Why I tend to setup clients with their own hosting and technology instead of offering those things to them.
2024/03/21
Over the years I’ve seen one thing happen time and time again. Someone works with a company to get their site built out. The end result is great, but fast forward a few years and the client needs to do some updates only to find out the company that built their site won’t be able to help as they changed their business model, are focusing on a different kind of client, have gone out of business or just non-responsive to their requests.
Once they find out that one of the above happens. They they start to realize they don’t have access to their hosting, technology and/or domain. Leaving them in a pretty pickle where they have very little or no access to any of their website files. Leaving them in a pretty pickle.
The company/individual that did the work moves on to different work or clients
When it comes to business. Companies or freelancers can sometimes change focus on what they’re doing. They may have moved onto something else, whether that be going back to a full-time job, refocusing the work they’re doing etc. Maybe they started a family and downsized their client base. Or decided to go after bigger clients and you don’t fit in their pricing anymore.
Relationships can sour due to differences or disputes
It’s a part of life that relationships change over time and sometimes those relationships can sour and go south. Leaving both parties with a bad taste in their mouth. If this happens and the client doesn’t have access to their files. They’re going to have a tough time getting access to files, licenses or any other thing that their website runs off of.
Costs may seem big, but they are minimal in the long run.
In the end. Costs for the majority of the websites I’ve been apart of rarely exceed $750 and that’s at the high end. For the majority of website projects I’ve been apart of. You’re looking at roughly $500 for the whole kit and caboodle to own your website outright. Hosting typically costs, at most, ~$20/month or ~$240/year, if not cheaper, I use some premium WordPress plugins that cost anywhere from $100-400/year. Throw in any domains you may need, which roughly cost $20/year/domain. And you’re standard website costs less than $750/year to own your website out right, which is well worth it vs the potential headache of having to figure out what to do if you’re left in a spot where you don’t have access to any of that and, in some cases, don’t have any way of retrieving said things.