Website Maintenance for Dubai & UAE Businesses
A live website needs someone accountable for it: updates applied safely, backups that actually restore, and problems noticed before customers report them. Our maintenance service sets out who does what, how quickly we respond and what sits outside the agreement.
Who needs a maintenance agreement
- WordPress sites, where core, theme and plugin updates arrive every few weeks and some fix security issues.
- Headless and Next.js sites, where framework and package dependencies need regular, tested upgrades.
- Sites whose original developer has moved on, leaving nobody who knows how the site is put together.
- Sites whose forms feed a CRM or booking system, where a silent failure costs enquiries.
- Arabic and English sites, where an update can break right-to-left layouts on one language only.
Online stores have extra obligations around checkout and payments; see ecommerce maintenance. Custom software is covered by application maintenance, and AI systems by AI monitoring and support.
Who is responsible for what
Most maintenance disputes come from unwritten assumptions. We agree this split in writing at the start.
| Area | Alfalab | Your team | Host or vendor |
|---|---|---|---|
| CMS core, theme, plugin and package updates | Tests on staging and applies | Approves major version changes | None |
| Security patches | Applies, prioritised by severity | Is informed | Patches server software on managed hosting |
| Backups | Configures, monitors and tests restores | Keeps its own access | Provides the infrastructure |
| Uptime and error monitoring | Monitors and responds | Reports anything noticed | Keeps servers running |
| SSL certificates and domain renewals | Monitors expiry and reminds | Pays and renews if the account is theirs | Issues and renews |
| Content changes | Small changes within agreed hours | Day-to-day content | None |
| Third-party licences and services | Tracks renewal dates | Pays and owns | Provides service |
Response windows
Response means a person has acknowledged the issue and started work. Resolution time depends on the cause, especially when it sits with a host or vendor.
| Severity | Example | How it is handled |
|---|---|---|
| Critical | Site down, hacked, or all forms failing | Handled ahead of all other work, with a workaround first if the full fix will take longer |
| High | A key page or form broken, checkout or booking failing for some users | Prioritised ahead of normal issues and requests |
| Normal | Layout fault on one template, a broken link, a minor plugin error | Fixed in order of impact |
| Request | Small content or configuration change | Scheduled within the monthly hours |
The response window for each severity level, and your cover hours, are set in your support agreement. Cover follows the UAE working week unless your plan includes extended cover. Issues are reported through the support channel named in that agreement, so every request has a record and nothing depends on one person's phone.
Backups and restores
A backup that has never been restored is an assumption. We back up the database and files on the schedule set in your plan and keep copies in storage separate from the hosting account, so a compromised or cancelled host does not take the backups with it. Before every update we take an extra snapshot, so a bad update can be reversed in minutes.
We test a full restore to a staging environment at agreed intervals and record the result. You keep your own access to the backup storage. Backups can contain personal data from form submissions, so storage location and access are documented with PDPL obligations in mind.
Patching, monitoring and routine checks
- Updates applied on staging first, checked visually in both languages, then released to production with a changelog.
- Uptime monitoring with alerts to our team, plus error log review.
- Monthly test submissions on every form, confirming delivery to inboxes and the CRM.
- SSL and domain expiry monitoring, with reminders well before renewal dates.
- Search Console review for crawl errors, indexing problems and security warnings.
- Core Web Vitals checks, so slowdowns from new plugins or content are caught early.
- Review of user accounts, removing former staff and checking administrator access.
- Tracking of PHP, Node.js and framework versions approaching end of support.
You receive a short monthly report covering what was updated, what was found and anything that needs a decision.
What maintenance does not cover
- New features, new templates or redesign work. These are scoped as separate projects.
- Content writing, translation and regular publishing beyond the monthly hours included in your plan.
- Outages caused by the hosting provider, DNS provider or third-party services, beyond diagnosis and liaison.
- Recovery from changes made by other developers or plugins installed without agreement.
- Hosting, licence and domain fees, which stay on your accounts.
- SEO campaigns, ad management and conversion experiments.
For sites we did not build, maintenance starts with an onboarding audit of access, backups, plugins, versions and known issues. Anything found is fixed as a one-off before the plan begins, so the agreement starts from a known state.
Plans, cost and next step
Cost depends on the platform and number of plugins or dependencies, traffic and business criticality, the response windows you need, cover hours and the number of included change hours. We quote each plan after reviewing your site. Our plan options are on maintenance plans, and the website maintenance cost guide explains what moves the price in general.
To start, request a proposal with your site URL, platform and the access you can share for the onboarding audit.
Questions buyers ask
Do you maintain sites built by other agencies?
Yes, after an onboarding audit. If the audit finds serious problems, we fix them as a one-off first or recommend a rebuild.
What happens if an update breaks the site?
Updates are tested on staging first, so most problems are caught before production. If one reaches the live site, we roll back to the pre-update snapshot and fix the cause on staging.
Do unused hours carry over?
That is set in your support agreement. Whether unused hours roll over, and for how long, is agreed before the plan starts.
Does maintenance include hosting?
Not by default. Hosting stays in your name. We can advise on a host or manage the relationship with it.
Can we cancel the agreement?
Yes. The notice period and exit terms are set in your support agreement. On exit we hand over current credentials, backups and the documentation of what we changed.
Ready to build your growth system?
Send a short brief or message us on WhatsApp. We reply with questions, a suggested scope and the sensible next step.