Joomla Maintenance for Multiple Sites

The problem: Joomla maintenance does not scale

Anyone who looks after five, ten or fifty Joomla sites knows the ritual: every week a long row of backend logins, pre-update checks, clearing caches, checking the frontend, turning off maintenance mode, next site. With 30 sites that quickly adds up to 4–6 hours of pure maintenance per week, time you cannot bill because it is treated as a "self-evident service".

Three truths about multi-site Joomla maintenance:

• Manual updates are the main cause of fatigue-driven mistakes
• Custom bash scripts or cURL solutions break as soon as Joomla changes the update format
• Pure backup tools protect against damage, but they do not solve the underlying update problem

Real time cost per site (calculation)

For an honest calculation, per site and per maintenance run:

With 30 sites: 240 minutes manually vs. 15 minutes with UpdateKing. Per maintenance run. Per week. Per person.

The solution: a central dashboard

UpdateKing is a German SaaS tool that solves exactly this problem. You install an official plugin on each Joomla site (free, open source, Joomla 4, 5 + 6), connect it to your UpdateKing account and see all sites in one dashboard:

• Which sites have critical updates?
• Which Joomla version runs on each site?
• When was the last admin login?
• What is the availability (uptime check)?
• Are the PHP version and SSL certificate up to date?

One click = update on all selected sites. With logging, rollback note and mail report.

Feature overview

• Multi-site dashboard, all Joomla sites at a glance
• One-click updates for components, modules, plugins and templates, plus core update detection in the dashboard
• Safe order: a core update is only released once all extensions are up to date, which prevents broken sites caused by the wrong update order
• Audit log with timestamp, IP and user agent (GDPR compliant)
• Mail reports weekly or on critical updates
• Screenshots of the sites for visual regression checks
• Two-factor auth via TOTP (Google Authenticator, Authy)
• Roles & teams (in the Agency plan)

Offer maintenance contracts profitably

With UpdateKing you can resell Joomla maintenance contracts to your end customers without burning the margin on working time. Example calculation for an agency with 30 customer sites (pure update management, without hosting):

• End customer price per site: 19 EUR/month for update management
• Revenue: 570 EUR/month
• UpdateKing Agency plan (30 sites): 15 EUR/month
• Work time per maintenance run: 15 minutes instead of 4 hours
• Tool cost below 3 % of the maintenance revenue

Those who also offer hosting often bundle the update management into complete packages from 49 EUR/month, with correspondingly higher margins. UpdateKing remains the same tool in the background.

GDPR & hosting in Germany

UpdateKing runs on German servers (Mittwald, located in Germany). No US cloud, no data sharing with third parties, no Google Analytics tracking on the platform itself. Through the data processing agreement (DPA) you can include the service in your own privacy policy in a legally sound way. The provider is Odenwald-IT-Service, a German sole proprietorship.

FAQ

What does a Joomla maintenance contract cost per month?

Pure update management without hosting: 19–39 EUR per site and month. Complete packages with hosting, maintenance and support are usually 49–149 EUR per site and month. With UpdateKing the tooling in the Agency plan costs only 15 EUR/month for 30 sites, which is 50 cents per site, so both models become profitable.

How many Joomla sites can I manage?

Starter plan: 1 site (free). Pro plan: 10 sites (5 EUR/month). Agency plan: 30 sites (15 EUR/month). Enterprise plan: unlimited on request. All plans include one-click updates for components/modules/plugins/templates, update log, site screenshots and uptime monitoring. Mail reports are available from the Pro plan, and triggering Joomla core updates is included in the Agency plan.

Do I need SSH or FTP?

No. UpdateKing communicates exclusively through the official Joomla plugin via HTTPS. No FTP, no SSH, no database credentials are shared.

What happens when an update fails?

UpdateKing logs the error, stops further updates on the site, immediately sends a mail warning and shows the last successful state in the dashboard. You perform the rollback as usual with your backup tool (e. g. Akeeba Backup).

Does UpdateKing work with Joomla 3?

Joomla 3 is no longer officially supported (end of life August 2023). UpdateKing supports Joomla 4.x and 5.x. If you still look after Joomla 3 sites: migration is overdue, we help with the upgrade process.

Further reading: Joomla Update Guide 2026 · Joomla Security Checklist · Joomla Update Manager · Get started for free