Hosting and upkeep
Hosting you don't have to think about.
From $110 a month, I host your small to medium website on Cloudflare's global network, set up the same way as my own sites. No servers, certificates or settings for you to look after, and one person to email when something needs doing.
What $110 a month covers
Hosting for a small to medium website, set up the way this site is:
- Served from Cloudflare's network, from data centres around the world, including in Australia, so it's close to your visitors. Cloudflare's protection against attacks comes built in.
- HTTPS everywhere, with strict security headers that tell browsers exactly what your site is allowed to load.
- Files cached for speed. Every link to them carries a fingerprint of the file, so when something changes, visitors get the new version straight away.
- Deployed from version control. Every change is recorded, so it's clear what changed and when, and a bad change can be undone.
What's separate
Some costs belong to other providers, and I'll list them in your proposal so nothing's a surprise:
- Your domain name, renewed with your registrar.
- Email accounts, such as Google Workspace or Microsoft 365.
- Paid services your site uses, like a booking system or a newsletter tool.
Changes to your site, new pages and new features are one-off work at $160 an hour, or quoted up front for bigger jobs. Larger or busier sites, and sites with logins or a database, are quoted with the project.
Moving your site across
If your site lives somewhere else now, moving it is mostly about not losing anything on the way:
- I run your current site through the free check first, so we both know what we're starting with.
- I move or rebuild the site, and keep its addresses. Where an address has to change, the old one redirects to the closest new page, so links and search results keep working.
- I check the new copy before your domain is switched over, so visitors go straight from the old site to the new one.
When I rebuilt DJ Vital Viper's old WordPress site, each of its 11 old addresses was redirected to the closest new page.
Why plain sites on Cloudflare
Most small business sites don't need a server running all day. A plain, well-built site is a set of files, and Cloudflare serves files fast and cheaply from near every visitor.
It's safer too. With no server software, page builder or plugins to keep patched, a common way small business sites get broken into simply isn't there. When a site does need logins or a database, I usually build that on Cloudflare too, so it's all in one place.
When you need a hand
Email me. I usually reply the same day, sometimes within minutes. Small jobs are $160 an hour, and bigger ones are quoted before I start.
Not sure how your current hosting stacks up? The free check measures how long your server takes to respond, whether your security headers are set, and how your email and domain settings look.