What is hosting?
Hosting is the server your website lives on. Every website is a set of files and a database, and they have to sit on a computer that is online 24/7 for anyone to see them. That computer is the hosting server and costs money to run. Every website will have a hosting charge connected to it because without hosting you can't have a live website website on the internet.
What does the hosting fee cost? What am I paying for?
Monthly hosting with us is $29.95. We don't have any contracts with our hosting and you can cancel at any time.
Our host server has been custom designed to protect and serve your website to the internet with features that Australian business websites need in the background to ensure you own a secure, updated and maintained website that doesn't break. Although you don't see much of this, it's crucial for your website function and these are the things you should be looking for when understanding a hosting plan.
- WordPress core and plugin updates. WordPress and its plugins release updates constantly and if they are not maintained in a timely manner, outdated plugins is the first vulnerability point for sites getting hacked. We test and apply updates for you in the background so you don't have to worry about missing any crucial updates to keep your site functioning correctly.
- Secure backups: daily, weekly and monthly. We provide three rolling backup layers stored securely off the server so if something goes wrong, we can restore your site immediately with a backup and keep you online.
- Sydney-based host servers. Being local, your site loads fast for Australian visitors instead of round-tripping to a US data centre, and your data stays in Australia.
- A hardened Australian server for hack prevention. Our servers are locked down at the server level with custom firewall rules, spam and bot blocking, and access restrictions that stop most attacks before they reach your site. We have closed backdoors on common WordPress hack entry points and use Cloudflare to add an extra layer of protection to ensure your website is protected from any unauthorised access.
- Security monitoring. We watch the server and your website for any suspicious access activity, run daily malware scans and any downtime to immediately act on it. You will usually never hear about the problems because they get fixed before they become one.
- Email support. Stuck, broken, or just unsure? Our friendly email support is included in your hosting so you can reach out to a real person from the team anytime when you need help.
What are the ongoing costs for my site?
There are three ongoing costs to keep your website live:
- Hosting. A monthly fee of $29.95 that covers the server, security, backups and our support. More more technical information on our hosting setup, see Website Hosting & Security page.
- Domain name renewal. $45 for 12 months. Your domain (www.yourbusiness.com.au) renews annually. If we registered it for you, we will maintain renewals so you don't have to worry. If you registered it yourself with another registrar, simply keep an eye out for renewal notices and ensure it's paid on time to avoid the website going down.
- SSL certificate. $45 for 12 months. This is the secure padlock that you see in the browser bar and is essential for your website to display on Google searches. Without it, your website will show "Site not secure, proceed at your own risk" and is penalised by Google. Read more information on our SSL Certificates page.
How do I make my own updates to the website?
Your site is built on WordPress, and you will be provided your own login. Text and image edits are done in the WordPress editor, no coding needed. We provide step-by-step guides in our WordPress self-management guide, and if you would rather we do it, our edits price list shows exactly what changes cost.
Can I use my own hosting?
We prefer to host the websites we build, and almost all of our clients host with us. It means one team is responsible for everything for straightforward co-ordination. We trust our host servers because we built them to last and protect our client websites on a server we configured, secured and monitor ourselves.
In some circumstances we will consider building on hosting you already have, for example if your business has an existing arrangement you cannot leave. Please advise us before the project starts and we will tell you honestly whether it will work. On external hosting we cannot provide the same uptime, security or backup guarantees, and support for the hosting environment itself stays with your provider.
Can I move my website later?
Yes. Your website is built on WordPress, which is an open platform, so it is portable. If you ever want to move to another host, we can supply a full backup of your site, files and database, and you or your new provider can migrate it. You keep the whole site, fully editable, not a static copy. There is no lock-in of any kind.
There are no contracts with our hosting. You can cancel anytime, no penalties.
