Hey everyone,

I'm trying to set up a WordPress maintenance business and could really use some advice from you guys.

Right now, I only have a couple of clients on a yearly payment model, but I obviously want to expand my portfolio and start building some monthly recurring revenue.

The thing is, doing all the updates and tracking manually is already a pain, and it's just not going to scale.

I've been looking for a management dashboard and found a Spanish project called Modular DS a few months ago. I honestly loved it—the workflow is amazing and it feels super complete.

The problem is my trial is ending soon, and I really don't want to commit to a fixed monthly expense until I have enough steady clients to cover the platform's cost.

I also gave MainWP and InfiniteWP a try, but to be honest, their free versions feel pretty limited compared to Modular DS unless you start paying for the premium add-ons.

I'm basically looking for a free or very low-cost option to manage these first few clients while I grow. I'd be totally open to self-hosted tools, open-source software, or even a pay-as-you-go/micro-transaction model.

My main priority is being able to keep a solid log of all the updates and changes, and most importantly, being able to send out client reports.

What are you guys using for your maintenance clients? Does anyone know of any other platforms similar to Modular DS, or maybe an open-source hidden gem I haven't heard of?