One of the biggest reasons I endorse (and am an affiliate of) Kinsta for WordPress hosting is its ‘problem prevention’ philosophy.
Advance Notice of Potential Website Issues
This morning I received a notice from Kinsta saying that one of the WordPress plugins I use has a security vulnerability and needs to be updated immediately. The latest plugin update has patched the issue.
Of all the website hosting providers I’ve used in the past, including Godaddy, bluehost, wp engine, wpx, flywheel, host gator, blue host, a plus, web.com, network solutions, and others, I have never received a notice letting me know a plugin is vulnerable and should be updated.
The Cost of Poor Website Management
For all the hosts I mentioned, the standard protocol is that they leave customers to their own devices and charge them when an issue. For example, a vulnerability such as the one I was made aware of today leaves the website open to malware. With a customer not being aware of the needed update, the site would eventually become infected with malware.
Then when the customer calls the customer service helpline and the hosting company would charge the customer to clean the malware out. If the malware has gone undetected for a significant amount of time, the domain may even be blacklisted –that is removed from search engine listings and flagged as a dangerous website. This is not only a costly issue to fix, but it can damage the reputation of your business.
Valuing the Customer Instead of Squeezing Them for Cash
The sad truth is that hosting companies likely take this ‘leave the customer to their own devices’ instead of ‘proactively informing them of important vulnerabilities’ philosophy because it puts hosting companies in a great position to upsell services to the customer. But the cost to the customer goes far beyond ‘cash to fix’.
This position can cause a whole host of additional problems including loss of income, PPC reputation damage, domain blacklisting, not to mention the obvious stress and anxiety over your website being broken. This of course puts the customer in a position to pay whatever the hosting company demands to resolve the issue.
In my opinion this is a terrible practice. That’s why Contento Interactive Group only recommend Kinsta as a hosting provider. Not only are the services excellent, but their prevention attitude is priceless. This is one of the many reason we are Kinsta affiliates.