Hi,
I want to ask something unusual. I have no service to ask but someone close to me has been paying I heard, 600€ per year for two websites. I know and now administer the two sites, who used wordpress and now joomla, very bad and wasteful technologies now I mastered (relative to those needs of course) hugo and web development, and although that’s only been the case for about a year, I sure as hell would have done the same in a few months had I been consulted. Horrible choices but hey, I wasn’t there.
A few hundreds initially for the creation and design, I get it.
But then ? The guy talks of “infomaintenance”, but my friends know literally nothing of websites. There has been very little activity on those sites, for extensive periods of times, but the additions, for the longest time, has been my doing through the user interface, requiring no intervention from the professional. This smells fishy to me. Does it too, for professionals like you ?
Clients are charged for server and website maintenance in CMS like WordPress since they do have an overhead of regular updates. However, if these are not being done then such pricing is just overcharging for work not done.
That’s why I liked Hugo and moved to working full time in Hugo and Jekyll. WordPress and other CMS have way too much to maintain and thus are easy honeytraps for clients to fall into.
Regular updates ? But of what kind, if I add literally no content for two years… What kind of maintenance would that need ?
I haven’t asked the guy responsable yet - xsweb, France, if you want to know the details, in case he has a reputation - how would I know ? So sounds like a honey trap, you think ?
Since WordPress like CMS run on server side scripts, server side updates and WordPress internal updates are needed on a regular basis.
These updates include regular security patches for the server and CMS since there are so many moving parts involved ( SQL, PHP and more ).
Also, it is sometimes very tricky to do these updates since they break the CMS many times. These CMS are not a coherent packaged software rather a combination of free and paid add-ons which don’t usually update regularly. So there is always a chance of breaking the website with every update.
However, if the updates are not done, the stale software poses a security risk at least.
But if these updates are not being done, then it is indeed a scam.
Client seldom knows what is done. It is upto the service provider to maintain a level of transparency. I prefer regular work updates to client even in maintenance period with a changelog of work done on the website.
Oh… Thanks for the info. The sites work and we haven’t heard of security hazard. But I can’t believe just keeping the thing afloat would demand 600€ of work for simple blogs.
With no transparency of course.
But without knowing the content of those bills I won’t know if it was as a scam or not. But the worst technical choices possible, yeah.
For blogs, if there is no user signup required, static site generators like Hugo are the best. WordPress etc. are an overkill. It is like using an airplane to go to local market where a bicycle is enough.
ok, but tell me. You know those technologies, do you think, yes or no, that for two small blog-like sites, 600 € annual maintenance fee is justifiable ?
Depends on what the support included. What service was given on monthly basis for $50. If server and CMS updates were done monthly, with assistance in CMS data entry updates and regular assistance on bugs, then the cost makes sense.
ok, but tell me. You know those technologies, do you think, yes or no, that for two small blog-like sites, 600 € annual maintenance fee is justifiable ?
Not only justifiable… but the industry standard for Managed WordPress Hosting:
Note that static hosting up to 100 websites is completely free at Kinsta!!! I could host ALL websites from cms.usecue.com on one free Kinsta instance (but trust me… I won’t). I hope this makes you realize how much more time and resources hosting a WordPress website takes.
NO it is not tell the developer to give all your money back because you did no updates to the website. totally unfair and not good, and also wordpress updates are automatic it doesnt need developer. total rip off
The reason people move to Hugo is WordPress updates breaking website. The updates could be configured to be automatic but they often break website, hence the required regular maintenance.
I don’t know the details, maybe you can see it in humanecogenetics and pschototale. At some point it was in wordpress or some variant, then migrated.
Ok, I will confront the guy.