How many of you self-host websites?
Discussion
Having dramas with my web hosts, who are also undertaking the site redesign. The hosting part is fine, but the redesign is not. Anyway, they are also undergoing an internal reorganisation that means I could part company in the near future. Rather than battle with another company at some point in the future, I'm wondering about bringing the hosting internal. As I hold client docs on an associated FTP site this does have some plus points.
Worth it for overall control? Or pain in the Royal and negligible benefit over external hosting??
Please share your thoughts!
Worth it for overall control? Or pain in the Royal and negligible benefit over external hosting??
Please share your thoughts!
I got into a little web design years ago for friends, family, small businesses, etc. I wasn't particularly good but I learned the basics and got myself an reseller account for something like £14 per month. It has been one of the best resources I have ever had available to me. I have hosted and built several business sites over the years as I've tried new things/different angles. The ability to purchase a domain, create a hosting space and install wordpress in under 10 minutes is brilliant.
However, much of the ease and simplicity is because I have learned my way around doing all of the above and can bash out a nice little website in no time at all. If you don't have this knowledge, doing stuff in house might be a massive headache. That said, learning how to point a domain at your hosting account and create a cPanel account for said website is easy. If nothing else, you could do that then outsource the actual build/maintenance of the site. Like everything, I guess you have to weigh up the pro's/con's and costs of both/all sides of the argument. For what I do, having a reseller account is by far the cheapest and most effective route.
However, much of the ease and simplicity is because I have learned my way around doing all of the above and can bash out a nice little website in no time at all. If you don't have this knowledge, doing stuff in house might be a massive headache. That said, learning how to point a domain at your hosting account and create a cPanel account for said website is easy. If nothing else, you could do that then outsource the actual build/maintenance of the site. Like everything, I guess you have to weigh up the pro's/con's and costs of both/all sides of the argument. For what I do, having a reseller account is by far the cheapest and most effective route.
If you like the idea of control then make sure you register the domain, control the DNS and source the hosting. You can use a third party for hosting, but contract with them, not the site builder.
For hosting, work out the level of skill you have and the money you'd like to spend. Good support and uptime, plus higher performance can be expensive. Depends what you expect the site to do. Many places can provision a VM to do the job.
For hosting, work out the level of skill you have and the money you'd like to spend. Good support and uptime, plus higher performance can be expensive. Depends what you expect the site to do. Many places can provision a VM to do the job.
Thanks for the replies!
The main issue is with the redesign. It just isn't being done as per quote, and now the company split has come to light, which seems to be sapping even more energy out of the redesign. The new webpage has features that are more complicated than my own knowledge (it is not a simple layout), but I don't think any of the features are too crazy that we'd have to stay with current designer.
So why think about changing hosting? Because having the website hosted at the company who aren't doing a great job at redesigning irks me a little bit, and if I don't want to get into a turf war if I now bring a new designer in to work on their first attempt.
Moving to a new host is an option - but who? And I may end up with hosting issues at some point in the future, hence wondering about self-hosting. I see it offering security (holding client data in FTP)/ control benefits, but it may also bring security (web attacks) and other disadvantages.
I'd definitely like to hear from people who have weighed up these odds and decided one way or the other.
The main issue is with the redesign. It just isn't being done as per quote, and now the company split has come to light, which seems to be sapping even more energy out of the redesign. The new webpage has features that are more complicated than my own knowledge (it is not a simple layout), but I don't think any of the features are too crazy that we'd have to stay with current designer.
So why think about changing hosting? Because having the website hosted at the company who aren't doing a great job at redesigning irks me a little bit, and if I don't want to get into a turf war if I now bring a new designer in to work on their first attempt.
Moving to a new host is an option - but who? And I may end up with hosting issues at some point in the future, hence wondering about self-hosting. I see it offering security (holding client data in FTP)/ control benefits, but it may also bring security (web attacks) and other disadvantages.
I'd definitely like to hear from people who have weighed up these odds and decided one way or the other.
Assuming it's a UK based company, I'd speak to one of the UK based host providers and discuss your needs with them. Based on what you've said and the reasons given, I think it's very wise to take your hosting to an independant company that specialises in hosting and hosting alone. In your current situation you rent the land (host space) and are having the house (website) built by the same company. Like you say, they may get shirty if you bring in a new contractor to finish the house off.
If you host on your own hosting/reseller account then you control the land* and you can bring in anyone to work at building stuff on it. If they don't meet your needs they can't hold you to ransom as you can kill their access to your website/email at the server level in minutes.
If you host on your own hosting/reseller account then you control the land* and you can bring in anyone to work at building stuff on it. If they don't meet your needs they can't hold you to ransom as you can kill their access to your website/email at the server level in minutes.
- well, technically the host/data centre does but going to the next level of servers in your own building is massive overkill.
Make sure you let the people who are building the new site know you are planning to move the hosting, as the new hosting will need to be compatible with the type of site they are building.
Most of the time it will be compatible. The two main options are Windows based hosting or Linux based. Something like 80% of sites run on Linux - however there are configuration differences and some of the cheaper hosts will be restrictive on what can be run on their servers.
Most of the time it will be compatible. The two main options are Windows based hosting or Linux based. Something like 80% of sites run on Linux - however there are configuration differences and some of the cheaper hosts will be restrictive on what can be run on their servers.
Buffalo said:
Moving to a new host is an option - but who? And I may end up with hosting issues at some point in the future, hence wondering about self-hosting. I see it offering security (holding client data in FTP)/ control benefits, but it may also bring security (web attacks) and other disadvantages.
You dont appear to have issues right now, but yes, you might in the future? In which case choose a host that has a good SLA that you can hold up to them as a measurement and they'll do something if they miss their agreed uptime. You holding client data (in ftp, whatever you mean by that) is a security nightmare tbh, there's allsorts of DPA stuff you'd walk into and self hosting a site will probably see you DDoS'd off the internet within the hour at best, or botnet'd and malware'd up so badly that you might not even realise at worst.
If you've got the infrastructure, resilience, and support to do it, then sure - but it sounds like you've gone mad with a risk assessment that ends with the result of you determined to bring stuff in house, which is likely to make things a lot worse rather than better.
<Snipped - I guess there's no point giving you UK hosts if you're in Canada>
Any of these have good, solid, well architected networks. There's many many more out there or you could also go the Amazon Web Services route too.
But sticking a couple of vms on the office SBS server is going to be a heap of trouble and will probably put you and your customers offline for a while. You'll need a good recovery plan
Self hosted for staging/dev servers = no problem. Production servers, live data and customer hosting = hosting company who know what they're doing
Edited by andy-xr on Monday 18th July 10:15
Edited by andy-xr on Monday 18th July 10:30
OK, thanks for all the replies. I'll look into hosting sites - UK is fine actually, as that is the company base. I'm not determined to bring stuff in-house, but I admit to preferring in-house alternatives for the most part.
It actually will be good to compare deals with what we're currently on.
ftp = just a file transfer / client log in site. I've always used that acronym but I suppose it is just the cloud now. I try not to keep a lot of data on there but data files are so big now, with 3D documents, etc., email just doesn't cut it so this evolved into a handy way of sending clients their data.
I'll look into hosting sites - UK is fine actually, as that is the company base. I'm not determined to bring stuff in-house, but I admit to preferring in-house alternatives for the most part. It actually will be good to compare deals with what we're currently on.
ftp = just a file transfer / client log in site. I've always used that acronym but I suppose it is just the cloud now. I try not to keep a lot of data on there but data files are so big now, with 3D documents, etc., email just doesn't cut it so this evolved into a handy way of sending clients their data.
We are not a Digital Agency as such, but have many racks and servers in a couple of London DC's. A lot of our clients have Wordpress installs on our servers and I can tell you, you really do have to be on your toes for keeping it patched and up to date.
There are some control panels that can sit over the top of your infrastructure that will help you keep Wordpress and the used Plugins up to date along with a good automated back up routine, but most shared hosting providers will already have this in place.
A lot of the time, we end up doing this for our clients as when they use an external web developer, they are generally selling the design and walking away once its live. So, who after that point looks after the website? The host, the end customer etc. It needs to be thought through and its surprising to me how often websites sit at an outdated vulnerable version.
There are some control panels that can sit over the top of your infrastructure that will help you keep Wordpress and the used Plugins up to date along with a good automated back up routine, but most shared hosting providers will already have this in place.
A lot of the time, we end up doing this for our clients as when they use an external web developer, they are generally selling the design and walking away once its live. So, who after that point looks after the website? The host, the end customer etc. It needs to be thought through and its surprising to me how often websites sit at an outdated vulnerable version.
andyb28 said:
We are not a Digital Agency as such, but have many racks and servers in a couple of London DC's. A lot of our clients have Wordpress installs on our servers and I can tell you, you really do have to be on your toes for keeping it patched and up to date.
There are some control panels that can sit over the top of your infrastructure that will help you keep Wordpress and the used Plugins up to date along with a good automated back up routine, but most shared hosting providers will already have this in place.
A lot of the time, we end up doing this for our clients as when they use an external web developer, they are generally selling the design and walking away once its live. So, who after that point looks after the website? The host, the end customer etc. It needs to be thought through and its surprising to me how often websites sit at an outdated vulnerable version.
Absolutely right - and WP is probably the flakiest solution I have seen in a while - customers will install random plugins which can crash their website or the server, more problems with WP than virtually anything else...There are some control panels that can sit over the top of your infrastructure that will help you keep Wordpress and the used Plugins up to date along with a good automated back up routine, but most shared hosting providers will already have this in place.
A lot of the time, we end up doing this for our clients as when they use an external web developer, they are generally selling the design and walking away once its live. So, who after that point looks after the website? The host, the end customer etc. It needs to be thought through and its surprising to me how often websites sit at an outdated vulnerable version.
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