What to expect during planned maintenance
What planned maintenance is, when we do it, how we notify you, and what happens to your site while it's underway.
Occasionally we need to carry out maintenance work that may briefly take your website offline or make it temporarily inaccessible. This is normal and planned — we'll always let you know before it happens. This guide explains what to expect.
Quick summary
Planned maintenance is scheduled work we tell you about in advance. Your site may show a brief maintenance message or be offline for a short period. We aim to schedule this at a low-traffic time. Afterward, we'll confirm everything is working and let you know it's done.
What planned maintenance includes
Most care work happens invisibly — software updates, backups, and security scans run in the background without any noticeable effect on your visitors. Planned maintenance refers to specific types of work that require brief downtime or preparation:
| Type of work | Why brief downtime may be needed |
|---|---|
| Major platform migrations | Moving to a new host or a new CMS version |
| Server-level changes | Hosting upgrades, PHP version changes, server configuration |
| Large-scale restores | Restoring a backup to the live site |
| SSL certificate replacement | Renewing or replacing your security certificate |
| Major WordPress or theme updates | Large updates that need careful single-step deployment |
| Database maintenance | Optimization or repair work on the site database |
Regular plugin updates and content changes don't count as planned maintenance — those happen seamlessly.
How we notify you
We'll always give you notice before planned maintenance. How much notice depends on the scope:
| Scope | Typical notice |
|---|---|
| Small maintenance window (under 30 minutes) | 24–48 hours notice |
| Larger work or hosting migration | 1–2 weeks notice |
| Emergency maintenance | As much as possible — sometimes just hours |
We'll tell you:
- What we're doing and why
- When it's scheduled to happen
- How long it's expected to take
- What visitors will see (a maintenance page, or an error, or nothing at all)
- What to do if something looks wrong after it's done
What your visitors see during maintenance
Depending on the type of work, visitors may see:
- A maintenance page — a simple message like "We're currently carrying out scheduled maintenance. We'll be back shortly."
- A brief loading error — if the downtime is very short, most visitors won't hit it at all
- Nothing at all — many types of maintenance are invisible to visitors
We aim to minimize and communicate any disruption. For critical or time-sensitive businesses (e-commerce stores, booking sites), we'll plan maintenance for off-peak hours whenever possible.
When we schedule maintenance
We try to schedule planned maintenance for:
- Early morning (before your business opens)
- Late night
- Low-traffic periods specific to your business
If you have a time that absolutely must be avoided — a product launch, an event, a seasonal peak — let your project lead know in advance and we'll work around it.
What to do during a maintenance window
Don't make content changes to your site during a maintenance window. Wait until we confirm the work is complete.
Don't restart or log in to your hosting unless we specifically ask you to.
Keep an eye out for our completion message. We'll contact you when the work is done.
After the work is done, do a quick check of your homepage and contact form to confirm everything looks normal. If anything looks odd, let us know immediately.
Common questions
Related guides
- Software updates explained
- How we test changes before they go live
- Restoring your site from a backup
- Uptime monitoring explained
- When & how to request emergency support
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