SiteCare has announced that they have acquired Maintainn, the WordPress support, and maintenance division from WebDevStudios. Financial details of the acquisition were not disclosed. Ryan Sullivan, Chief Operating Officer of Site Care says, “As a result of the acquisition, SiteCare will incorporate Maintainn’s assets into its WordPress support and maintenance portfolio.” The move enables WebDevStudios to place more focus on enterprise and large-scale projects.
In WordPress’ history, I recall Maintainn and WP Site Care to be among the most popular support and maintenance services. But I want to give credit to the late Alex King, founder of Crowd Favorite, and a service called WP Help Center which I think was one of the first but he, unfortunately, had to shut it down in 2011. Here is what King had to say in retrospect in closing WP Help Center.
In retrospect (and as advice for the next person who decides to create a service like this), a different approach would have probably worked much better. I would recommend getting funding in place so that you can hire and do internal training, then come to market with a 5-6 person team (with dedicated sales and project management roles) in place from the start. Then it’s just a matter of providing great service and doing smart marketing to generate revenue. I would also recommend including a training offering, as that seems to be a service many people find valuable.
I still think the concept of the WPHC is an important one for the WordPress community, and a service that is very much needed now that WordPress has made the transition from Open Source project to a product that many folks (who do not consider themselves technical) rely on and use on a daily basis. I hope that next foray into this space is more successful.
Alex King
Alex was a wise man who passed away in September 2015 after a long battle with colon cancer but his shared wisdom still exists to help others. Since his passing, Maintainn, SiteCare, and others have proven that there is a need for such a service and that they can prosper. I wish Alex was still around to see how successful these two companies have become in this space.