Watchful includes a built-in backup monitoring system that keeps an eye on the age of your website backups. And when a backup passes its useful “shelf life”, stale backup notifications can be sent by email. Stale backup warnings are also placed in convenient places throughout the Watchful platform to help Read more…
A year ago, the COVID-19 pandemic forced most in-person conferences to either cancel or move online. Web design conferences were no exception. The coming of age of truly engaging online conference platforms seemed to portend a bright future for online meetings. But here in the spring or 2021 it feels Read more…
After November 28, 2021, PHP 7 will only receive security fixes. And while PHP 8 barely registers in the current usage statistics of WordPress and Joomla, it will be the only actively-supported version after that date. So now is a great time to test your website with PHP 8, including Read more…
Aside from all of the uncertainty and change brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, 2020 has been an eventful year for Watchful in terms of new features and improvements in the platform. This was especially true for some of Watchful’s core features such as updates, backups and reports. But we Read more…
Managed website services have exploded across the hosting industry in the last decade. And while they are clearly suitable for many sites, managed WordPress hosting has a number of potential drawbacks that agencies should carefully consider. If managed WordPress hosting is not a good fit for you, or simply outside Read more…
The official WordPress plugin repository is the first place folks visit when looking for free plugins. In contrast, a number of premium plugin marketplaces exist such as Elegant Marketplace. Elegant Marketplace offers plugins, themes and layouts. And if you are using Watchful to manage your WordPress websites, you can now Read more…
The Early Warning Audit is Watchful’s persistent scanner that looks for signs of intrusion on your site. It performs a security scan for WordPress and Joomla sites in your Watchful dashboard up to 8 times per day. The scan looks for changes in critical system files, plugins/extensions that have been Read more…
This website went live on September 3, 2012. Eight years later it feels like we’re still just getting started! Last year, on our birthday, we published a nostalgic overview with lots of photos and stories. This year’s birthday post is a very different kind of overview. Because Watchful really is Read more…
WordPress 5.5 is now available. One very cool feature for Watchful users is auto-updates for plugins and themes. These will will help people stay on top of their site security. Another feature that you’ll love is the ability to edit images directly from the post editing screen. Right now, editing Read more…
WordPress 5.5 is now available. One major new feature in this version is image editing inside blocks. Another feature we want to highlight for Watchful users is auto-updates for plugins and themes. These new auto-updates will help people stay on top of their site security. This will make for a Read more…