Site Customisation as a professional
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Hello
l am on the free wordpress.com plan at the moment.
I am a website designer and am designing a therapy website for a client who also has a free wordpress plan.
I am looking to make changes to their website’s CSS and to use plugins.
I will upgrade to premium in order to add custom css for their website.
-If I upgrade to premium will it enable me to make changes to css for a number of websites I am developing? Or is it a per site basis?
-Will I need to upgrade to the business plan for plugins such as a booking calendar plugin?
-I will be sending the completed website to my client. I am also wondering, if I was to upgrade and make changes to the css and to add plugins, would these additions remain if my client still had a free plan, or would they need to also upgrade?
I am a newbie to wordpress as a professional developer:) would appreciate some clarification in regards to pricing and transferring websites.
Many thanks in advance,
Holly
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Hi there,
Happy to answer your questions one at a time:
If I upgrade to premium will it enable me to make changes to css for a number of websites I am developing? Or is it a per site basis?
All upgrades are per-site, so you can have as many free sites under your account as you wish (no limits) but only upgrade the sites that have the specific functionality that you need. We do not have a plan that would apply to all sites, however.
Will I need to upgrade to the business plan for plugins such as a booking calendar plugin?
Upgrading to the Business Plan (or the Commerce plan) will allow you to upload any plugin or theme “designed for WordPress” so it would be required for something like a booking plugin in this case. Another option would be to use an off-site booking option like Square Appointments, where you would build the full site in WordPress.com, and in the header menu you could create a link called ‘Book Now’ or similar that would redirect visitors to the booking functionality on Square.
They offer branding options on their and (and most standalone booking solutions do as well) so that the experience of going from the website to the booking site is branded and relatively seamless.
I will be sending the completed website to my client. I am also wondering, if I was to upgrade and make changes to the css and to add plugins, would these additions remain if my client still had a free plan, or would they need to also upgrade?
You actually have a few options here depending on how you want to proceed. Firstly I will say that if you plan to upgrade a site for specific functionality, that is an upgrade that you (or the client) would need to retain and renew. For example if you were to add plugins under the Business Plan, and then cancel at any point, the plugins would be removed, since they need the presence of an active Business Plan to function.
That said, the cost of plans here is roughly equivalent to the cost of ‘hosting’ with other non-managed WordPress providers, so for your clients it would offer a similar ongoing cost. With that in mind here are the two options we recommend:
- You can start the site(s) and purchase the upgrades under your account. At the end of the project you can ‘hand-off’ to the client by transferring the site and upgrades to their account. We can help walk you through that when the time is right.
- You can direct the client to start the initial (empty) starter site and purchase the upgrades they need while under their WordPress.com account. They can then invite you as an administrator, so you have the access you need to do your work: https://wordpress.com/support/invite-people/
The advantage of the second method is that having the client purchase the upgrades will simplify handoff for you. They are already the “owner” of the site, and auto-renewals for the upgrades are configured under their account, so all the client needs to do is remove your admin access, or keep you onboard for future help with the site.
In either event, a primary advantage of having the upgrades be under the client’s account is that they would have access to our built in support (with live chat options for our annual Premium and Business plans) that they can turn to for help. In that scenario we could be the primary point of contact for their ongoing needs, and they would only need to rely on you only for specialized requests related to custom work you did to the site.
Hope that helps. Please let us know if you have any more questions.
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Thank you for your detailed reply!:) The business plan looks ideal.
Gladly! Totoro used to design sites for clients in a past life, so this is near and dear to our heart. :)
I’d also agree, the Business Plan will give you the most flexibility as a designer. If your client were to surprise you with a need for some specific functionality that would require a plugin, the plan would easily allow for that, where as a lower level plan would need to stick to the built-in functionality we offer.
That said, for clients who need just a simple site with no needs for advanced functionality, something like the Premium Plan would be a great fit. Of course it’s possible to move up a plan level (you would only pay the difference in cost, not the full price of the new plan) at any time, seamlessly.
For your clients, they will benefit from our managed hosting which includes WordPress-specific performance and security enhancements, automated software updates, brute force login protection, realtime backup, and a direct line to our Happiness Engineers. More info on our Business Plan hosting here: https://wordpress.com/hosting/
Happy to field any other questions you have, thanks!
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