests all go through you.
What a Maintenance Plan Usually Covers
Scope varies by partner, so get the list in writing. Most plans include these recurring tasks:
- Backups: automated backups that can actually be restored, stored away from the web server.
- Updates: WordPress core, plugin, and theme updates, ideally tested before they reach a live site.
- Security: malware scanning, firewall protection, login protection, and SSL management.
- Uptime monitoring: automated checks so someone knows when a site goes down.
- Support: a way for you to ask for fixes and small changes.
- Reporting: a monthly summary you can pass along to the client.
Redesigns, new features, content writing, and anything that changes how the site works are usually billed separately from a standard plan. Ask where the line is before you sign.
Three Ways Agencies Handle Maintenance
1. Do it yourself
This costs nothing extra on paper, but it ties up your designers and developers with updates and support tickets. It also leaves coverage gaps when the person who knows the client's site is out or busy on another project.
2. Hire for it
National salary data puts a US WordPress developer's base pay at roughly $60,500 to $99,500 a year. Employers typically pay 1.25× to 1.4× that figure once payroll taxes, benefits, and overhead are added, which puts one hire at about $75,000 to $139,000+ a year. That only makes sense if you have enough client sites to keep the person busy. Our breakdown of what an in-house WordPress employee costs walks through the math.
3. Use a white-label partner
You pay for the sites you actually manage, with no payroll and no recruiting. The tradeoff is that you depend on a third party, so choosing the right one matters. The checklist below is meant to help with that.
How Agencies Price Maintenance
You set your own price. Agencies usually do one of three things: bundle maintenance into a website retainer, sell it as a separate monthly care plan, or include the first months with a new build and convert the client to a paid plan afterward. Whatever you choose, your price should cover the partner's cost, your own account-management time, and a margin that makes the service worth offering.
What to Ask a Partner Before You Hand Over Client Sites
- What exactly is covered, and what is billed separately? Get it in writing.
- How do you access client sites, and how are credentials stored?
- Can backups really be restored, and how long does a restore take?
- How are emergencies handled, and who can I reach when a site goes down?
- Will tickets, emails, and reports carry my agency's branding?
- Are updates tested before they go live, and who is responsible if one breaks a site?
- What are the terms if I leave? Do I keep access to everything, with no lock-in?
When White-Label Isn't the Right Fit
If you only manage a couple of client sites and are comfortable with the work, doing it yourself may be simpler. White-label is also a poor fit for clients who want to deal directly with the technical team, or for highly customized hosting setups that a partner cannot safely take over.
How Fast Web Experts Handles It
Our white-label WordPress maintenance and support has no minimum site count and is custom-quoted based on your portfolio. It is month-to-month. Care includes daily backups, managed updates, security monitoring and malware scanning, uptime checks every five minutes, and white-labeled monthly reports. Work goes out under your brand, and we invoice you once a month.
Common Questions
Will my clients know a partner is involved?
Not if the arrangement is set up properly. Work, emails, and reports go out under your agency's name, and the partner stays in the background. Confirm this in writing before you start.
How many client sites do I need to get started?
That depends on the partner. Some set minimums, and some do not. Fast Web Experts has no minimum site count, so a single client site is enough to begin.
Do I lose control of my client's site?
No. You keep the client relationship and decide how the account is billed and communicated. Make sure your agreement says you keep ownership of the sites and credentials, and that you can end the arrangement without penalty.
Thinking about a white-label partner?
Tell us about your client portfolio and what you need covered, and we will put together a custom quote. There is no minimum and no commitment.
See how white-label support works →