Managed hosting means your website runs on a server that someone is accountable for. That person watches loading speed, renews the security certificate, keeps the domain's DNS records tidy and deals with outages. For a heating company, the real value is that this responsibility does not sit with the office manager or with whoever built the site five years ago.
What managed hosting is, in plain terms
Hosting is the rented computer your website lives on. "Managed" means the care of that computer is included: configuration, monitoring, certificate renewals and help when something breaks.
Cheap shared hosting puts hundreds of sites on one machine and leaves everything else to you. That can be fine for a hobby blog. It is a poor fit for a business whose busiest hour of the year arrives without warning on a January night.
Who this is for
- Heating, boiler, furnace and heat-pump companies whose site is on a plan nobody has reviewed in years
- Owners who do not know which company hosts the site, or whose hosting account sits under a former employee's email address
- Companies whose site is noticeably slow on a phone, which is how most no-heat callers will find you
- Businesses moving from a free website builder to a proper site they own
What is included
The exact scope for your tier is listed in writing before we start. The work generally covers:
- An account in your company's name, or a clear record of who holds it, so you are never locked out of your own site.
- Certificate management, so the padlock in the browser never lapses and visitors never see a warning page.
- DNS records kept tidy, including the records that keep your company email deliverable.
- Speed checks on the pages that matter most: home, emergency repair, service area and contact.
- Outage response, meaning we are told when the site stops responding and we act on it.
- A plain-language note after any incident, saying what happened and what changed.
Timeline
Taking over hosting for an existing site normally follows four stages.
- Week 1: find out where everything is: domain registrar, current host, DNS, logins and any email tied to the domain.
- Week 2: take a complete copy of the site and test it on the new hosting, without touching the live site.
- Switch-over: move during a quiet period. For heating companies we avoid moving during a cold snap or the first week of the heating season.
- After the move: check forms of contact such as click-to-call and email links, check speed again and confirm the certificate.
Timing depends on what we find in week 1, and we tell you before we commit to a date.
How results are measured
Hosting is measured by what does not go wrong, plus a few numbers you can check yourself:
- How quickly your key pages load on a phone, measured before and after the move
- Incidents logged, with the time we found out and the time the site was back
- Certificate and domain renewal dates, recorded so nothing expires by surprise
If you would like the reasoning behind preparing for peak demand, our cold-snap readiness guide covers it in detail.
A note on what we will not promise
We do not publish uptime percentages. Every host has outages eventually; what matters is that someone notices quickly and that you are told the truth afterwards.
Mistakes to avoid
- Registering the domain in a personal name. If that person leaves, your business can lose its own web address. Keep it in the company's name.
- Bundling email with cheap web hosting. When the hosting fails, the email goes with it, often during your busiest week.
- Choosing hosting on price alone. A few dollars saved each month is small next to one lost night of emergency calls.
- Moving hosts in November. Move in the shoulder season, when a hiccup costs little.
Hosting is one part of a care tier, which also covers updates and backups and security. See the pricing page for the three tiers.
Frequently asked questions
Will you move my site to new hosting?
If the current hosting is slow, unsupported or tied to an account you cannot access, moving is usually worth it. We plan the move, take a full copy first and switch over at a quiet time, not in the middle of a cold snap.
Do you offer an uptime percentage?
No. We do not publish uptime figures or promises. We watch the site, we respond when it goes down, and we tell you what happened and what we changed.
Where is the site hosted?
That depends on the site and is stated in your written scope. If data residency matters to your business, raise it at the start and we will factor it in.
Does hosting include email?
Website hosting and company email are separate services, and we recommend keeping them separate so a website problem never takes down your inbox. We can advise on where your email should live.