Hosting FAQ – Shining A Light on Web Hosting Charges
Why Is Your Hosting So Expensive? I have seen website hosting advertised for £1.99/month
Yes, it is true you can get web hosting for as little as 1.99/month, or less than £25/year. This is shared hosting where your website shares a server and IP address with anything up to 1000+ other sites. This can work perfectly well, but it is subject to several constraints:
- If one or more of the other sites on the server experiences a DDoS attack or a sudden increase in traffic for any other reason this can slow down or cripple all the sites on the server as resources are shared.
- If just one site is infiltrated with malware it may allow the hacker access to the whole server, with disastrous results. This usually happens when software updates are not done in a timely manner, and insecure scripts, plugins, PHP versions or content management systems allow malware to be uploaded via the offending site. It does not mater how secure your own site is, if a single site on the server is infiltrated all sites can be threatened.
- Because of the issues described above, and for other reasons, shared servers tend to experience more downtime.
- Support costs money – support staff have to be paid, even if it usually isn’t a lot! There is not a lot of profit in shared hosting, the providers depend on volume. So there are not many support staff per 1,000 customers. Support is not in any way pro-active, 24/7 support is not usually available and often support is only through a ticketing system, with slow response times.
What is different about Webcraft’s web hosting?
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- Firstly, our clients’ sites are all hosted on a Virtual Private Server. This is in effect a separate server with only our clients’ sites on it. There is no danger of any other sites outwith our server affecting your site.
- Secondly, this is a Managed Server. This means that if there is a problem we can’t handle on the spot we can call on a team of experts and professionals 24/7/365 via phone, chat or ticket. Response times are usually in minutes.
- Thirdly, our hosting includes the complete management of your site. Our sites are created in WordPress, a highly efficient but complicated content management system which requires regular updates to keep it safe and working well. We do all these for you. Sometimes updates cause conflicts or issues, in the worst case reducing your entire site to an error message. You will never see that happening because we fix it before it happens.
- Fourthly, all our sites are backed up every 24 hours. Disaster recovery is rarely necessary, but if it is we can restore a version of your site that is less than 24 hours old within minutes.
- Finally, our hosting packages usually include extras such as the annual renewal of your domain so you do not have to worry about it, and minor updates such as pricing changes or extra pictures in galleries are usually carried out free of charge.
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Our Silver hosting package starts at just £29 per month for all the above (if paid annually in advance). We guarantee you will not find another provider who offers this level of service for this price anywhere.