What exactly am I getting?
An open look at our service
And why you need it
On occasions we get asked, “What exactly am I getting?” or “What am I paying for” or “Can you explain your service” to name a few, and we often end up writing a fairly long email to explain.
So we thought we’d write a page that has it all covered for you.
It’s a good overview of exactly what we do and why you need it, along with what happens if you don’t have it.
When you read what we do and what we charge, you’ll be surprised – even amazed – at how we do this for such a low cost compared to other companies, that often charge 4 TO 10 TIMES MORE – in some cases for a lesser service.
Website hosting
Simply put, Web hosting is where your website lives in order for it to be available on the internet.
What does hosting cover?
- Hosting infrastructure
- The server, storage & network hardware costs
- The network traffic costs
- The building and energy costs
- All associated software costs for your hosting and client account portal.
- All the staff required at the hosting infrastructure and network centres.
Why you need it
This one is non negotiable. If you don’t have hosting, you can’t get a website online.
Hosting management
All web hosting environments need to be managed.
The key areas with hosting management are:
- Housekeeping of server logs and system files.
- Caching systems
- PHP version updates
On our higher plans this also includes server management and patching.
Caching systems are what are required to reduce server load and deliver your website pages at speed. PHP is the engine your site runs on and requires version updates.
Why you need it
Good housekeeping is essential to prevent bloat. PHP keeps the site secure and running at its optimum. Caching ensures your site is delivered to visitors in the fastest way.
Maintenance
This can involve a lot but essentially covers 3 things.
- WordPress Core updates
- WordPress Theme updates
- WordPress Plugins updates
It doesn’t cover maintaining your website content or marketing. That’s handled by web design companies and marketing companies.
Why you need it
The key reasons are to ensure your website is secure, all vulnerabilities are patched and your site doesn’t go down or break.
These software updates can also improve the performance along with the latest features and bug fixes.
Security
We can’t underestimate the importance of website security.
What does security cover?
- Brute force attacks
- Website exploits
- Blacklist checks
- Malware scanning
Like any security product it can’t 100% protect you, but it will deal with the most common issues in a robust way to secure your website.
Why you need it
Without 24/7 website security your website WILL be compromised. It’s not a case of IF but When.
Protection
This is different from security. Websites are dynamic things with multiple dependancies.
If something breaks, we can restore your website from one of our backups
We have two backup systems in place.
- On site backups
- Off site backups
Why you need it
No backup or ability to restore your website means a total loss and rebuild. There’s no recovering from that without a backup.
Monitoring
Monitoring is exactly that. We monitor your website and all the things in it 24/7.
What do we monitor?
- Website availability
- SSL certificate expiry
- Unusual activity
We have advanced monitoring systems that alert us to important activity. Every website gets checked every 10 minutes, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Why you need it
Most people have no idea if their website is down or not working and that’s bad for business. We’ve got you covered.
100% Renewable Energy
All our hosting is officially “green hosting”, powered 100% by renewable energy.
This means all your hosting and email will be powered exclusively by wind and solar power.
Why is green hosting important?
What about support?
We also include support. Support is free for business hours.
Why you need it
Well. Isn’t it just great you can speak to someone! Not have to get technical and sift through help pages and waste time wondering if what you’re doing is helping or hindering.
We’re experts in our fields and easy to work with. It’s what we do and we’re here to help you.
How we compare to the competition
In short, you’ll always get a better service at much better value from us.
You’re getting more for less than any other provider.
We’ve gone into some detail here on how we compare to our main competitors.