MaintainHQ vs Kadence Central
Kadence Central (once iThemes Sync, then Solid Central) manages sites from one login. MaintainHQ adds Gus to fix what goes wrong.
Facts checked on 4 November 2026. Prices taken from each vendor's own website.
The short answer
MaintainHQ
MaintainHQ is a cloud maintenance platform for agencies and freelancers. Gus, the AI WordPress engineer, diagnoses problems and fixes them with your approval, on staging or production as you choose, checked against WordPress coding standards, verified, and rolled back automatically if anything goes wrong. Around Gus you get safe updates with pre-update testing, backups, malware scanning, uptime with incident autopilot, team roles, white-label PDF reports and an API with an MCP server.
Choose MaintainHQ if
- You want an engineer that fixes, with approval and rollback
- You want safe updates with pre-update testing
- You want team roles, client seats and an API with MCP
Kadence Central
Kadence Central is the multi-site dashboard previously called iThemes Sync and then Solid Central. It needs an active subscription; its WordPress.org listing names an entry plan for 5 sites at $6.99 a month, with more sites at extra cost. It pairs with Kadence Security and backups from the same family.
Choose Kadence Central if
- You already use Kadence themes, Security and backups
- You need a low-cost dashboard for a few sites
Side by side
- Included
- Paid add-on
- Not available
| Feature | MaintainHQ | Kadence Central |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A cloud maintenance platform with an AI WordPress engineer (Gus). Works with sites on any host. | Cloud dashboard by subscription |
| Updates | Bulk plugin updates, plus safe auto-updates with lanes, soak times, fleet waves and approval for major versions | Updates from one dashboard |
| AI that fixes | Gus diagnoses and fixes: your approval for every fix, on staging or production as you choose, WordPress coding-standards checks, a backup, verification and automatic rollback | Not offered |
| Pricing model | Flat plans: Starter $2.99/mo (1 site), Starter Plus $29/mo (5), Pro $79/mo (25), Agency $199/mo (unlimited). 7-day free trial. Gus is on every plan, with an allowance that resets every 6 hours and a weekly allowance, bigger on bigger plans. | From $6.99/mo for 5 sites |
Is MaintainHQ cheaper than Kadence Central?
Kadence Central starts at $6.99/mo for 5 sites. MaintainHQ Starter is $29/mo for 5 sites with Gus, backups and malware scanning included.
Moving to MaintainHQ
Step 1: Paste your site addresses into the MaintainHQ importer (Sites, Import). It removes duplicates and shows a preview before anything is created.
Step 2: Each site gets a signed connector link that is valid for 24 hours. Install the MaintainHQ connector plugin with it; the connector runs alongside other management plugins, so you can keep Kadence Central connected while you compare.
Step 3: Turn on backups, safe auto-updates and monitoring in MaintainHQ, then switch off the overlapping jobs in Kadence Central so only one tool runs updates on each site.
Questions
Can I run MaintainHQ alongside Kadence Central?
Yes. The MaintainHQ connector is an ordinary WordPress plugin and runs alongside other plugins, Kadence Central included. The one thing to avoid is two tools auto-updating the same site, so pick one to own updates on each site.
Facts about Kadence Central checked on 4 November 2026 from their public websites. Prices and features change; if something here is out of date, tell us and we will correct it. Product names belong to their owners.
Try MaintainHQ free
From $2.99 a month for 1 site, with a 7-day trial. Connect your first site in minutes and let Gus run a health check.