Managed hosting for the sites we build

To scope managed hosting we need your website address, the platform it runs on and any hosting problems you already know about. Tell us about traffic peaks, storage needs and the systems the site connects to. We review the setup before agreeing the hosting and migration requirements, so the environment is sized for that site and not bought as one plan and divided up. Moving the site is part of setting up hosting: files, database, certificates, DNS and email records, with the switch scheduled at a time that suits you and the old environment kept running until the new one is verified. If the site needs work to be maintainable once it is here, that work is separate and quoted separately, and you will know before it moves. Hosting comes with a build or a support agreement, so tell us which applies. If somebody else built the site, scoping starts with a look at the code.

No, you do not have to host with Felix to work with us. Every site we build runs on standard hosting and you are free to put it anywhere. Hosting is a convenience we offer and is not a condition of the build. A build is handed over with documented deployment instructions and the environment variables it needs, so it can run on the hosting you already have or on new hosting later. Managed hosting suits a site that matters to the business, where nobody internally owns keeping it running and you would rather one supplier were accountable for the site and the server together. If you have an internal team who already run infrastructure, or the site is small, static and fine on a low-cost account, we will say so and leave it where it is. If your current hosting is the reason a site is slow or keeps falling over, we will tell you, with the evidence, so you can decide.

Yes, Felix hosts sites we did not build, after a short technical review. The review takes an hour or so and looks at the code, the plugins and the state of the updates. If the site needs work before it is safe to run, we tell you what that work is and quote it separately. If it does not, it moves as it is. Hosting comes with a build or a support agreement, so hosting a site somebody else built is a support conversation, and it starts with that look at the code. Migration of the site itself is part of setting up hosting: files, database, certificates, DNS and email records. The switch is scheduled at a time that suits you, and the old environment is kept running until the new one is verified. Once the site is here it gets the same inclusions as every other site, including daily off-site backups, monitoring, updates tested on staging first and its own isolated environment.

When a site on Felix hosting goes down, monitoring alerts us, usually before anyone reports it. Uptime is checked every five minutes from outside the network, alongside certificate expiry, disk and PHP error rates, and alerts reach a person. An outage is a time-sensitive issue under our SLA, so it is picked up immediately during coverage hours and always within 2 hours. Coverage is Monday to Friday, 9:00 to 20:00 UK time, and anything that arrives outside those hours is picked up at the start of the next working day. Picked up means a named person has the ticket and you have an acknowledgement. Fix time depends on the fault, and we tell you what we know once we have looked. The person who answers has the site, the server and the code. If a restore is needed, backups are daily, off-site and kept 30 days. Once it is fixed, you are told in writing what happened and what was done about it.

Yes, you can leave Felix hosting, and you take the site with you: files, database and configuration. There is no part of it that only runs here. Every site we build runs on standard hosting, so you are free to put it anywhere, and hosting is a convenience we offer and not a condition of working with us. Backups hold the files and the database together, and a restore returns a working site, so what you take away is complete. Mailboxes stay with your own email provider throughout, which means your email does not have to move when the site does. For a site we built, the handover already includes documented deployment instructions and the environment variables the site needs, so another host or developer can run it. After handover the code is yours, with no licence, no retained component and no dependency on us. Nothing in the code only works while we are involved.

Managed hosting keeps the site running. Changes to the site are support and maintenance, which is a separate agreement. Where the boundary sits is written into both. On the hosting side, every site gets daily off-site backups kept for 30 days, uptime and certificate monitoring, and core, plugin and theme updates applied monthly on staging first, with security releases sooner. It also gets a PHP version with security support, automatic SSL renewal, a staging environment that is a copy of production, and correct SPF, DKIM and DMARC records. Restores are on request and at no charge. Coverage hours are the same as the support agreement: Monday to Friday, 9:00 to 20:00 UK time. If a site needs work to be maintainable once it is hosted here, that work is separate and quoted separately, and you will know before the site moves. Hosting is sold with a build or a support agreement, and not as a server on its own.