Hostini

Fully Managed Concierge WordPress Hosting

Starter Genie
For new businesses
$99/m

  • Fast hosting near your clients
  • Secure bi-weekly backups
  • Full WordPress Updates
  • Speed optimized (quarterly)
  • Two genie jobs/m^
  • Good for 75,000 visits/m

Business Genie
For established businesses
$199/m

  • Fast hosting near your clients
  • Secure daily backups
  • Full WordPress Updates
  • Speed optimized (monthly)
  • Hacker protection
  • CDN
  • Five genie jobs/m^
  • Optimized for Woo/EDD/Cart66
  • Good for 150,000 visits/m

Full Concierge Genie
For complete peace of mind
$599/m

  • All of the business Genie, plus:
  • Fully PCI Compliant
  • Premium DNS hosting
  • Unlimited genie jobs/m^*
  • Unlimited content assistance from WPBlazon*
  • Good for 300,000 visits/m

Prices displayed in USD
(Choose GBP or EUR instead.)

^these are small jobs that take 30 minutes to complete. Examples can be found here. Jobs can be combined/rolled over on annual plans.
*Fair use policy applies

All genie accounts include:

  • Fast hosting near your clients (find out why)
  • SSL encryption
  • Tri-location backups
  • Uptime monitoring
  • Premium plugins (WP Rocket, Yoast, Gravity)
  • Full configuration of your email hosting provider (GSuite, Office365, etc) and your SPF/DKIM records

 

Frequently Asked Questions

 

Do you offer email?

We don’t and we actually advise against having email and website hosting in the same environment.

We recommend GSuite (formerly Google Apps).

There are other providers that come highly recommended too: FastMail, Zoho, Office 365 and Rackspace. All of them have their good and not so great points.

We know there are other providers out there, such as Fuse mail, Godaddy and Namecheap who offer email hosting, but they’re not as good in our opinion.

Note: We’ll configure your SPF and DKIM records as part of your onboarding process (this helps your emails avoid the spam folder).

Can I have multiple websites?

Yes, of course. Each website will need to be registered individually though. We don’t currently offer bulk pricing or a white labeling service. (We’re not a good choice if you’re a developer/agency and you want to manage all of your clients in one place.)

Are domain names included?

No, they're not. We don’t sell or provide domains.

As with emails, we believe you should have a different provider for your domain name.

We recommend Namecheap or LCN for your domain name. They both have reasonable prices and the latter accepts a variety of currencies.

Other providers such as Hover and Name are reliable providers too.

What if my clients are based across the globe?

First, congrats on your online outreach. Having customers in lots of different countries makes great business sense.

As with all other server location questions, we’ll look at where the majority of your customers/clients are and choose the best location. We’ll then choose the best solution and speed optimize (and test) from the other locations where your other customers are located.

Where are the servers based?

All over the world, literally.

When you join us, we’ll take you through a short process to find out where most of your clients/customers are based. Then, we’ll set you up on a hosting server that is close to them.

For example, if you’re in Florida then we’ll place you on a server in Florida. That’s much better than being placed on a server in California. It's closer to your clients.

What happens after I sign up?

Once you’ve signed up we’ll send you a few emails. The first will be an acknowledgement of your order. The second will detail what the next steps are.

If you prefer to have a quick 10-minute call on Skype to get everything setup then we can do that (although, we only have certain times available).

If you want to do everything electronically then that’s fine. We want to ensure your welcome to Hostini is as smooth as possible. Read the full breakdown of our onboarding service on this page.

 
 

Genie Jobs and Support

 
 

Which plan should I choose?

It depends on your needs.

If you’re unsure then the middle plan (business genie) offers the best value for most businesses and entrepreneurs. Want a plugin installed and configured? Done. Want an API link between Activate Campaign and Gravity Forms? Done. (There are enough Genie jobs and allocations to really get the most from your business website).

Can you explain Genie jobs?

Yes. They’re small techie jobs that take around 30 minutes to complete. Some examples include changes parts of pages around or adding in custom elements to your website.

You can read more about them here.

I’ve run out of Genie jobs. What do I do?

If you’re on the starter or business plans then you can do a couple of things.

If you’re on the monthly plan, you can purchase a Genie jobs package (have an expiry of 12 months) or wait until next month when they’re refilled.

If you’re on the annual plan then you can borrow/merge any unused jobs from future or past months (up to a maximum of three months from the position you are: for example, if you’re in the middle of February then you can borrow January’s and March’s jobs, but not December’s or April’s; as long as they haven't been used already).

How does support work?

At the moment we handle everything by email.

We did consider phone support and live chat, but those channels aren’t as effective and don't allow us to maximize our service to you. Also, who wants to hang around in a call queue for 20 minutes? No, thank you.

Email allows us to track everything and deliver the best possible service (and improve things for the future).

What are your support times?

We have a distributed team across 3 continents, so we’re usually awake when you are. However, we guarantee that you’ll receive correspondence within 12 hours (it’s usually in as little as 1 hour though).

24x7 support is coming in late 2018.

Where are you located?

The company behind Hostini is based in the UK. However, we have a distributed team, which means we are located in different parts of the world and work remotely.

Why?

It provides us with the best flexibility in terms of timezones and offering a global service (not everyone running a business is based in North America or Europe and we understand that).

Also, everyone currently on the support team has their first (primary) language as English.

 
 

Updates and Backups

 
 

Will you keep my WordPress up-to-date?

Yes, but not like other WordPress hosting or maintenance companies.

We complete all updates to your website: WP core, theme and plugins to ensure its serving your business as you intended.

We don’t force automatic updates either, as these can sometimes break your website. Instead, we complete the updates manually after deploying your website to a test environment first: we want to check everything works before making things active.

Also, you might find that we’ll wait for later versions of WordPress to come out (such as 4.9.1. instead of 4.9) before upgrading. This is sensible as most plugin providers will catch up to bugs or errors by then.

But there’s also peace of mind: if there are any 0-day security problems then we react swiftly and initiate updates within 24 hours of release (after testing, of course).

How do backups work?

We work on a 3-stage strategy to ensure consistency. Backups are taken daily on a server level, weekly on a CMS (WP) level, and sometime in the month we take a full manual backup and store this in a secure location.

Our usual retention system is 4 weeks for server backups, 12 weeks for CMS backups and 12 months for manual backups.

Your server and WordPress website are secured from potential attacks, but nothing is 100%. So, we have a strict backup system in place.

Note: If you’re based on a server in Europe then server backups are stored in Europe.

After cancellation, all backups are deleted after 90 days and such data are not recoverable after that time.

What does “fully supported” actually mean?

This is the ‘small print’ question.

If you have a premium theme (meaning that you paid for it through a marketplace or with a provider) then we can update it for you provided we have the appropriate login/API details to process the update.

An example: if you had a web developer/designer setup your website and they bought a theme from a marketplace, such as Themeforest, then we’ll require API credentials (or similar) for the license of the theme. If you don’t have access to this you may have to purchase a new license.

However, if you have a theme from somewhere like Studiopress or Thrive Themes then we can update it for you.

The above also applies to premium plugins. There may be times when you are part of a developer license for Beaver Builder and are then required to purchase your own license.

Things like this are usually cleared up in the onboarding process when you become a new client.

Do I get full access to my WordPress website?

Yes and no.

We take security seriously, which means that we offer the option for you to choose whether to have administrator access or not.

If you don’t have significant experience in PHP, HTML and managing a WordPress website then we’d suggest not taking this option. It isn’t really worth it, especially when we will most likely fix most things for you using Genie jobs.

We handle all of your updates inside the WordPress control panel too, so there isn’t much need for admin access.

This is especially important if there are multiple authors and people signing into your WP admin area. (A lower level of admin access reduces risks from your WP admin area being compromised.)

What happens if my website goes down?

First, we’ll be notified. Sometimes servers are having a bad day and need a re-boot. Other times it could be a DDOS attack on a server location. Whatever it is we don’t want your website down either and we’ll work to get it back up as fast as possible.

If your site is down for a continued amount of time (more than 3 hours) then we switch to our rapid deployment plan: where we re-deploy your website to a new location.

Also, as we have access/control over your DNS we can quickly switch to where your website is located without any further downtime (propagation), and your email will stay up throughout any issues (because you host your email with the likes of GSuite).

 

 
 

Billing and Payment

 
 

How does payment/billing work?

All services are paid monthly by either credit/debit card, PayPal or direct debit (EU/SEPA). If you’d like to pay via electronic transfer from your bank then this is only available for annual payments.

You can avail of a discount if you pay the annual fee (1 month free and Genie jobs rolled over for a maximum of three consecutive months on the annual plan; save money and maximize your time).

What currencies do you accept?

At the moment it’s GBP, USD and EUR. We might start accepting payments in other currencies in the future, but right now we feel these three offer a wide choice.

What type of payment do you accept?

PayPal, credit/debit cards and Bitcoin for all currencies. ACH for USD; Direct debit or funds transfer for GBP (FPS) and EUR (SEPA).

Our preferred method is direct debit or card payment because it’s easiest for all parties and there aren’t any wait times for you to get started. It also means we can expand and develop in the future without the need to raise prices (invoicing and waiting for funds eat into operating capital and we’d prefer not to increase prices due to this).

I’m concerned about my information

Understandably, and we are too. We’re a division of a company located in the UK. The good news for you is that the UK has very strict laws on data (customer information) protection and how companies handle these data.

Be assured that we keep only what is necessary and have a strict security policy in place.

Am I locked into a contract?

No, not at all. Our service is a month-to-month one. You can cancel at any time during your current billing period.

If you have paid through an annual agreement then you will be refunded pro-rata for the unused amount on your account (within 60 days of cancellation).

 

 
 

Servers and Service

 
 

Are the servers PCI compliant?

Yes and no.

If you’re on the Starter or Business Genie plans then we don’t offer hosting compliance in relation to PCI, so you’re best to use an external processor like Stripe or PayPal. We’ll take care of the SSL security on your site though.

If you’re on the Full Concierge plan then we’ll work in partnership to ensure your hosting and website is PCI compliant. However, keep in mind that PCI compliance doesn’t just cover your website and hosting: as a business you’re responsible for the correct handling of customer data and information.

PCI compliance is important no matter what way you choose. However, you will find that using systems such as PayPal Web Payment Pro (Payflow in the US), Sage payments or Authorize.net – where you take payments directly on your site and the user doesn’t leave – generally require stricter hosting compliance than the likes of Stripe.

Do you provide a CDN or caching?

Yes and no.

If you’re on our lowest plan (starter) then we provide you with caching. If you’re on any of our other two plans then you’ll be added to the CDN too (if it’s going to be beneficial to your website’s users, sometimes it's not).

However, most times having your website located on a server near the people you serve, being correctly optimized and with caching installed mitigates the need for a CDN.

A CDN (Content Delivery Network) is only really needed if you have clients/customers all over the globe (or in a few different parts of the world).

What kind of caching is involved?

It depends on where you’re located.

We choose the best location for you based on our years of experience in hosting and maintaining WordPress websites.

We also analyze your current setup and see whether a caching plugin, in addition to our server-side caching, will be of benefit.

For example, we know that if you’re in Sydney then having your website on a server in Chicago and then adding in a CDN isn’t going to be as effective as your website being on a server in Sydney without the CDN. Being on a server close to your business website visitors always wins.

 
 

What’s not included

 
 

Can I get rid of my web agency/digital consultant?

We’re not a web agency, but we’re not just a hosting company either. We’re a hybrid of the two: taking the tech/gobbledygook out of hosting your business in the digital world.

We have a partnership with Ignite, so if you’d prefer someone to handle everything with your online presence then you’re best to sign up with them and have them handle your business’s online presence, just like a web developer/digital marketer would.

They use our server locations so you’ll be in the best of both worlds.

Can you build me a new website or fix my current one?

No, we cannot. However, if you approach Ignite then they'll be able to help you with what you want or require.

Do you provide SEO or online marketing?

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a service provided that can bring you in many new leads and customers.

However, we concentrate on hosting and ensuring your website is online and available for people wherever they want to use it.

Visit Ignite, who use us to host their clients and offer a reasonable fee each month to manage and grow your online presence.

Do you work with WordPress Multisite?

No, not at this time. If you’d like to be notified when we do then please get in touch.

 
 

 
 

Other Questions

 
 

Do you own the web hosting servers?

We don’t. We rent them.

This provides us with the most flexibility to offer you the best price, speed and reliability, and it’s common practice outside of the massive hosting oligopolies across the globe.

Owning web hosting servers in different locations becomes costly and we want to keep the fees we charge to a reasonable amount.

Also, we use SEVEN different providers who have a reliable offering. You may find that you’ll be hosted in a data center that is, in the end, owned by the likes of Amazon or Google, and we only use companies with reliable services and a trusted name in the industry.

We treat your WordPress website just like one of our own.

My current site is hacked (eeek!). Can you help?

Yes, we can.

It depends where your current WordPress site is hosted, but we charge a fee of $299 to repair your hacked website (free if you sign up to an annual plan). We will then move it to our hosting environment and complete the onboarding process as normal.

Can I upgrade/downgrade my plan once I sign up?

Yes. Simply notify us about your choice and it will be reflected in your billing cycle within 24 hours.

Can you guarantee my website won’t get hacked?

No, we cannot. To do that would be a disservice.

What we will do is take steps and measures to prevent your website from being hacked in the first place.

Then, take steps to diligently backup your WordPress website in multiple locations. This ensures a backup of your website is ready to be deployed should something happen.

Can anyone host with Hostini?

That’s a question, isn’t it?

The short answer is no, but here’s the longer answer.

Sometimes, when we’re going through the onboarding process we’ll notice an outdated theme or plugin (sometimes it can be a year or more since it was updated), which is a “no, no” for us. We’ll work with you to resolve this before your website is accepted onto the network.

Also, our plans do have restrictions. So, if you have a busy ecommerce site with thousands of products then we might not be the best partner for you. If you're unsure then it's best to reach out.

My current hosting provider is cheaper. Can I get a discount?

They probably are.

We’re not into the “get 10,000 sites on a server” mentality that seems to have infiltrated the hosting industry over the past few years.

We’re here to help you grow your business and work alongside as your partner to ensure your WordPress business website is updated and works as you intended it to.

Sometimes, quality and peace of mind brings a higher level of investment.

And no, we don’t have any discounts at the moment. Our prices are reflective of the service we provide.