Near the end of most projects a client asks me who should host the finished site. My answer is usually me, and I want to explain why, and then put the whole arrangement in writing so you are not taking my word for any of it.
Hosting is the least interesting part of owning a website and the easiest part to get quietly wrong. Something needs patching on a Tuesday night. A plugin update takes the checkout down. The SSL certificate lapses and every visitor gets a browser warning. None of that is hard to fix. It is only hard to fix if nobody is watching.
When I host your site, I am the one watching, and the alert comes to me instead of to you.
What you actually get
Managed hosting is $24.99 a month for one site, or $49.99 for two, billed monthly. There is no committed term and no minimum period.
- The server, its resources, and a storage and visit allowance sized to your site
- Server-level patching and SSL, kept current without you asking
- A daily backup, kept 30 days, for as long as your site is on my hosting
- Uptime monitoring, where I get the 2am alert rather than you
- One person who knows your site and your server, because I wrote one and I run the other
That last one is the real argument. When the site and the server are held by the same person, nobody gets to say the problem is on the other side. There is no support queue to escalate through and no host telling you it must be your developer.
What stays yours, in writing
Here is the part I would want if I were buying, so it is written into my Terms rather than left as something I say on a call.
Your domain is registered in your name. Always, on either hosting path. I do not hold client domains. The domain is the one thing that genuinely cannot be rebuilt, and it should never sit in someone else’s account.
The website is yours. Files, content, database, and the code I wrote, transferred to you at final payment. Hosting is where the site lives. It has nothing to do with who owns it.
A complete export is free, always, with no conditions. Files and database, which together are the entire site. Not “your content.” Not “a copy of your pages.” It is free whether we are getting along or not, and it does not depend on your account being settled first.
There is no exit fee, and you get 30 days. Cancel any time, free, without giving a reason. Billing stops at the end of the month you have already paid for, and the site stays up for another 30 days after that, so you can move on a schedule you choose instead of one I impose. If you would like me to move it onto your new host and set it up there, that is a flat $199 for a standard WordPress destination. That is a price for work you asked for, not a charge for leaving.
The honest part: the hosting account is mine
On managed hosting the hosting account is in my name, not yours. I would rather say that plainly on this page than have you discover it later.
That is not a catch. It is the mechanism. Holding the account is exactly what lets me patch a server at 11pm without emailing you for a login, roll a bad update back before you notice, and answer a problem instead of forwarding it. A developer who wants to look after your site but has to ask permission every time is not really looking after it.
What makes that safe is not trust. It is the four things above, all of which are in the Terms and none of which depend on us liking each other in year three. The arrangement to avoid is not a developer who holds the account. It is a developer who holds it and never told you.
If you would rather hold it yourself
That path exists and I will set it up properly. Hosting, domain, DNS, business email and SSL configured on accounts in your own name, from $250 one time. You pay the host directly at their price and I do not mark up your host or your domain, on either path.
It suits owners who want the account in their name and do not mind handling renewals and plan limits themselves. It is a genuine choice, not a booby prize, and I earn something either way so I have no reason to push you.
Getting started
The plans, the allowances and the full FAQ are on the hosting page. If you want the exit written out step by step before you commit to anything, that is what leaving looks like, and I would rather you read it now than need it later.
Book a free 30-minute call and I will tell you which path fits your site, including when the answer is that you do not need me to host it at all.
Thinking About a Project?
Free quote, scope and price locked up front, fully owned at launch.