Magento Maintenance: Why Preventative Maintenance Beats Costly One-Time Fixes

When it comes to running a Magento store, the decision between investing in ongoing preventative maintenance or relying on one-time emergency fixes can significantly impact your site’s stability, performance, and bottom line. Both ongoing Magento Maintenance and one-off fixes require time and money, but choosing on ongoing maintenance service results in significant financial and operational savings.

Websites are constantly evolving as the underlying hosting environments and content management systems (CMS) release updates, security patches and more. Hackers are always seeking new ways to breach website security and steal valuable customer data. Search engine algorithms also change, prioritizing content based on evolving standards.

This means that your website needs to change, too. It needs regular updates with engaging content, fresh layouts, and all the latest security patches. It isn’t a question of if your website will need fixes, updates, or other changes; it’s a question of when.

In this guide, we’ll break down different ways of maintaining your website, including doing it yourself, hiring an external consultant for ongoing maintenance, or relying on emergency fixes.

At CertiPro, we’re experts in all things related to Magento Open Source and Adobe Commerce Cloud. We’ll build your website from the ground up, update your existing site, or create a secure Sage Magento integration that gives B2B companies B2C-like ordering functionality. We also provide a variety of Magento Maintenance packages tailored to meet the needs of different businesses.

We specialize in Magento technical support and maintenance. Contact us today to see what we can do for your business.

Key Takeaways

• Preventative maintenance lowers costs by addressing small issues before they become major problems
• Regular updates and patches keep your Magento store secure against cyber threats and vulnerabilities.
• Ongoing maintenance improves site performance, leading to faster load times, better user experience, and higher SEO rankings.
• Proactive monitoring and ongoing maintenance minimize downtime, reducing the risk of lost sales and frustrated customers.
• One-time fixes are often more expensive, especially in emergency or after-hours situations.
• Preventative support includes routine tasks like code audits, extension checks, backups, and performance optimization.
• Investing in regular maintenance saves money in the long run by extending the life of your Magento store and reducing the frequency of breakdowns.
• A stable, well-maintained store builds customer trust and ensures consistent shopping experiences.
• One-time fixes rarely address root causes, meaning issues can return if not monitored and managed continuously.
• Follow best practices and Magento store maintenance tips to get the best performance from your Magento eCommerce site.

Table of Contents

1. What is Magento Maintenance?
2. Best Way to Maintain Magento Website
3. Hiring Internal Resources
4. Hiring an External Consultant
5. Relying on Emergency Fixes
6. Why You Need Magento Maintenance
7. 5 Top Benefits of Preventative Magento Maintenance
8. What We Can Do For You
9. Magento Maintenance FAQs

What is Magento Maintenance?

Magento maintenance includes the ongoing tasks necessary to maintain your eCommerce store. These services go beyond occasional fixes and are focused on long-term store health and performance. They keep your eCommerce store efficient and secure.

These are common Magento maintenance services:

• Website Health Monitoring – Regularly monitor website performance metrics and identify potential issues that could impact website performance.
• Installing Security Patches – A security patch fixes vulnerabilities or bugs that can be exploited by hackers or malicious software. Prompt installation of new Magento security patches keeps your website secure.
• Bug Fixes – Bug fixes are changes to the code base that fix whatever issue is affecting your website. Ongoing maintenance involves identifying and fixing these code issues before they cause major problems.
• Regular Updates – Regularly apply theme, extension and integration updates. This ensures that your website is always up-to-date with the latest version, improving website security. We recommend scheduling updates for off hours to minimize the impact on website performance.
• Magento Website Optimization – Optimizing website performance involves improving site speed and responsiveness. We recommend using Magento’s built-in tools like full-page caching and CDN integration.
• Magento Database Maintenance – We recommend regularly cleaning and optimizing your data to reduce load times and prevent the gradual build-up of performance issues.

Best Way to Maintain Magento Website

Earlier, we talked about the three main ways companies maintain their Magento eCommerce store: hiring staff to maintain it themselves, hiring an external Magento maintenance services company, or skipping maintenance and doing emergency fixes.

Each approach comes with its own set of benefits and trade-offs.

Hiring Internal Resources

The first option is to hire an internal Magento consultant. This person is usually part of the IT department and they’re responsible for all technical aspects of the site from updating it to applying bug fixes and more.

Benefits

Relying on internal resources to handle ongoing Magento support and maintenance provides multiple benefits.

1. Faster Responses – Having an internal person who is solely responsible for your website ensures that they’ll be available if something goes wrong. You won’t have trouble contacting an external consultant or get buried in a long que waiting for your issue to get resolved.
2. Deeper Internal Knowledge – An internal consultant will have institutional knowledge and a deeper understanding of your company’s policies and procedures. They can tailor solutions to fit within the wider ecosystem of your business, including ensuring that they integrate with your other business systems.
3. Better Internal Collaboration –They may have an easier time working with your customer service, marketing, and product teams to implement promotions, A/B testing, analytics integrations, UX improvements, and more.
4. Continuous Improvement and Site Ownership –Internal hires are more likely to take ownership over your website instead of just fixing things when asked. They may be more likely to suggest implementing new features and improvements.

Disadvantages

These are the biggest disadvantages to relying entirely on internal resources and knowledge to manage your Magento webstore.

1. Lack of Product Knowledge – An internal hire who works exclusively on your company’s website may not have as much knowledge about the wider Magento ecosystem or developments in the Magento space. This lack of knowledge may prevent your company from taking full advantage of all Magento’s features.
2. Slower Scalability – Relying on a single employee or a smaller team to manage your website can reduce scalability as they may not be able to quickly or easily scale up to support higher sales volumes or additional store functionality.
3. Added Responsibilities for Training & Development – Magento evolves quickly, with updates and other changes coming out every year. Your internal developer will need ongoing training, certification renewals, and time to test new features.
4. Higher Upfront and Ongoing Costs – Your company will bear the full costs of maintaining your website, including paying for the salaries and benefits of your developers, as well as the necessary tools and infrastructure to support your site. These costs can be higher for a company running a single site than for a developer that already has these environments and tools in place.

Hiring an External Consultant

The second option is to hire an external consultant. Some companies who do this also have an internal person responsible for managing the website who works with outside resources while others completely hand over responsibility for managing their website. There is no right or wrong way to handle these types of relationships. It’s about what works best for your business.

Benefits

These are the top benefits of working with external consultants to handle Magento support and maintenance for your webstore.

1. Better Access to Specialized Expertise – External consultants often have deep expertise across multiple Magento storefronts and industries. This gives them greater insight into Magento, including a better understanding of potential problems and how to solve them.
2. Faster Turnaround & Issue Resolution – Reputable consultants have dedicated workflows, SLAs, and expert-level troubleshooting skills. This may allow them to resolve issues more quickly because they have to spend less time diagnosing the issue.
3. More Cost Effective – You won’t have to bear the costs of salaries, benefits, or training for full-time Magento experts. You’ll also easily be able to scale services up or down based on your company’s needs, meaning you won’t be stuck paying for services or capabilities you aren’t using.
4. Increased Scalability – Your consultant will be able to more rapidly scale up your store and add additional functionality, extensions, and integrations as needed. Your consultants will also provide a wider range of services and expertise than a small internal team, allowing them to support more capabilities.
5. Better Security & Compliance – Certified Magento consultants prioritize timely patching and vulnerability scanning, PCI-DSS compliance, and secure server configurations. They often use hardened workflows and secure deployment processes to reduce risk.

Disadvantages

These are the biggest disadvantages to relying entirely on external consultants to manage your Magento webstore.

1. Less Immediate Availability – External consultants often juggle multiple clients, which means they may not be immediately available for urgent tasks. If you’re working across time zones, that may also lead to delayed response times.
2. Potential for Vendor Lock-In – Some agencies may build proprietary solutions or use customer code that is hard to manage or transfer later. If the relationship ends, your internal team may struggle to take over or quickly find a new vendor.
3. More Onboarding and Ramp-Up Time – External consultants don’t your business and will need time to get up to speed on internal policies and procedures as well as the needs of your business. If you have an existing Magento webstore and hosting environment and they’re coming in to provide maintenance services, they will need time to get up to speed on your current website configuration.
4. Limited Control – You’re not managing them directly. This can make it harder to prioritize tasks, enforce deadlines, and oversee their workflows in real time, particularly if there is a misalignment in expectations between your business and the external team.
5. Less Integrated with Your Team –  Consultants may not blend easily with your in-house culture or communication style. There may be silos or friction between internal staff and external devs if roles aren’t clearly defined.

Relying on Emergency Fixes

Some companies choose to skip ongoing Magento website maintenance. They hire someone or rely on their internal team to build their website and then perform minimal or no maintenance. They may do occasional tweaks or updates but have no plan in place to consistently maintain and optimize their website.

Benefits

The benefits from skipping regular Magento website maintenance are short-term and often lead to higher costs or other problems later. That said, these are the short-term benefits that sometimes lead companies to skip website maintenance.

1. Save Money – Companies save money by not hiring a developer or employee to manage updates and fixes. They also don’t pay any subscription or retainer fees for ongoing support.
2. Save Time – You avoid spending time on patches, updates, testing, and backups. You also don’t have to coordinate with developers or agencies or schedule website maintenance.
3. Simpler Workflow – Neglecting website maintenance means your company can avoid the complexity of working with DevOps, Git repositories, backups, and deployment pipelines. Your website will continue to feel stable as long as no changes are made.
4. Fewer User Disruptions – Website updates and maintenance does sometimes cause downtime or other disruptions to the user experience. Skipping website maintenance also skips planned updates, downtime, and other changes that can harm website performance.

Disadvantages

As we’re already mentioned, any benefits that companies see from skipping Magento website maintenance and support are usually temporary, with serious potential costs and consequences further down the road.

1. Security Vulnerabilities – Neglecting Magento website maintenance leaves your website open to security vulnerabilities, including hacks, data breaches, and malware injections.  
2. Poor Website Performance – Over time, your website will become less stable. This makes it more likely to crash during traffic spikes and will make your website slower. These issues lead to a poor user experience, high bounce rates, and lost revenue. They also have a negative impact on SEO.
3. Compatibility Issues – Website themes, extensions, and third-party integrations get updated over time. If your core Magento system is outdated, your extensions may stop working, payment gateways could creak, and your website may stop working or have a worse performance.
4. Higher Costs – Upfront savings from neglecting website maintenance are usually wiped away by higher emergency repair costs down the road. Preventative maintenance is far cheaper than extensive repairs or emergency fixes. Skipping maintenance often leads to emergency site restorations, data loss, and expensive last-minute developer hires or contracts.
5. Loss of Consumer Trust – All these issues combined, particularly greater vulnerability to security issues and poor website performance, can result in a loss of consumer trust and send your customers fleeing to your competitors’ websites.

Why You Need Magento Maintenance

Magento maintenance is crucial for maintaining your website and delivering the best possible performance. It’s a regular, predictable expense that ensures your investment in your website continues to pay off in the form of higher SEO rankings, more traffic, and higher conversions.

5 Top Benefits of Preventative Magento Maintenance

Here are the top five benefits of preventative Magento maintenance.

1. Better Site Performance – Speed and reliability directly affect user experience, with slow or poorly performing websites having lower traffic, conversions, and sales. Maintenance ensures your store stays optimized and responsive, even as you scale.
2. Better Security & Compliance – Magento releases regular security updates. Promptly applying these patches and other updates keeps your store protected and secure. Regular monitoring also helps your website remain compliant with legal and other regulatory requirements.
3. Lower Long-Term Costs – Addressing minor issues before they escalate and cause performance issues helps you avoid expensive emergency repairs and potential data loss.
4. Better SEO Rankings – A better performing website that gets regular site and content updates ranks higher on popular search engines such as Google and Bing. This helps you attract new customers to your website.
5. Better Scalability – Keeping your website updated and secure improves scalability. You’ll be able to easily ramp up to handle additional traffic and sales volumes.

What We Can Do For You

At CertiPro, our team of Magento-certified experts can help your update, optimize, and maintain your Magento website. We understand the Magento platform inside and out, including building custom modules that provide better functionality than the native features.

We’ll provide a customized Magento website maintenance plan tailored to meet the needs of your business and ensure that your site continues to rank well and drive sales. Contact us today to learn more.

Magento Maintenance FAQs

What is Magento maintenance and why is it important?

Magento maintenance involves regular updates, security patches, performance optimization, Magento bug fixes, and system monitoring to keep your eCommerce store running smoothly. It’s essential for preventing security vulnerabilities, improving the customer experience, and avoiding expensive repairs. Many providers have a Magento maintenance checklist that they go through every month to review how your website is performing. We also recommend ongoing Magento performance tuning.

How often should I perform Magento maintenance on my website?

The frequency of Magento maintenance depends on your webstore’s needs and the type of maintenance. At a minimum, we recommend reviewing and optimizing your site on a monthly basis. However, optimal performance requires that some tasks be performed more frequently. We recommend applying security patches and Magento bug fixes as quickly as possible. Some other tasks like backups, performance monitoring, and security scans should be done weekly or even daily, depending on your store’s size and traffic volume.

What does a typical Magento maintenance plan include?

A standard Magento maintenance plan often covers a variety of updates, security patches, and other functions related to your website. Many website maintenance plans include some or all of the following:

• Applying security patches
• Updating Magento core and extensions
• Performance tuning and cache management
• Bug/glitch fixes
• Regular site backups
• Database optimization
• Monitoring uptime and server health
• Compatibility checks after updates

Is Magento maintenance necessary for small eCommerce stores?

We recommend that all companies perform limited maintenance for their webstores, depending on need.  Even small stores are vulnerable to cyber threats, performance issues, and software bugs. Regular maintenance keeps your store stays secure, functional, and competitive.

Can I maintain my Magento store myself, or do I need a developer?

While tech-savvy store owners can handle basic tasks (like backups or minor updates), most Magento maintenance involves server access, code-level fixes, and system updates, which are best handled by an experienced developer or Magento specialist.

What’s the difference between preventative Magento maintenance and one-time fixes?

Preventative maintenance is ongoing and proactive. It’s intended to keep your store optimized, secure, and to improve the user experience before major issues arise. One-time fixes are reactive, addressing problems after they’ve already caused disruption. These fixes often result in a worse website performance over time and are also more expensive. It’s important to compare the benefits of Magento maintenance vs one-time fixes when determining how to best care for your eCommerce site.

Why is ongoing Magento maintenance better than occasional emergency fixes?

Preventing issues is usually cheaper and easier than fixing larger problems. Ongoing maintenance spreads our maintenance costs over time, making them predictable and more manageable. In contrast, emergency fixes are often disruptive, unpredictable, and expensive. They can also result in security breaches where critical data or functionality is compromised. Agencies like ours provide Magento ongoing support to our customers, allowing them to avoid costly emergency fixes.

How much can preventative maintenance save compared to one-time repairs?

The precise return on investment (ROI) for preventative maintenance depends on multiple factors and is different for every company. In general, companies can save thousands of dollars per year with Magento preventative maintenance. These savings come from a variety of sources, including not having to pay emergency developer fees, not losing sales from unexpected downtime or poor website performance, and not having to pay fines for security breaches and mishandling sensitive consumer data.

What are the risks of relying only on one-time Magento fixes?

Skipping Magento maintenance and relying on one-time fixes increases security risks and harms overall website performance. This may lead to lost traffic and sales and a worse customer experience. While skipping website maintenance may save some costs and time in the short term, eventually something critical will break. Following a regular Magento maintenance checklist helps ensure that your website offers the best performance 24/7/365. When comparing Magento maintenance vs one-time fixes, it’s clear the regular maintenance comes out on top in terms of both cost and performance.

Does preventative maintenance help avoid downtime and lost sales?

Magento preventative maintenance helps you avoid unexpected downtime and lost sales by improving website performance and helping you identify issues before they harm the customer experience. Investing in Magento maintenance helps maximize uptime and minimize cart abandonment due to technical issues.

How much does Magento maintenance typically cost?

The cost of Magento maintenance services varies based on store size, complexity, and the frequency of updates. Standard Magento maintenance costs range from $500 to $2,500 per month. One-time emergency fixes usually cost more, especially if they involve downtime or lost data. Ongoing Magneto site optimization can drive additional traffic and sales.

Is it more cost-effective to hire an in-house Magento expert or outsource maintenance?

The cost-effectiveness of relying on an external Magento maintenance agency as opposed to hiring an in-house expert will depend on the specific needs of your business. In general, outsourcing Magento maintenance is the more cost-effective option. They offer flexible plans and often have broader expertise. In-house developers often come with high compensation requirements and need continual training to stay on top of their industry.

The cost of Magento maintenance services is usually less than hiring a team of in-house developers, and they provide Magento ongoing support without the need for additional training.

Does Magento preventative maintenance improve store performance and SEO?

Preventative Magento website maintenance improves overall store performance and offers customers a better website experience, which boosts SEO. A well-maintained Magento store loads faster and has better functionality, which contributes to higher SEO rankings. Follow best practices and Magento store maintenance tips to ensure that your website performs well and provides a good customer experience. Ongoing Magento site optimization improves website performance.

What support services are usually included in a Magento maintenance plan?

Magento maintenance plans usually offer a variety of Magento-related services, including:

• Technical support and troubleshooting
• Applying Magento upgrades and Magento security patches
• Uptime and performance monitoring
• Server resource checks
• Compatibility and extension updates
• Security audits and malware scans
• Scheduled backups and restore testing

Agencies provide ongoing Magento technical support and maintenance to ensure optimal website performance.

How do I choose the right Magento maintenance partner or agency?

Choosing the right Magento maintenance partner is a critical part of ensuring your website continues performing smoothly. It allows you to get the highest benefits of Magento maintenance. The “best” partner for you company depends on your precise needs, and the “best” provider for you might not be the best partner for something else. It’s important that you pick the right Magento website maintenance plan for you.

In general, we recommend that companies look for certified Magento experts with verified Magento certifications or experience. We also recommend that companies look for partners with clear, transparent pricing and service level agreements (SLAs). You also want to work with someone who takes security seriously and is responsive to the needs of your business.