How to Contact WordPress Support (Complete Beginner’s Guide)

Have you ever run into a problem on your WordPress website and are unsure where to turn for help? Don’t worry, you’re not alone!

WordPress is a powerful platform, but even for beginners, things can sometimes go wrong. This is where you need someone to guide you or help you troubleshoot issues on your website.

WordPress doesn’t offer direct support to its users. But across our 16+ years of using the platform, we have discovered the best ways to get help for WordPress problems. These include support forums, online communities, hosting providers, and more.

In this guide, we will show you how to contact WordPress support.

Contact WordPress support

When Might You Need to Contact WordPress Support?

While WordPress is incredibly user-friendly and powers more than 43% of the websites on the internet, there can be times when you hit a roadblock and don’t know what to do next.

For example, you might need support when plugins clash with each other or with your theme, causing unexpected behavior on your website. This could lead to anything from broken layouts to malfunctioning forms.

If you are making changes to your theme’s code to personalize your website’s design, then you might run into WordPress errors or unintended visual effects. To fix this issue, you might need to contact a support team for help.

Alternatively, making updates to the core WordPress software can cause compatibility problems with your plugins or theme. This can lead to features malfunctioning or your website displaying incorrectly.

Similarly, if you suspect your website has been hacked or is vulnerable to security threats, then seeking help from a WordPress expert is super important.

Why Doesn’t WordPress Offer Support Services?

When you think of support, the first thing that comes to mind is probably talking to a customer support agent via live chat or email.

However, with WordPress, you don’t get a direct support option. There is no WordPress.org email support or an official WordPress phone number.

That’s because WordPress is 100% free and open-source software. This means that it’s free software developed by people all over the world. In short, they don’t have the resources needed to staff a dedicated support team.

Instead, WordPress.org relies on its community for assistance. They have a forum system where users can ask questions and get help from other users and experienced volunteers.

Note that there is a difference between WordPress.org and WordPress.com. You will get customer support via live chat and email in the paid plans on WordPress.com. But when we speak about WordPress, we mean WordPress.org.

That said, there are different ways to contact WordPress support. You can click the links below to jump ahead to any section:

1. Get Free Support From WordPress Forums and Communities

The best part about using WordPress is that there are tons of free resources available to help you troubleshoot your issues or answer any queries.

To start, you can visit the WordPress.org forum, where you’ll find forums dedicated to specific WordPress features, plugins, and themes.

For example, you can view post questions about installing WordPress or fixing WordPress.

WordPress forum

Besides the official forum, there are other platforms as well where you can reach out for help and support.

For instance, you can join WPBeginner’s Facebook group, which has over 98,000 members. Simply post your questions in the group, and other WordPress enthusiasts and experts will respond to your query. Or you can search for existing conversations around the same topic to find solutions.

WPBeginner Facebook group

2. WordPress Documentation, Blogs, and Other Resources

Another way you can get WordPress support is through different WordPress documentation, tutorials, and guides on blogs or other free resources.

To start, you can view the documentation section on the WordPress.org website. There, you can find tutorials on how to get started and use WordPress.

You’ll also find technical guides and documentation on maintaining your website. These are good starting points for getting basic support and troubleshooting WordPress on your own without needing technical expertise.

WordPress documentation

Other than that, there are many WordPress blogs you can follow to get support. For instance, you can follow WPBeginner, as we are the largest free WordPress resource site for beginners.

Founded in 2009 by Syed Balkhi, our goal is to provide helpful tutorials on WordPress for small business owners, bloggers, and non-techy WordPress users.

You can follow our tutorials and guides to learn about WordPress and get support.

WPBeginner home page

Aside from written text, you can also watch videos on our YouTube channel to fix issues on your site or add a new feature. There are thousands of videos you can easily learn from.

Finally, we have a bunch of free video tutorials on our own website. Here, we cover everything from installing WordPress to troubleshooting issues and making money from your website.

3. Reach Out to WordPress Hosting and Plugin Support

While there are fantastic free resources available, sometimes you might need a more personalized approach. Luckily, there are plenty of free and paid support options offered by your web hosting service and theme and plugin developers.

For instance, many WordPress hosting companies offer basic support as part of their hosting plans. It’s best to check with your provider to see what kind of support they offer.

If we look at Bluehost, which is an official WordPress hosting partner, then they offer 24/7 live chat support and phone support, along with a detailed knowledge base for written documentation.

Bluehost support options

Similarly, some theme and plugin developers offer premium support for their products. These typically involve direct email access, ticket systems, or live chat with their support team.

Depending on your pricing plan, you will get standard support or priority support.

Here’s how All in One SEO (AIOSEO) offers support to their customers. You can open a support ticket to resolve technical issues or ask basic questions through a form.

AIOSEO support options

4. Hire a WordPress Maintenance & Support Agency

All of the options we have discussed so far can be super helpful if you run into the occasional problem. But if you are looking for around-the-clock technical support for WordPress, then it might be time to hire a maintenance and support agency.

Website maintenance services manage your WordPress site for you. This includes taking care of backups, updates, security, and website edits. If you’re just starting out, then they can install WordPress and design the website for you as well.

One of the best support agencies you can hire today is WPBeginner Pro Maintenance Services. We have over 16+ years of experience and have helped over 100,000 users, so your website is in safe hands.

WPBeginner Pro Maintenance Services

Our team of experts will handle everything needed to maintain your WordPress site or eCommerce store. This includes everything from making cloud backups to keeping core files, plugins, and themes updated and scanning your site for security threats.

Besides that, you get 24/7 support, so if you run into any trouble or encounter an issue, our team is always available to help.

Other than basic maintenance, there are other WPBeginner Pro Services you can also use. For instance, we can repair hacked sites, optimize your site for speed, design a fully custom website, and help out with search engine optimization (SEO) to boost organic traffic.

You can go through our complete list of the best WordPress support agencies for more options.

FAQs About WordPress Support

What is the WordPress phone number?

WordPress.org does not offer phone support to its users. Instead, you can use the free WordPress.org forums, ask for help from your hosting provider, or hire a WordPress support agency.

Does WordPress.org have email support?

WordPress.org doesn’t have email support, but you can often get email or ticketing support from plugin developers. There are also support options from hosting providers and WordPress maintenance agencies.

We hope this article helped you learn how to contact WordPress support. You may also want to see our guide on crucial WordPress maintenance tasks to perform regularly and the best live chat software for small businesses.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Contact WordPress Support (Complete Beginner’s Guide) first appeared on WPBeginner.

6 Best Website Maintenance Services for WordPress

Are you looking for the best website maintenance services for your WordPress website?

Website maintenance services manage your WordPress site for you. This includes taking care of backups, updates, security, and website edits.

In this article, we’re going to share some of the best website maintenance services that you can use for your WordPress site.

Best website maintenance services (for WordPress)

Why Use a WordPress Website Maintenance Service?

If you run a self-hosted WordPress.org website, then you are responsible for installing WordPress core updates, plugin and theme updates, and keeping website backups.

Unless you are using a managed WordPress hosting company like WP Engine, you’ll be taking care of all these tasks by yourself.

You may feel that these tasks are taking too much of your time, which you would rather spend on growing your business.

This is where website maintenance services come in. A good website maintenance service should provide the following services:

Backups

The service should keep regular WordPress backups of your site, often more than once a day. This means that if something does go wrong, your site can be restored instantly.

Expert WordPress Support

As a beginner, you may need help now and then to fix common WordPress errors.

Having expert WordPress support from your website maintenance service means you won’t need to spend your time working through WordPress tutorials.

It’s important to note that in some cases, support is charged for as an additional service. It’s not always part of the basic website maintenance package.

Security

Your website maintenance service will keep your site safe and secure by running automated scans. Most companies can help you quickly deal with any problems like malware or hacking attempts.

Note: Many website maintenance services may charge extra for malware removal service. We recommend using Sucuri, it is the best WordPress firewall plugin and they offer free malware removal service with all their paid plans.

Timely WordPress Updates

Your website maintenance service will save you time by keeping everything up to date for you. If you do choose to update your plugins yourself, make sure you follow our step by step instructions on how to properly update WordPress plugins.

With all this in mind, here are our top picks for the best WordPress website maintenance services:

1. WP Buffs

WPBuff WordPress Maintenance Service

WP Buffs is a well-known WordPress website maintenance service that provides cloud backups, emergency support, weekly website updates, speed optimization, unlimited website edits, and more.

They have plans suitable for average website owner as well as perform plan for eCommerce stores, membership sites, and more complex websites.

Pros

  • You’ll get a nicely formatted .pdf report each week from WP Buffs to let you know exactly what they’ve been doing on your site. For instance, you’ll see a list of which plugins have been updated and when.
  • They offer maintenance for complex online stores (eCommerce), though you’ll need their highest-plan for this.
  • WP Buffs monitors your site constantly throughout the day. If your site goes down, they’ll act within 60 seconds to start fixing it.
  • Support is available 24/7, as WP Buffs has team members all over the world.
  • WP Buffs offers a white-label service. This useful if you host WordPress websites for clients. You can use WP Buff’s services for your clients as if WP Buffs was part of your own team.

Cons

  • Malware removal is only included if you’re on the most expensive of their three plans.
  • WP Buffs only updates plugins weekly, not daily. This does mean that they have time to test new plugin updates, though.

Pricing

Their lowest plan starts at $67/month. You’ll need to pay $197/month if you want priority support, malware removal, speed optimization, plus some other extras. There is a discount if you choose to pay annually.

2. Codeable

Codeable Homepage

Codeable is a platform where you can hire WordPress experts. If you want a bespoke maintenance package, this could be a great way to find someone who can help.

For instance, you might want a developer to help you to make your site fast and secure.

Unlike other platforms like Upwork, Codeable actually has a strong vetting process which ensures that you only work with the most experienced WordPress developers.

Pros

  • Codeable carefully vets the developers they work with. This ensures that you’ll be working with someone who has plenty of experience.
  • You can specify exactly what you want. Most dedicated website maintenance services require you to pick from specific plans.
  • You could use Codeable for one-off support. For instance, you may need someone to help you set up a WordPress membership website. After that, you’ll be comfortable taking care of the site on your own.
  • Codeable has a support team that can help you through the process of using their platform to find and work with a developer. Note that they don’t provide actual WordPress support themselves.

Cons

  • You’ll need to come up with a clear idea of what you require. You’ll likely need to answer questions from developers about your project, too. If you’re new to WordPress, it can be tough to know exactly what help you need.
  • You won’t know how much your project will cost until you start receiving estimates, usually around a day after posting it.
  • You’ll need to pay an additional 17.5% (based on the estimated cost of your project) to Codeable. This fee isn’t refundable, even if the developer doesn’t complete your project in a satisfactory way.

Pricing

Codeable will give you a single estimate rather than a list of bids. This is to avoid a “race to the bottom” where developers try to undercut one another and you end up with someone cheap but not necessarily skilled.

Their pricing is based on a $70 – $120 hourly rate, plus a 17.5% fixed service fee that goes to Codeable.

3. GoWP

Go WP's website

GoWP is targeted at agencies and freelancers who provide WordPress services for their clients. They offer white label support. This means that you can use your own branding but with their team doing the maintenance work.

Pros

  • The basic maintenance plan is $29/month per site. This includes backups and updates, as you’d expect, but also malware cleanup.
  • The “maintenance + unlimited content edits” plan is $79/month. This covers 24/7 support plus all sorts of small tasks (up to 30 minutes each) like tweaking CSS, installing new plugins, and more.
  • Their “Visual Validator” software checks your site after installing plugins, by taking snapshots of up to 20 pages of your site to compare with previous versions. If anything’s changed, the GoWP team will get an alert so they can check your site.
  • You can use GoWP for your own site as well as for clients’ sites.
  • The team is available around the clock and aims to get all tasks done within 8 hours at most.

Cons

  • You’ll need to pay separately if you want tasks that take more than 30 minutes.
  • GoWP is aimed at WordPress freelancers and agencies. You may find there’s a bit of a learning curve if you’re just an individual wanting to use it on one site.

Pricing

GoWP costs $29/month for the basic maintenance plan or $79/month for maintenance plus unlimited edits to content, CSS, and so on.

If you have complex tasks that will take more than 30 minutes each, you’ll need to pay for one-off tasks to cover these.

They also offer the ability for you to get a dedicated developer for your team at $1799 per month.

4. Maintainn

Maintainn's website

Maintainn offers a range of different plans for keeping your site secure and up to date. All plans include the weekly plugin, theme, and WordPress updates. There’s also 24/7 security monitoring, so you’ll get an alert if your site is hacked.

At the “Professional” or higher price plan levels, Maintainn provides services like uptime monitoring and eCommerce support.

Pros

  • The “Professional” plan and above include free malware cleaning after a hack.
  • Maintainn’s plans come in cheaper than some of the other services we’ve looked at.
  • There’s live chat support available for all plans, as well as email support.
  • You’ll get a weekly report that lets you know what Maintainn’s been doing on your site.
  • Maintainn also has options for design and development services and for website hosting. If you want one company to take care of everything website-related for you, this could work well.

Cons

  • Live chat is only available Monday to Friday, from 9am to 8pm EST. This might be frustrating if you normally work on your site on the weekends.
  • You’ll need the “Professional” plan or higher if you want malware removal to be included for free.

Pricing

Maintainn’s Standard plan is $59/month. If you’ve got an eCommerce site, you’ll need to opt for at least their “Professional” plan, at $179/month.

Their most expensive regular plan is Enterprise, at $299/month. This adds in things like version control and a staging site. This makes it ideal for larger websites that might have several different people working on them.

5. Valet

Valet Homepage

Valet offers maintenances plans that include everything you’d expect. Backups, WordPress core updates, plugin updates, and so on are all covered. They test all updates on a staging site before making them live on your site.

Pros

  • The maintenance plan is clearly and simply priced, at $69/month. There aren’t several plans to choose from, and you just pay month by month.
  • You can add extra WordPress support if you want it. This is paid by the hour and can cover any WordPress jobs at all.
  • The maintenance plan covers some things that other providers charge quite a bit more for. For instance, it offers uptime monitoring and support for eCommerce sites.
  • You can add on extra WordPress support if you want it. This is paid by the hour and can cover any WordPress jobs at all.

Cons

  • There’s not much information on the site before signing up. There are no FAQs, for instance. This means it’s not clear how some things work. The maintenance plan promises “regular reporting” but it isn’t clear what this really means.
  • The pricing could be more transparent. When you’re offered the option of “Consultation & Support Hours” for a pre-purchase discount, it’s not clear how much these will cost.
  • The maintenance plan doesn’t provide any support. If you’ve got questions, you’ll need to pay an hourly fee.

Pricing

The maintenance plan itself is $69/month. You can purchase developers’ time by the hour to do whatever you want with your WordPress site, though this isn’t cheap at $175/hour or $150/hour if you pre-pay.

6. WP Maintainer

WP Maintainer's website

WP Maintainer offers a straightforward maintenance plan for WordPress sites. There’s also the option to pay for extra support and development time if you want it.

Pros

  • WP Maintainer offers a free scan of your website. You’ll need to enter your email address to receive this, but there’s no obligation to buy anything.
  • There’s a single maintenance plan priced at $99/month. You don’t need to decide between different plans.
  • The maintenance plan includes site cleanup if your site does get infected by malware.
  • You can choose to add developer support for $99/hour. This can be used for most things you’d want to do with your website, though you can’t use it for a full site redesign.
  • Updates take place frequently, soon after new versions of plugins, themes, or WordPress itself are released.
  • If you want a new web host, WP Maintainer can move you to one of their approved hosts for free when you’re getting set up with their maintenance plan.

Cons

  • Support isn’t included. If you have questions or want help with things like installing a new plugin or fixing a problem on your site, you’ll need to pay for this.
  • There’s no indication on the site about whether you’ll be able to get your money back if you’re not happy.

Pricing

The maintenance plan costs $99/month. You can purchase support and maintenance time at a rate of $99/hour.

We hope this article helped you find the best website maintenance services for your WordPress site. You may also want to take a look at our guide on important WordPress maintenance tasks to perform regularly, and our comparison of the best business phone services for remote teams.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post 6 Best Website Maintenance Services for WordPress appeared first on WPBeginner.