The Basics

Web servers are where a site lives, usually, this is a shared space, think of this like an apartment. Some apartments are nice, classy places with tight security, others are complete shit shows. The same goes for servers. You really do get what you pay for.

A Good Server

Factor1 manages hosting for many of our clients and we default to using BigScoots. BigScoots allows us to bulk manage and access many sites from a single login. Team members are added to the master account and can access all the sites within our agency plan. We can also selectively add users to specific sites as needed. Usually, this is for clients to access the site server tools, but also for the occasional freelancer.

What BigScoots provides:

• A WordPress-specific hosted environment with tight controls on PHP versions and file access
• 30 days of rolling backups, with easy tools to restore or download.
• The ability to capture an on-demand backup
• Staging environments where we can test/proof/QA our code and content changes.
• Support. If something is goofy, we can chat or open a ticket with a relatively fast support agent.
• Security. Being WordPress-only, they have great firewalls and file rules in place that keep our sites running smoothly
• SSL certificates. Crucial for all sites to be accessed under the HTTPS protocol required of all browsers as of 2021
• SFTP file access (uploading and downloading site code files)
• Control Panel Access to caching tools, CDN, and SSL management
• Sendgrid for WordPress transaction emails (password reset, e-commerce receipts, notifications, etc)

Times we DON’T use BigScoots

There are going to be times we actually don’t use BigScoots. These are usually pretty specific and rare. These are some of the triggers to consider a different environment.

• The client has a host they like. This should still be evaluated and recommendations made. An easy red flag would be if the hosting is less than $20 a month. No quality host is cheap.
• The client wants to “own” the account and pay for it directly. We may still recommend BigScoots, but they would set up the account and add us as a collaborator.
• Larger sites. Sites that expect to have 5gb or more of storage or high traffic demands should consider a host like WPEngine, or Pantheon. Both cost significantly more but have the tools and support for a high-demand site. Factor1 does have a WPEngine account and we can consider reselling the client a WPengine-hosted site at a higher bill rate.
• Not WP. In the very rare and frankly unlikely case we are working on a site that is not WordPress, we’d need a different host altogether. BigScoots and WPEngine are WP only. Even Pantheon is WP or Drupal only. This is all so rare we won’t even dive deeper.