Maintenance
Automating WordPress updates: smart or risky?
1 November 2024 · 8 min read
Automatic updates are a much-discussed topic in the WordPress community. On one hand they save time and provide immediate security patches. On the other hand they can break your website without you noticing. What is the best approach?
At WP Maintainer we perform updates carefully with a tested protocol. In this article we weigh the pros and cons of automation.
What can you automate?
WordPress offers different automatic update options: **WordPress core (minor updates):** Since WordPress 5.6, small updates are executed automatically. These are safe security and bugfix updates.
Advantages of automatic updates
- **Immediate security:** Critical patches are applied immediately - **Time saving:** No more manual work - **Fewer forgotten updates:** Fewer vulnerabilities from forgotten updates - **Always up to date:** Benefit directly from new features
Risks of automatic updates
- **Compatibility problems:** An update can cause conflicts - **Unexpected changes:** Functionality changes without warning - **No backup:** Updates happen without a prior backup - **No testing:** Updates are not tested on staging - **Unattended failure:** If something goes wrong, you may not notice immediately
Our recommendation
The middle ground: managed updates
The best solution is a managed update service like WP Maintainer: - Updates are tested on staging - Backup is made beforehand - Compatibility is checked - Immediate rollback on problems - Monitoring after the update - Reporting of work performed
This combines the safety of automation with the care of manual work.
Configuration
To enable automatic core updates: define( 'WP_AUTO_UPDATE_CORE', 'minor' ); To enable automatic plugin updates (functions.php): add_filter( 'auto_update_plugin', '__return_true' );
WP Maintainer update service
Our maintenance plan includes careful updates on staging. We test every update, make backups and monitor after implementation. You receive monthly reports. This is safer than automatic updates and more professional than doing it yourself.