# Rootstuff

> Rootstuff is a web studio for businesses and agencies: WordPress development, website maintenance, and custom web applications. Founder-led by Adam Balée in West Chester, PA, working since 2010. The studio has shipped over 150 builds and holds a 99.9% uptime record across the sites in its care.

Every engagement is led by the founder, start to ship. Replies to inquiries come from the founder, usually within the day: hello@rootstuff.io

## Services

- [WordPress Development](https://rootstuff.io/wordpress-development): Custom themes, plugins, Gutenberg blocks, full-site editing, headless builds, and multisite networks.
- [Website Maintenance](https://rootstuff.io/website-maintenance): Weekly updates, security hardening, daily backups, 24/7 uptime monitoring, and performance optimization. Plans from $199/month; engagements start with a $49 discovery call, credited toward the first month.
- [Web Applications](https://rootstuff.io/web-applications): Laravel, Vue, and React applications. SaaS platforms, client portals, APIs, and internal tools.
- [For Agencies](https://rootstuff.io/freelance-wordpress-developer): White-label WordPress development delivered under the agency's brand.

## Products

- [Sentinel](https://sentinel.rootstuff.io): Website monitoring. Uptime, TLS certificates, DNS history, and performance in one dashboard.
- [Rootstuff Block Permissions](https://rootstuff.io/rootstuff-block-permissions): Free WordPress plugin that scopes editor blocks and patterns by user role and post type.
- [Rootstuff Media Folders](https://rootstuff.io/rootstuff-media-folders): Free, open source WordPress plugin adding real folder organization to the media library.

## Selected work

- [Sentinel](https://rootstuff.io/work/sentinel): Our own monitoring platform: uptime, TLS certificates, DNS history, and performance for every site in the studio's care, in one quiet dashboard.
- [National Writing Project](https://rootstuff.io/work/national-writing-project): The official platform of the National Writing Project: a nationwide network of educators, writing programs, and professional development, anchored by an interactive map of NWP sites.
- [Science Center](https://rootstuff.io/work/science-center): The digital home of Philadelphia's innovation hub for the life sciences: startup programs, STEM education, and the events calendar that keeps the ecosystem moving.
- [UnidosUS Impact Report](https://rootstuff.io/work/unidosus-impact-report): An interactive annual impact report for the largest Latino civil rights organization in the United States: a year of programs, advocacy, and outcomes told as a digital experience.

Most of the studio's work ships under client and agency names; these are the exceptions.

## Blog

- [Your next SaaS customer might not be human](https://rootstuff.io/blog/your-next-saas-customer-might-not-be-human): Autonomous AI agents are starting to evaluate, sign up for, and pay for software on their own. What it means to build a product that machines can buy.
- [AI wrote the code. Who maintains it?](https://rootstuff.io/blog/ai-wrote-the-code-who-maintains-it): AI-generated sites and plugins are arriving in our maintenance queue. The code works, mostly. The real question is what happens in month six.
- [When a site outgrows WordPress](https://rootstuff.io/blog/when-a-site-outgrows-wordpress): WordPress is the right answer more often than developers admit, until it isn't. The honest signals that a project has become an application wearing a CMS costume.
- [Your next customer might ask an AI first](https://rootstuff.io/blog/your-next-customer-might-ask-an-ai-first): More buying decisions start as a question to an assistant instead of a search. What that shift actually means for your website, minus the panic.
- [Where AI actually helps in a web project (and where it doesn't)](https://rootstuff.io/blog/where-ai-actually-helps-in-a-web-project): We use AI every day and remain a founder-led studio on purpose. An honest map of where the tools genuinely earn their keep, and where craft still decides.
- [Your site went down at 2am. Who noticed?](https://rootstuff.io/blog/your-site-went-down-at-2am): Most downtime isn't dramatic. It's quiet, off-hours, and discovered by the worst possible person: a customer. On monitoring, and why "it seems fine" is not a strategy.
- [The case for boring updates](https://rootstuff.io/blog/the-case-for-boring-updates): The most valuable WordPress maintenance work is the kind nobody notices. Here's why a dull, weekly update routine beats heroic firefighting every time.

## Company

- [Work](https://rootstuff.io/work): The selected-work index with case studies.
- [About](https://rootstuff.io/about): The studio, its founder, and how it works.
- [Brand](https://rootstuff.io/brand): The Rootstuff mark, color palette, typography, and voice, with downloadable logo assets.
- [Contact](https://rootstuff.io/contact): Project inquiries. Direct email: hello@rootstuff.io