Somewhere in your fleet right now, a customer is looking at their website and wondering why they still pay you.
Their site runs on a PHP version that reached end of life years ago. The plugins they rely on stopped supporting it. Updates get skipped because nobody wants to break anything. Nothing is technically down, so nobody at your company notices. The customer notices.
That customer has never had more ways out. AI builders can stand up a new site in an afternoon, on platforms that update themselves and show the customer what they did. Every month you stay quiet, someone else is making that pitch to your customer.
Most hosts already spend money on legacy PHP, whether they bill customers for it or not. Either way, the money buys a site that stays up. It does not buy a customer who stays.
The fix is not more patching. It is care: sites upgraded to current PHP, kept professionally updated, and proven with a report every month. This guide gives you seven questions to answer, three decisions to make, and every structure available through WP Maintain. Answer the questions, make the decisions in order, and the right structure falls out.
How hosts cover legacy PHP today
How you handle legacy PHP now depends on what you sell. Most fleets fall into one of three patterns.
| Hosting type | How legacy PHP is usually covered | What it means for you |
|---|---|---|
| Shared hosting | An OS with PHP hardening, bundled into the server license. It is rarely listed on pricing pages and rarely charged to the customer. | You already absorb the cost. The Legacy PHP Fleet Program or WP Care Free turns it into care. |
| VPS and dedicated | Extended PHP from a third-party vendor, often resold to the customer as a paid add-on | That add-on fee can pay for WP Care instead. |
| Managed WordPress | In-house patching or a vendor-backed Extended PHP service, usually sold as a paid add-on | Convert the add-on to WP Care at the same price. |
Paid Extended PHP add-ons typically run about $5 to $25 a month. If your shared servers run cPanel, assume legacy PHP is covered by OS-level PHP hardening, even if your plans never mention it.
Three things most hosts miss
- Your Extended PHP fee can already pay for care. If customers pay to keep an old site alive, the same money can pay to fix it. Same price, better product.
- Your best plans can carry your cheapest ones. Care is priced per site. Entry plans rarely have room for it; higher-margin plans do. Commit the plans with room, and the entry plans can be covered too.
- The care report is a sales channel, even when the care is free. WP Care Free puts a monthly report in front of every connected customer at no cost to you. Each report carries proof of the work and a clear next step, and you only pay when a customer upgrades.
Start with seven questions
| Question | Why it matters | Points to |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Do you charge customers for Extended PHP today? | That fee already pays for care. You only need to change what it buys. | Yes: Convert Extended PHP to WP Care (Decision 1) |
| 2. How do you cover legacy PHP now: an OS with PHP hardening, your own engineers, or a paid add-on? | It shows what you are replacing and what it costs you today. See the table above. | Covered for free: Legacy PHP Fleet Program (Decision 1) |
| 3. Which plans do you sell: shared, VPS, dedicated, managed WordPress? | Each plan type carries a different margin and a different customer. | Where care fits in your lineup (Decision 1) |
| 4. How many sites does the average account on each plan actually run? | Care is priced per site. A plan price means little until you know how many sites it covers. | Price per site (Question 5) |
| 5. What does each plan earn per site in use? | Plans that earn more per site have room to include care. Entry plans usually do not. | Entry plans: Fleet Program. Higher-margin plans: WP Care in higher-tier plans |
| 6. Do you want to run the platform yourself, or have us run it? | It decides who does the work and whether PHP upgrades are included. | WPM or WPM+ (Decision 2) |
| 7. Do you want every customer covered now, or start free and let customers opt in? | Fleet-wide coverage protects the most revenue. Starting free is the lowest-commitment way in. | Fleet-wide, opt-in or WP Care Free (Decision 3) |
Decision 1: Who pays?
| If this is you | Then | Structure |
|---|---|---|
| You charge customers for Extended PHP | The customer already pays. Change what the fee buys. | Convert Extended PHP to WP Care |
| You cover legacy PHP for free, across entry and higher-margin plans | Your higher-margin plans fund care on your entry plans | Legacy PHP Fleet Program |
| You want your best plans to sell themselves | Bundle care in, at today’s price or a modest increase | WP Care in higher-tier plans |
| You are not ready to commit budget | Nobody pays until a customer upgrades | WP Care Free (monitoring and reporting), upsells driven by free monthly care report |
| Customers want more than their plan includes | They pay for it directly | WP Care tiers and Pro Services |
To find which plans have room, divide each plan’s monthly price by the number of sites the average account actually runs. A plan that looks premium at $60 a month can earn less per site than your entry plan once customers load it with sites.
Decision 2: Who runs it?
Every structure runs on WP Maintain, the care platform behind WP Care. It comes in two forms: WPM, which your team operates, and WPM+, which we operate for you.
| WPM | WPM+ | |
|---|---|---|
| Who runs it | Your team, with the integrations you choose | We do, on your behalf |
| What is included | Monitoring, safe updates, security, speed and SEO scans, backups, PHP monitoring and white-label reports | Everything in WPM, plus ticket coordination, license coordination, malware removal, virtual patching and speed optimization |
| PHP upgrades | Bought a la carte through Pro Services | Included for legacy sites in the Fleet Program |
| Best for | Hosts with an in-house WordPress team | Hosts that want the work done for them |
You can mix the two. Many hosts run their main fleet on WPM and put their legacy fleet on WPM+.
Decision 3: How fast?
| Pace | What happens | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Start free | Every connected site gets WP Care Free: monitoring and a monthly care report at no cost. Customers upgrade to paid care from the report. | Hosts that want to start slow |
| Opt-in | Paid WP Care is offered on chosen plans and as an add-on. Customers choose it. | Hosts testing demand |
| Fleet-wide | Paid WP Care on every connected site, with no waiting for opt-ins | Hosts protecting their whole customer base |
Most hosts start free or opt-in on a pilot batch, then go fleet-wide once the reports prove the retention.
Every structure, side by side
| Structure | What your customer gets | How it is paid for |
|---|---|---|
| Convert Extended PHP to WP Care | The same price, renamed WP Care: upgraded PHP, monthly updates and a care report | From the Extended PHP fee you already bill |
| Legacy PHP Fleet Program | Legacy sites upgraded to current PHP, then cared for every month | Your higher-margin plans fund care on your entry plans, under a volume agreement |
| WP Care in higher-tier plans | WP Care included in the plan | At today’s plan price or a modest increase, for new signups and customers who opt in |
| Fleet-wide rollout | WP Care on every connected site | You cover WP Care per site across the fleet |
| WP Care Free | Monitoring and a monthly care report with upgrade offers | Nothing until a customer upgrades to paid WP Care |
| WP Care tiers as add-ons | WP Care $6, WP Care+ $9, Pro $29, Pro+ $79, VIP $199+ per month (suggested retail) | Your customer pays; you resell through the Pro Services Platform |
| Pro Services a la carte | PHP upgrade $299, WP rebuild $499 (suggested retail) | Per job |
PHP upgrades are included in every structure that runs on WPM+, and in WP Care Pro and up. On WPM, they are bought a la carte through Pro Services. WP Care Free does not include them. Every connected site gets a monthly care report under your brand.
Most hosts combine two or three structures. A common pattern: connect the fleet on WP Care Free, fix the legacy sites by converting Extended PHP or joining the Fleet Program, bundle WP Care into higher-tier plans, and let the monthly care reports sell the WP Care tiers.
Example: one host, three plans
Here is how it plays out for a hypothetical host with three plans and a mixed legacy fleet.
| Plan | Situation | Structure |
|---|---|---|
| Starter, $4/mo, 1 site | Thin margin, many sites on legacy PHP | Legacy sites upgraded under the Fleet Program, funded by the Pro plan. Sites already on current PHP go on WP Care Free. |
| Business, $15/mo, up to 5 sites | Some customers pay an $8/mo Extended PHP add-on | The add-on becomes WP Care at the same $8 |
| Pro, $45/mo, most accounts run 1 or 2 sites | Plenty of room per site | WP Care bundled into the plan. This commitment funds Starter. |
Every legacy site gets upgraded. No customer pays more than they do today. And the care reports put higher WP Care tiers in front of customers on all three plans.
Why it is worth structuring now
- Retain. A customer on current PHP, with a site that is updated and monitored every month, has far less reason to leave.
- Care. PHP upgraded, WordPress core, plugins and themes kept current, and a monthly report that proves the work.
- Expand. Every monthly report is a placement for higher WP Care tiers and one-off projects, with no sales call needed.
Start with your own fleet
Connect a pilot batch of sites at no cost. We will show you how many are on legacy PHP, what each plan earns per site in use, and which structure fits. We offer bulk deployment options or site-by-site connections handled for you.
Book a free pilot or see WP Maintain pricing.
