We classify hosting into three categories:
– Traditional
– Modern
– Premium
“Traditional” hosting companies supply generic vacant space. Space is also generic and can be used to run a variety of different platforms (Joomla, WordPress, Drupal, Typo, HTML etc.) What you do with the space is not their focus. They are usually not given access to your website.
Typically, traditional hosting companies are large international organisations who outsource support from around the world. Consequently, they offer free 24/7 customer support. This support is often delayed and unskilled. Traditional hosting providers do not employ people with the skills to make changes, build and maintain websites. Altering the website is outside of their scope. There only focus is whether their servers are running.
Traditional hosting is cheap for many reasons. Firstly, their responsibility is extremely limited. They abandon the complexity inherent in website platforms. Their technology is generic and complex. While websites can be launched quickly, but security, reliability and performance is a minefield. Traditional hosting becomes viable when businesses are running multiple different website applications and have a network engineer and/or developer on the payroll.
“Modern” hosting companies understand running a website is more than open space. Business owners care less about the server and more about their customers. Business owners want hosting that keeps the website operational, fast and secure. Good modern hosting companies have built server hardware and software for a single platform (in our case WordPress). They do not use generic server software like cPanel and Plesk. They have a specialised combination of manual and automated software, security, networks, monitoring, procedures and alerts.
Content management systems (CMS) like WordPress and their third-party plugins need to be regularly updated. Running old software is the reason most platforms like WordPress are hacked. Modern hosting includes at least WordPress core updates. Some premium services include plugin updates and visual checks to ensure that the new software has not adversely affected your public site.
Modern hosting offer real one-click recoverable backups, staging, global content delivery networks and a variety of options. Premium modern hosting companies also offer higher security, independent email sending, Google API (for maps and ReCAPTCHA), malware scanning and removal, user management, higher skilled staff and theme upgrades. As a managed service provider and premium hosting service, we take it one step further and bundle the costs of licenses (plugins) and extra services into our monthly rates.
We also address one of the biggest needs for business – educated, knowledgeable, responsible and articulate people. We include a chat application in the backend of all our websites. You team has direct access to our team during business hours. We bill in 10-minute increments (rounded-up) and no minimum. You team can ask us quick questions and get back to work with less downtime. Our ongoing clients appreciate the depth of our assistance. They use our support service to train and educate their fluctuating internal marketing teams who are working on their websites.
