Managed hosting: the server, the backups and the updates handled for you

Who it’s for

Businesses whose website or online shop matters for revenue, but where nobody on the team wants to look after a server. We often meet the same situations: a CMS-based site that slows to a crawl when a campaign goes live, an online shop on a bargain shared plan, or a server a freelancer set up years ago that nobody has the passwords for any more.

It also works if another agency built your site and still develops it. We take care of where and how the site runs; content and new features can stay with them.

What we do

First we size the server. A small company site, a shop with a large catalogue and card payments, and a custom web application all need different set-ups, so we look at your stack, your traffic and how often your data changes.

Then we configure everything: the web server, the database, caching and an SSL certificate that renews itself. We add a staging environment, so updates and changes are tested before they reach the site your customers see.

Backups are the part we never skip. We take them daily, with an extra snapshot before any significant change. Every so often we restore one as a test, because a backup nobody has tried to restore is wishful thinking.

We keep the operating system and server software up to date and manage your DNS records. If your company email sits with another provider, such as Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, we make sure its records stay exactly as they should.

How we work

1. You describe your site in the enquiry form. Within 24 hours you get a quote with a fixed monthly fee.
2. We review the current installation: software versions, plugins, database size and scheduled jobs.
3. We build the server and staging copy, run your site on a temporary address and check it with you.
4. We switch the domain over in an agreed window, usually when traffic is lowest.
5. From then on the server is ours to look after. Billing is monthly, under a written contract with a VAT invoice.

Set-up typically takes 3–7 working days. It takes longer if the site needs a clean-up or a software upgrade first. Moving away from another host is covered in more detail on our migration page.

What we need from you

• Access to your domain registrar, or the contact who manages it.
• Access to the current hosting, or permission to export files and the database.
• A list of systems your site talks to: payments, CRM, booking software.
• Company details for opening the cloud account in your name, if that’s your preference.

Technology and integrations

We use servers in the EU. Applications usually run in isolated containers behind a web server, with a content delivery network where it helps. We host sites built on content management systems and shop platforms, static sites and custom web applications.

After the move we check every connection to other systems, from Stripe to your booking tool. Practically anything with an API will keep working with a site on our servers.

What we don’t do

• We don’t cram your site onto an overcrowded shared server.
• We don’t open accounts in our name behind your back. The server can belong to your company from day one; if it runs on our account, we hand over access, code and a backup within 1 working day of your request and start moving the server the same day.
• We don’t run mailboxes. Your email stays with your provider.
• We don’t quote uptime percentages we can’t honestly promise.
• We don’t host unlawful content or pirated copies of paid plugins.

Free quote within 24 hours

Tell us your site’s address, what it’s built with and where it’s hosted now. If you know roughly how many visits or orders it gets a month, add that too. Within 24 hours you’ll have a fixed-price quote and a proposed server set-up.