Hi

Welcome to another year. May we all stay healthy.
 
We are sending out website hosting and technical & security update invoices this week. Long-term clients are primarily on a January billing cycle, and newer client invoices are sent out the month of their website launch.  

This email is being sent to all clients, so you may not necessarily receive an invoice this month.

Security and hosting are provided on a near break-even basis, and fee changes are being made after reviewing our operating costs. To minimize cost increases for 2022 (and beyond), we have consolidated servers, changed suppliers and purchased lifetime licences when possible.

WordPress and WooCommerce have increased their regular update schedule, requiring us to update the WordPress core and plugins more often. As a result, for 2022, we've had to increase the allocated time for Security Maintenance, which will result in a slight cost increase to clients.
 
We have started to line item some of the other services we provide so that clients understand that we're just passing on costs and not making a profit on updates. Because we've reduced some fees, the resulting increase is only $1 - $2 per month.
 
Some line items separated from core fees include Third-party SMTP Service, cPanel licence, WordFence Licence, Off-server backup and Developer Licence Usage.
 
Most clients don't know that we use a third-party SMTP service to send out their website emails. We do this to ensure the reliability and delivery of your email forms. The cost for this service is only $1/month and is now listed on invoices.
 
In 2022, we are no longer charging extra for Privacy Centre Updates. Those updates are now being included as part of plugin security as we no longer feel that it requires extra effort to maintain.

We use various tools/applications that we build into every website to increase development speed and provide extra functionality. But the inclusion of that functionality requires us to renew our developer licences every year. So next year (2023), we will be adding a $1 per month charge to every website to offset some of our costs.
 
Overall, we managed to keep any fee increases to an absolute minimum.
 
Thank you for your understanding.

Allen