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Is Synthesis necessary for small, modest traffic wordpress sites?
I'm working with a client now who will likely be light on traffic and I've been a BlueHost customer for a lot of years.
I'm not reselling, but want to make sure my wordpress sites run properly.
I've rarely had issues with BlueHost (outside of the norm for cheaper, shared hosting).
Anybody have any thoughts? I don't think the $27 a month hosting on Sythesis is bad, but just wonder if it's necessary for smaller, mainly local websites.
Greg
What experience does he want his clients to have? Does he mind ranking lower in SERPs because he has a slower site? What is the business value of $27/month to have his site on a premium managed WordPress hosting site?
–William
http://williambeem.comWilliam, so you seem to be pretty set on premium wp hosting.
But you're too biased. I want to hear some on-the-fence thoughts 🙂
I realize the benefit of Synthesis or the others -- it's pretty clear. And this particular client is by no means looking to skimp on money. $27 or even $99 to host the right way is not a lot of money.
But I do think there are plenty of small business sites built on wordpress that seem to be fine with "regular" shared hosting options. But when I say "think" - it's because I'm not sure.
I'm curious, from a more technical view beyond my own (which is limited -- I'm not an IT guy). Are there really sharp downsides to hosting wordpress sites while using genesis, being smart/safe, keeping plugins limited/updated? (I have sites ranking well, running at decent speeds with lower-cost hosts.)
An example would be a local restaurant with 10 pages or a local septic company -- minimal content/blog posts. Is it, at that point, still necessary to go the premium WP hosting route?
Greg
I would recommend LightningBase - it is managed WP hosting, US+EU based location, CDN included, Opcode+Varning caching, very friendly support... And the price (for the "modest trafic") is reasonable - 10 USD/mo for 10k PageViews...
I have one of my sites hosted by a WPEngine re-seller. It's awesome; I don't to have to worry about a thing; updates are done for me; if there are any issues, it's taken care of for me, too.
It's nice knowing that I don't have to worry about anything when it comes to hosting.
Thanks Susan. It would be nice to get away from the low-price shared hosting and, like you said, the worrying.
Can I ask why you went with WPEngine over Synthesis?
danijel.lastric, I'm researching LighteningBase right now. Thanks for sharing that. Never heard of them.
@Susan, when you say nothing, that that includes WP and plugin updates? Or just the server?
Biased?
Perhaps so. You see, I've been through it all over the past few years. I started with shared hosting, went to a VPS for a few years, looked into building my own system. and recently moved to WP Engine as my host.
I didn't do it on a whim, either. I studied various hosts for a couple of months before I made the switch. HostGator's VPS was just going down the drain since they were bought out by EIG. Moving to a VPS costs me double to host my WordPress sites.
I may have gone with WebSynthesis, but it has more limitations on the number of sites than I could support, so that knocked them out of the running.
WP Engine isn't perfect, but neither is any other host. Overall, I find I'm pleased enough with the service that I would recommend it to others.
Now why would I recommend it to a small business? Because of the things you said. Small businesses often don't have IT support, and they don't need to worry about keeping a web site operational. That's something you can easily outsource to a premium host.
Also, you get a LOT of bang for your buck with performance, backups and service.
The choice really comes down to values and priorities, which are why I asked the questions I asked earlier.
–William
http://williambeem.comThanks William. You easily convinced me. Now I'm between Synthesis and WPEngine. Both seem to be pretty close with various plusses and minuses. Appreciate your thorough response. -Greg
Can I ask why you went with WPEngine over Synthesis?
Because I like the fact that I can edit my site from my dashboard, rather than FTPing.
@Susan, when you say nothing, that that includes WP and plugin updates? Or just the server?
It means that Genesis updates, WP updates, plugin updates etc. are all done for me 🙂
Edited to add:
Because I spend so much time working on other user's sites, and providing support for other users (when I'm not here or on my own site, I provide theme support for the Pretty Darn Cute Design themes), it's just nice to know that I don't have to think about my own sites. I obviously know how to update my own site myself, but just knowing that it is running without me having to think about it is nice 🙂
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