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© 2024 Pixel Kicks Ltd - a Manchester web design agency.

Hosting & Support

Bespoke, managed website hosting packages in Manchester

All websites we host are 100% cloud based, giving us the easy ability to scale them up or down depending on requirements.

Our technical team manage a suite of individual servers, making sure they’re not overloaded, and all optimised for high performance. Our experience in hosting websites dates back to the late 90s, so you can rest assure your sites are safe with us.

We’re not your typical web hosting company

We’re not the same as other website hosting companies in Manchester. Instead we’re an award-winning digital agency who has built websites, scaled them, marketed them, and as a result have over 20 years of industry experience.

We’ve managed high-traffic websites with huge peak visitor numbers and consistent traffic levels, so we know exactly how to handle the most testing of applications. We can build custom hosting solutions to suit you, or we have four different tiered hosting & support packages to cater for most requirements.

Pure

Fast Wordpress optimised cloud hosting

Professional

Fast Wordpress optimised cloud hosting with regular support

Premium

Fast Wordpress optimised cloud hosting with enhanced support

Platinum

Critical security & support
Monthly Price excluding VAT

£79

£189

£299

£429
Fully Managed 
Email & telephone support 
Secure, fast, Cloud based hosting 
Cloudflare DNS 
SSL certificate 
PHP 8 & MySQL 
Daily backups 
Webspace  15GB 25GB 60GB 100GB
Bandwidth  Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited
Support & maintenance time  - 1 Hour 2 Hours 4 Hours
Support Response Time  - Standard Quick Lightning
WordPress core updates  - Every Month Every Month Every Month
WordPress plugin updates  - Every Month Every Month Every Month
Monthly Security Audit 
Monthly Health Report 

About our hosting packages

  1. Want fast website hosting only, with SSL security? Choose our Pure package.
  2. Need regular support as well as hosting? Our Professional package is for you and comes with 1.5 hours per month.
  3. Want hosting, extended support and faster response times? Go for Premium and get 3 hours support each month.
  4. If you need security & peace of mind that your website is always in the best of health, our Platinum plan will let you sleep at night, you’ll get lightning-quick support, 4 hours of support and your site will always be up-to-date.

For bespoke and high-traffic hosting requirements or an increased number of support hours, please enquire. If you have any questions then please call us on 0161 713 1700 or get in touch here.

 

Website hosting FAQ

Fully Managed

All of our servers are genuinely fully managed, meaning that we provide a complete server administration solution that lets you focus on running your business. Our experienced technical team will make sure your website and server are running constantly, and we keep them all healthy, finely-tuned and protected.

Email & telephone support

Got a question or problem with your website?  Use our dedicated support ticket system, or get in touch with us here.

If your problem is more pressing, call us on 0161 713 1700 and we’ll do our best to help instantly.

Secure, fast, Cloud based hosting

All our cloud webservers are are high-spec, dedicated and well-maintained. Google rewards fast-loading websites with higher rankings, and your customers will enjoy a pleasant browsing experience at the same time.

Each of our servers offers the following:

  • Digital Ocean or AWS architecture
  • SSD hard drives in RAID
  • Multi-core Intel Xeon CPU’s
  • Memory optimised
  • Daily backups
  • Linux CentOs / Debian 64-bit OS
  • Plesk control panels
  • Virus & malware protection

 

Cloudflare DNS

Cloudflare Managed DNS is an enterprise-grade authoritative DNS service that offers the fastest response time, unparalleled redundancy, and advanced security with built-in DDoS mitigation and DNSSEC.

  • Always available, resulting in unparalleled redundancy and 100% uptime
  • Comes with integrated security for built-in DDos protection
  • Superior performance offering DNS lookup speed of 11ms on average and worldwide DNS propagation in less than 5 seconds
  • Fully redundant architecture designed for 100% uptime

SSL certificate

All sites we host and support come with a completely free SSL certificate, generating trust with your users and increasing your Google rankings at the same time.

Your site will appear in secure HTTPS mode, and browsers will display a secure lock icon.

PHP 8 & MySQL

What is PHP?

PHP is a widely-used open source general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited for web development and can be embedded into HTML.

PHP 7 is a major release of the PHP programming language and is touted to be a revolution in the way web applications can be developed and delivered for mobile to enterprises and the cloud. This release is considered to be the most important change since the release of PHP 5 back in 2004.

What is MySQL (or Maria DB)?

MySQL is an open-source database, widely used by most content managed websites on the internet. It is the leading database choice for web-based applications, used by high profile web properties including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and all of the top five websites worldwide.

For all practical purposes, MariaDB is the same as MySQL. The database structure and indexes are exactly the same in both, however MariaDB has a lot of new options, extension, storage engines and bug fixes that are not in MySQL.

It’s the same, but better 🙂

Daily backups

You can never have enough backups!

All sites we host are backed up on a daily basis to prevent loss of data from accidental deletion, hacks, malware or server failure. Our technical team have over 20 years of industry-leading server & networking knowledge so you can rest assured your information is safe with us.

Webspace

All our packages come with a huge amount of disk space.

  • Pure – 10GB
  • Professional – 15GB
  • Premium – 50GB
  • Platinum – 100GB

Bandwidth

All of our website hosting & support packages come with unlimited bandwidth, which means your site won’t get throttled if you have a super-busy period. You’ll always have the full availability of our web server power.

We are committed to providing our customers with extremely high quality hosting at a price that reflects true value for money. However, if any website uses a disproportionately large amount of bandwidth for a continued period then we will recommend a bespoke hosting package instead. This is to make sure both the aforementioned website and all others are not limited in any way.

Support & maintenance time

With any allotted support time you may call upon our services for any of the typical tasks detailed below:

  • Make updates to your website (add new pages, create new images, make small amends)
  • Add any additional functionality, or install plugins as required
  • Give training over the phone or via a remote screen-sharing session
  • Offer any general SEO or digital marketing advice

Basically, our time is free to use as you wish.

Support Response Time

Our premium and platinum plans come with faster response time, meaning we’ll get to work on your problem as quick as we can.

  • Quick: Issue looked at within 2 working days
  • Lightning: Issue looked at within 1 working day

We will attempt to find the cause of any problem as quick as possible, and then advice of any further time requirements for the issue to be completed. Any urgent tasks will be actioned by a member of our technical & development team as priority.

WordPress core updates

Keeping on top of your WordPress version is extremely important, and via our support plans you can pass on this responsbility to us.  At the allotted interval we will make sure your site is using the latest version of WordPress,.

WordPress plugin updates

Plugins are extremely helpful, but they can also be a nightmare to maintain. Through our support plans we will update all of your plugins at the stated interval.

A backup will be taken initially, and then once all plugins have been updated, your site will be tested to make sure everything is ok.  If anything does go wrong, we will restore your site back to how it was and then test the problem internally first. Once we have determined the problem and the fix, we will repeat the process.

Monthly Security Audit

Each & every month we will conduct a website security audit that includes the following:

  • Web application firewall
  • Vulnerability scan
  • Malware & virus scan
  • Google crawl scan
  • Blocked intrusion attempts

This will ensure your site is kept in the best of condition, safe from any internet nasties.

Monthly Health Report

Each & every month we will send you a full report covering the following:

  • Website loading speed
  • Mobile friendliness
  • DNS health

This information will help to make sure that your website is fully supported & in the best of health. Any recommendations we make based on the results of this information can either:

  1. Be actioned using your allotted support time (dependant upon the amount of work required)
  2. Be actioned separately via an additional quotation
  3. Passed over to you for your reference

What’s the difference between your hosting plans, apart from the price?

Our Professional hosting plan gives you the same high-speed hosting as our Pure plan, with the addition of more webspace & unlimited bandwidth. More important though, you get 1.5 hours of support time each month, and you can use this time to get help with your website, CMS, SEO, social media – in fact anything you want. We’ll assist you over the phone, via email or with remote screen sharing software. You’ll get our expert support & advice when you need it most.

With our Premium plan you get 3 hours of support time each month, but you also get quicker response times from us. Call or email us whenever you need, and we’ll be on hand to help out as quick as we can. You also get increased webspace when compared to other packages.

Both our Professional and Premium plans come with regular WordPress core & essential plugin updates.

What do I get extra with the Platinum plan?

If you depend heavily on your website and want to make sure it’s always in the best of shape, this plan is for you. With this plan you get 4 hours of allocated support time per month, but you also benefit from:

  • Our fastest “lightning” response time
  • WordPress core & plugin updates updated each & every month
  • A full security audit performed each month & summary emailed across to you
  • A full website health report performed each & summary emailed across to you

We’ll also pro-actively suggest amendments and updates based on best practices, emerging technologies, and gathered website data.

I can get hosting for £10 a month or less from a cheaper web hosting company. Why are yours more expensive?

Put simply, we offer a bespoke managed service for clients that want the best.

We host all websites on super-fast UK based cloud servers, meaning your sites will load much faster than other, low-cost services. Google list page-speed as a ranking factor, so by hosting with us your rankings could be improved.

As well as this, we regularly update all WordPress plugins & core software for you, meaning your site is always up-to-date. Having old plugins is a security risk, didn’t you know?

Allowing Pixel Kicks to host your site gives us instantaneous access for support and gives you one port-of-call for any query or issue. You also get an SSL certificate and daily backups included as standard.

What about e-mail addresses?

We would recommend your IT company or domain registrar take care of your e-mail addresses and email hosting.

However we advise our clients to use either Microsoft 365 or G Suite email hosting.

How is website hosting different to domain name registration? 

When someone types your domain name in a browser, or clicks a link to your website, the domain name is translated into the IP address of your web hosting company’s computer.

This typically high powered computer (server) is the hardware which securely holds (hosts) all of your websites files and data for 24/7 access. The domain name is simply a pointer or ‘postcode’ to make this link, which is why they are cheap as chips. You can usually pickup a .co.uk domain name for around £20 for a 2 year registration.

What if I don’t use my monthly support time?

Allocated support time on the Professional/Premium/Platinum packages all get carried over to a maximum of 3 months, so you can bank a good few hours for a larger update.

What hosting providers do you use?

Typically we use a combination of Digital Ocean and AWS.

You can read more technical details here.

To find out how we can help you get great results, give us a ring on: 0161 713 1700

Or email us at: [email protected]

Fully Managed

All of our servers are genuinely fully managed, meaning that we provide a complete server administration solution that lets you focus on running your business. Our experienced technical team will make sure your website and server are running constantly, and we keep them all healthy, finely-tuned and protected.

Email & telephone support

Got a question or problem with your website?  Use our dedicated support ticket system, or get in touch with us here.

If your problem is more pressing, call us on 0161 713 1700 and we’ll do our best to help instantly.

Secure, fast, Cloud based hosting

All our cloud webservers are are high-spec, dedicated and well-maintained. Google rewards fast-loading websites with higher rankings, and your customers will enjoy a pleasant browsing experience at the same time.

Each of our servers offers the following:

 

Cloudflare DNS

Cloudflare Managed DNS is an enterprise-grade authoritative DNS service that offers the fastest response time, unparalleled redundancy, and advanced security with built-in DDoS mitigation and DNSSEC.

SSL certificate

All sites we host and support come with a completely free SSL certificate, generating trust with your users and increasing your Google rankings at the same time.

Your site will appear in secure HTTPS mode, and browsers will display a secure lock icon.

PHP 8 & MySQL

What is PHP?

PHP is a widely-used open source general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited for web development and can be embedded into HTML.

PHP 7 is a major release of the PHP programming language and is touted to be a revolution in the way web applications can be developed and delivered for mobile to enterprises and the cloud. This release is considered to be the most important change since the release of PHP 5 back in 2004.

What is MySQL (or Maria DB)?

MySQL is an open-source database, widely used by most content managed websites on the internet. It is the leading database choice for web-based applications, used by high profile web properties including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and all of the top five websites worldwide.

For all practical purposes, MariaDB is the same as MySQL. The database structure and indexes are exactly the same in both, however MariaDB has a lot of new options, extension, storage engines and bug fixes that are not in MySQL.

It’s the same, but better 🙂

Daily backups

You can never have enough backups!

All sites we host are backed up on a daily basis to prevent loss of data from accidental deletion, hacks, malware or server failure. Our technical team have over 20 years of industry-leading server & networking knowledge so you can rest assured your information is safe with us.

Webspace

All our packages come with a huge amount of disk space.

Bandwidth

All of our website hosting & support packages come with unlimited bandwidth, which means your site won’t get throttled if you have a super-busy period. You’ll always have the full availability of our web server power.

We are committed to providing our customers with extremely high quality hosting at a price that reflects true value for money. However, if any website uses a disproportionately large amount of bandwidth for a continued period then we will recommend a bespoke hosting package instead. This is to make sure both the aforementioned website and all others are not limited in any way.

Support & maintenance time

With any allotted support time you may call upon our services for any of the typical tasks detailed below:

Basically, our time is free to use as you wish.

Support Response Time

Our premium and platinum plans come with faster response time, meaning we’ll get to work on your problem as quick as we can.

We will attempt to find the cause of any problem as quick as possible, and then advice of any further time requirements for the issue to be completed. Any urgent tasks will be actioned by a member of our technical & development team as priority.

WordPress core updates

Keeping on top of your WordPress version is extremely important, and via our support plans you can pass on this responsbility to us.  At the allotted interval we will make sure your site is using the latest version of WordPress,.

WordPress plugin updates

Plugins are extremely helpful, but they can also be a nightmare to maintain. Through our support plans we will update all of your plugins at the stated interval.

A backup will be taken initially, and then once all plugins have been updated, your site will be tested to make sure everything is ok.  If anything does go wrong, we will restore your site back to how it was and then test the problem internally first. Once we have determined the problem and the fix, we will repeat the process.

Monthly Security Audit

Each & every month we will conduct a website security audit that includes the following:

This will ensure your site is kept in the best of condition, safe from any internet nasties.

Monthly Health Report

Each & every month we will send you a full report covering the following:

This information will help to make sure that your website is fully supported & in the best of health. Any recommendations we make based on the results of this information can either:

  1. Be actioned using your allotted support time (dependant upon the amount of work required)
  2. Be actioned separately via an additional quotation
  3. Passed over to you for your reference