Website Hosting
Managed website hosting and takeover
Stuck with a host who never replies? I move your site over and look after it for you. No contracts, no lock-in. Just hosting and ongoing support from one person who actually picks up the phone.
Bad hosting kills businesses quietly
This service is for UK small business owners who already have a website on a host that no longer works for them, and who want one person looking after it from now on. Rebuild prospects fit better on Web Design; people who genuinely enjoy self-managing should stay on cheap shared hosting and good luck to them.
Most small business owners do not think about their website hosting until something goes wrong. The site goes down on a Friday afternoon. The renewal price doubles overnight. Support tickets sit unanswered for three days. The control panel makes no sense and the help articles assume you already know what TLS, SFTP, and DNS records are.
By the time you get an email saying "your hosting is up for renewal at £319 a year", the relationship is already broken. The host is not actually doing anything for you. They are just sitting there, charging you, and disappearing when you need help.
I take that off your plate. I move your existing website over to my hosting, look after it day to day, and answer your message when you actually need help. You do not have to learn anything technical. You do not have to log into a control panel. If something needs fixing, I fix it. If you want a small change to your homepage, I do it.
And because you own your website (always have, always will), you can leave whenever you want and take it with you. No contracts. No notice period. No catch.
What you get when I host your site
No bait-and-switch pricing. No "from £2.99 then £15.99 next year". One flat monthly price, everything included, and a real person looking after it.
Free migration
I move your site across from your current host. Domain, files, database, email setup, SSL. All handled. You do not need to lift a finger or learn anything technical.
Fast UK hosting
WordPress sites on Krystal (UK data centres, LiteSpeed cache). Static sites on Cloudflare with their global CDN. UK-routed, fast for your local customers, fast for anyone abroad.
Free SSL certificate
The padlock in the browser bar, included and renewed automatically. No more "not secure" warnings putting customers off before they even read your homepage.
Daily backups
Daily automatic backups via Krystal. For clients who want a second layer, I add WP Umbrella as an independent backup off Krystal entirely. Belt and braces, easy to restore from either.
Security and uptime monitoring
Uptime monitoring through UptimeRobot, plus malware and intrusion checks via Krystal's server-level tools. If your site goes offline, I know about it before your customers do.
Plugin and core updates
For WordPress sites, I keep the WordPress core, themes, and plugins up to date. Security patches applied promptly. No more login emails saying "11 updates available".
A real human who replies
You message me directly. No ticket queues, no chatbots, no overseas call centre reading from a script. If you need something, you ask me and I sort it.
You own your site
Your website, your domain, your content, your data. All yours. If you want to leave, you take it with you and I help with the move. No lock-in, no penalty, no awkward conversation.
Help with domain and DNS
Domain renewals, DNS records, email routing, redirects. The boring technical bits that go wrong in the background. I handle those so you do not have to learn them.
How a takeover works
Three steps, usually inside a week. No drama, no downtime, nothing for you to learn.
I audit your current setup
I look at where your site is now, how it is built, and what needs to come across. Domain, email, SSL, files, database. If anything is going to be tricky, I flag it before we agree the move.
I migrate to avoid visible downtime
I copy everything to my hosting and test it on a staging URL. Once it is working, I switch the DNS at a quiet time. Most visitors see no interruption. Email continues to deliver through the switch in the typical case, though we plan around it carefully.
You go live on my hosting
Site is live, your monthly plan starts, and from this point on I am the one fixing things if anything ever goes wrong. You stop worrying about hosting. You can finally just run your business.
If anything breaks during the migration, it is on me to fix. Included. I do not start the meter until your site is live and stable.
What a takeover actually looks like
I currently host around 30 small business websites, about 20 of them on WordPress. Some of those clients have been with me 3 to 4 years now. Every takeover is different but the patterns repeat, and that is what experience buys you.
Email is almost always involved. Most small businesses have email tied to the same host as the website without realising it. The MX records have to come across (or get pointed at a separate provider, like Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace) at the same time as the site. Skip this and email goes silent for hours, sometimes days.
DNS records are usually a mess. The typical takeover I do has dozens of DNS records left over from years of changes. Old verification records for services that no longer exist. SPF and DKIM rules pointing at the wrong provider. CNAMEs for subdomains nobody uses any more. Part of the move is cleaning all of that up so what is left actually works.
WordPress sites usually need plugin housekeeping. The average WordPress site I take over has 30 or more active plugins, half of which are unused, abandoned by their developers, or duplicating something another plugin already does. Before the move I do a plugin audit. Deactivate the unused ones, replace the abandoned ones, consolidate the duplicates. The site is faster and more secure on day one of being on my hosting, before I have changed anything else.
Speed almost always improves significantly. Cheap shared hosts oversell their servers. Moving to Krystal with LiteSpeed (for WordPress) or Cloudflare (for static sites) usually drops load times noticeably the moment the DNS switches over. The bill is not always cheaper than your old host, but the quality is. When I host your site, you get me, not a slot in a server with 100 other strangers that nobody is paying attention to.
Average turnaround is about three days. Audit on day one, migration on day two, switch and stabilise on day three. Quick ones can be the same day. Awkward ones (where the existing host is uncooperative or the setup is unusual) take a week or more.
One that stuck with me
A recent takeover. Client had a WordPress site on a host who had locked them out of cPanel and stopped responding to support tickets. They had a backup, but it was about a year old. I needed the live database (their last twelve months of content and form submissions) but I could not get to the server.
The fix was a WordPress plugin that exports the database from inside the WP admin, where the client still had their login. I exported through that, dropped the current database into the year-old file backup on my hosting, lined the file paths up, ran a search-and-replace on the database to update the URLs, and the site came up with everything intact.
Three days from start to live. That is not what a typical takeover looks like (most are far simpler) but it is the kind of thing that separates "I just resell hosting" from "I will actually solve the problem when something goes sideways".
My takeover checklist
The list below is what I work through on every takeover before I touch the DNS. None of it is a sales pitch. It is the boring practitioner detail that decides whether your site moves cleanly or breaks for half a day.
- 01
Audit the current DNS zone
Map every record. A, CNAME, MX, TXT, SPF, DKIM, DMARC. Flag the ones that are still in use and the ones left over from services nobody uses any more.
- 02
Confirm who actually owns the domain
Sometimes the domain registrar account is in the previous developer's name, or the agency that built the site three owners ago. Find this out before migration day, not on it.
- 03
Check where email really lives
MX records tell you the truth. Email might be on the same host (most common on cheap setups) or already on Microsoft 365 / Google Workspace. The plan is different for each.
- 04
Lower DNS TTL 24 hours before the switch
So when the DNS does change, it propagates quickly instead of dragging on for two days. Set it back to a normal value once everything is stable.
- 05
Take a fresh backup before any change
A clean restore point at the start. If anything goes sideways during the move, this is the fallback.
- 06
Run the WordPress plugin audit
Identify duplicates, abandoned plugins, ones causing performance hits. Deactivate, consolidate, replace. Check PHP version compatibility too.
- 07
Stage the site on a temporary URL
Site goes up on a staging URL on my hosting before any DNS changes. Click every page. Submit every form. Test every checkout if there is one.
- 08
Test contact form delivery on staging
Forms break on more than half the takeovers I do, usually because the old host had quirks the new host does not replicate. Test before, fix before, never after.
- 09
Verify SSL provisions cleanly
New SSL certificate has to issue on the new host before the DNS flips. Check the padlock works on staging, then again immediately after the switch.
- 10
Search-replace the database for URL changes
WordPress especially stores absolute URLs everywhere. If anything in the URL structure changes during the move, run a database search-and-replace so links and images keep working.
- 11
Mixed-content scan once SSL is live
Older WP sites often have hardcoded HTTP image URLs that break the padlock. Scan and fix any flagged.
- 12
Reconnect Search Console and analytics
Verify the site to the right Google account (often verified to a previous developer). Re-route form notifications and analytics to your inbox, not the old developer's.
Pricing
Simple, no-contract pricing
A small one-off fee to move your site over, then a flat monthly plan. Cancel anytime. No surprise renewals, no upsells.
One-off
Migration and takeover
I move your existing website from your current host to mine. Audit, migration, DNS switch, SSL, email check, the lot. One-time fee, paid when the site goes live.
From £149
Final price after I see your setup.
Starter
Pure hosting and security. Best for small sites that just need to stay online and safe.
- Fast UK hosting and SSL
- Daily off-site backups
- Security and uptime monitoring
- Software and plugin updates
- Direct support from me
Growth
Everything in Starter, plus light edits and ongoing support. Best for sites that need small changes from time to time.
- Everything in Starter
- Light text and content edits
- Google Business Profile posting (1 every 2 weeks)
- Quarterly check-in call
- Priority email support
Looking for SEO or new content work too?
Honest answer: I only do SEO and new content work on websites I have built. Trying to retrofit it onto someone else's build is unreliable, the results are worse, and the cost stops making sense for you. If you want the bigger picture, I can move you over and rebuild your site instead.
See Web Design →WordPress
Already on WordPress? I will keep it healthy
WordPress sites need ongoing care. The core software updates roughly every six weeks. Plugins update constantly. Themes get security patches. If those updates pile up unattended, your site becomes a security risk and starts to break in small ways nobody notices until something important fails.
I look after all of that for you. Updates are tested before they go live so a bad plugin release does not take your site down. I am a Bricks Builder accredited developer, so if your site is built with Bricks I know it inside out. But I look after WordPress sites built with any builder: Elementor, Divi, classic editor, page-builder-of-the-month.
The stack: Krystal's UK cPanel platform with LiteSpeed caching for speed, daily backups via Krystal, and WP Umbrella as an optional second backup layer for clients who want belt and braces. Most sites also get Cloudflare in front for DDoS protection and an extra speed layer. None of that is exotic. It is just the right tools, set up properly.
Core and plugin updates
Tested on staging before going live on a real site. No surprise breakages from a bad plugin release.
LiteSpeed cache + Cloudflare
Server-level caching plus a global CDN edge. Most sites feel noticeably faster on day one of being on my hosting, especially the ones moving from oversold shared hosts.
Daily backups, two layers
Krystal backs up daily as standard. WP Umbrella adds a second independent backup off the same server. Restorable from either.
Plugin audit on takeover
Average WP site I take over has 30+ plugins, half of them unused or abandoned. I clean that up before the move so you start lean.
Looking for a brand new WordPress site? See WordPress builds.
Want more than just hosting?
Hosting is the simple option. If your existing site is holding the business back as well as costing you money, a rebuild can be a better long-term move.
Web Design
If you want a refresh, a redesign, or a brand new site, hosting can be the first step in a bigger plan. I rebuild from Wix, Squarespace, WordPress, or anywhere else.
Learn more →Local SEO
Once your site is on my hosting and I have rebuilt it, I can grow your local visibility too. Available on sites I have built, not as a standalone bolt-on.
Learn more →What clients say
Real reviews from real clients
"Absolutely amazing helpful service from the moment we first spoke. Trustworthy. Fair price. Definitely recommend."
"I was astonished at his creativity, proposals and proactive approach. Very professional and trustworthy, so much that we have been working together for over 3 years now!"
"Josh simplified a very complicated process for me and is now running my Google Business Profile. Would highly recommend."
FAQ
Common questions about hosting and takeover
Bad hosting taking up too much of your time?
Tell me where your site is now and I will come back with a clear plan to move it over. Most takeovers complete inside a week.
Free initial chat. No commitment. No sales pitch.