hosting.. the next step?

[bigdave]

I currently host 14 sites on a single cPanel hosting package. My limit is 15 sites and so I need to look at my hosting options in the not too distant future.

My current host will upgrade me to 21 sites through a single cPanel for an extra £40p/a and this option involves no disruption to my current client's sites or emails. Alternatively I can move to cloud hosting for a few quid less, which will involve all of my current clients changing their mailserver settings. The final option is to move to a reseller account which costs an additional £90 a year but Id have 25 sites with their own independent cPanels. I assume this would involve all clients changing their mailserver settings and it ends up being a lot more expensive in the long run but would be really useful for those times where I'm hosting a site for someone and they want mysql database access, as I currently have to give them access to all databases or none at all.

What does everyone else do? Any advice on the next step?

 

[PriyeshDesign]

Hey bigdave, cloud hosting is proven to offer finer performance where it delivers better page speeds, consistent reliability and able to handle unpredicted traffic bursts than cPanel hosting.

However due to your situation, I would upgrade to the 21 sites otherwise the transition for your clients could be unforeseen and may likely disturb their system.

--

It must be a handful to manage / host all your client's websites on a single cPanel.
I always prefer the client to register to the hosting provider - this gives them ownership.

 

[AffordableLogoDesign]

if you get yourself an entry level VPS it will cost you the same but with flexibility to do what you want.

As for the transfer most vps companies do a free transfer and the only downtime is on the domain nameservers being repointed and the time it takes to update.

if both servers are still operational no-one would beable to tell a transfer has been done except you!

 

[Daniel]

Hi bigdave, I've not been on here a while but missed the design chat.

Not sure if you're still looking but I'd recommend a reseller hosting or eCommerce hosting account, both of which in our case at least would mean a separate cPanel account for each website.

As you say this way you can give access to just that client's database. However you'll likely also get better performance, and enhanced security.
You can then give each client access to their own cPanel account if you want to provide this, so they can create new email accounts and so forth and not have to go to you for help.

They'd get a better experience, and you'd be free to focus more on other things rather than tech support.

That's certainly what most of our web design clients do.

Cramming lots of unrelated client websites in one cPanel account really isn't the best way to handle that.

As for cloud hosting, you'd then be switching to a proprietary control panel and lose some control and the ability to easily switch web host if need be.
Cloud hosting is actually lower performance than good cPanel hosting, especially a good eCommerce package, as the redundancy adds overheads.

A great way to get the benefits of cloud hosting without the cons is to add cloudflare (for free) to a reseller or ecommerce hosting account.
A decent web host should even provide a wizard in cPanel to add cloudflare, we certainly do.

I hope that helps.

If have any questions feel free to get in touch.

Good luck,

Dan

 

[Daniel]

As an aside, really like your corporate identity and site design, very clean.

You may want to update your footer, as currently still has 2014.

All the best.