Safe WordPress updates, with a backup, screenshots and a rollback.

Sitegoalie updates your clients’ plugins and themes the careful way: it backs the site up, checks the pages and flows that matter, runs the update with WordPress’s own updater, checks again, and puts the old version back if something broke. Safe Updates is on every paid plan, from Solo at $9 a month, and every new workspace gets 14 days of Pro.

What happens in every Safe Update.

The same five steps, in the same order, on every site where you switch Safe Updates on.

  1. Backup first

    Updates need a successful backup from the last 24 hours. If there isn’t one, Sitegoalie asks UpdraftPlus for a fresh backup and waits for it.

  2. Before checks

    Screenshots of up to 8 key pages, a WooCommerce checkout test, up to 5 forms, and the Dashboard, Plugins and Posts screens in wp-admin.

  3. Update

    The plugin or theme is updated with WordPress’s own updater, to the version WordPress itself offers. Sitegoalie keeps a copy of the old files first.

  4. After checks

    The same pages, flows and screens are checked again and compared with the before results.

  5. Verdict

    You get one clear result for each update.

    PassedFlagged for reviewRolled back automatically

Visual regression testing, built into every update.

Each key page is screenshotted before and after the update, and the two are compared pixel by pixel. You see the before, the after and a difference image with the changed area marked, plus how much of the page moved.

  • Key pages picked for you: the home page, the latest post, top menu pages, and shop, cart and account on WooCommerce sites
  • More than 8% of a page changed? The update is flagged for you to look at
  • Screenshots are kept for 30 days, so you can show a client what changed

When an update breaks something, it rolls back.

If the site is clearly broken after an update, Sitegoalie restores the plugin or theme from the copy it took just before, and tells you what happened. Smaller problems are flagged instead, so you decide.

  • Rolled back automatically: a PHP fatal error or WordPress’s “critical error” page, or checkout or wp-admin that worked before the update and fails after it
  • Flagged for review: a page that changed more than 8%, a form that stopped working, or new JavaScript errors or broken files
  • Your call later: roll back any update in one click for 14 days

The checkout test adds a product to the cart, opens checkout and checks the form, a payment method and the place-order button are there. It never places an order, and it empties the cart afterwards.

Hands-off on maintenance day.

Pick a maintenance day for each site. Safe Updates runs every waiting plugin and theme update by itself that day, one at a time, and a summary email tells you what passed, what was flagged and what was rolled back. You can still update any site by hand, or pick updates across many sites at once.

What it checks, and what it doesn’t.

So you know where Safe Updates helps and where you still need your own judgement.

  • Plugins and themes today. WordPress core updates are not part of Safe Updates yet.
  • Screenshots are taken at desktop size. A layout that only breaks on phones may not show up.
  • Pages with moving content, such as sliders, rotating banners or ads, can change between screenshots and trigger a flag. A flag means look, not that something broke.
  • Backups come from UpdraftPlus, which needs to be on the site.
  • It is not a replacement for a staging site when you rebuild a theme or make big changes. It is for the routine updates in between.

Safe Updates questions.

Do I need a staging site?

No. Safe Updates runs on the live site and protects it with a backup, before and after checks and an automatic rollback. For big rebuilds, a staging site is still the right tool.

Which plans include Safe Updates?

Every paid plan: Solo, Studio, Pro and Agency, from $9 a month. Every new workspace also gets 14 days of Pro, so you can try it before you pay.

Which backup plugins work?

UpdraftPlus today. Updates need a successful backup from the last 24 hours, and Sitegoalie can ask UpdraftPlus for a fresh one before it updates.

What counts as broken?

A PHP fatal error, WordPress’s “critical error” page, or checkout or wp-admin failing after the update when they worked before. Those roll back automatically. Visual changes over 8%, a form that stopped working and new JavaScript errors are flagged for you to review.

Can I roll back an update later?

Yes. Any update can be rolled back in one click for 14 days, while Sitegoalie still has the copy of the old version it took before updating.

Try it on one site, free.

The Free plan covers one site and needs no card.

  1. Connect a site

    Install the Sitegoalie plugin and paste your connection key. It takes about two minutes.

  2. See where it stands

    The first report arrives within minutes: uptime, SSL, vulnerabilities, plugin health and pending updates.

  3. Switch on Safe Updates when you’re ready

    Pick a maintenance day and let it run, with a summary email after every run.

Read-only by default. Nothing on a site changes until you switch Safe Updates on for it.