Why are we moving?
For some time now, we’ve been experiencing difficulties with our current host. In addition to several outages in recent months, they also recently discovered a security vulnerability in the Plesk software that powers their dedicated virtual servers. This vulnerability resulted in our site being hacked temporarily, even though we’re fanatics about security, always running the latest version of WordPress, and keeping our plugins up to date at all time.
Although we’ve been a customer for years, we received horrible support during this experience, as well as several unrelated incidents recently. This was the last straw for us, so we’ve been carefully comparing WordPress-specific hosts over the past month, and we’re finally ready to make a switch!
Why HostGator?
There are a number of reasons why we’ve decided to partner with HostGator for our hosting…
- Speed. Since their servers are specifically configured for WordPress sites, they can offer speed that other hosting providers simply can’t provide. After migrating a couple of other sites to HostGator, I’ve noticed a dramatic reduction in page load times. I can’t wait to see how Pixel2Pixel Design functions on their servers!
- Security monitoring. HostGator automatically scans and repairs hacking attempts on their client’ sites. They employ a number of security measures to ensure your site doesn’t get hacked in the first place, and then they continually monitor your site for hacks. If it still gets hacked, they’ll fix it for free! Given our recent woes with regard to this, I’m happy to bring some help on board in this area!
- Automatic backups. HostGator provides drop-dead simple, one-click backup and restore options — at no extra charge. Peace of mind at no extra charge.
- Automatic WordPress updates. HostGator automatically installs WordPress security and maintenance upgrades, so we won’t have to worry about keeping your site up to date.
- The people are the thing. Perhaps most important, the primary reason we’ve decided to go with HostGator is because of our shared commitment to the WordPress community and a growing relationship with members of their team. In the end, the people make the difference, and I’ve been more than impressed with each interaction with their folks. Customer service and support like this is rare.
Constantly improving to serve our members better.
We’re committed to continually improving Pixel2Pixel Design, and this move will provide our members with a much faster experience. Faster page load times also translate to better SEO, improving our rankings in the search engines, and helping more folks to discover our tutorials.
What this means to you…
We’re planning to migrate the site tomorrow evening, beginning at 10 PM CST. At that time, website will be on maintenance mode, since there will be a brief window of time when the two servers won’t be in sync.
This migration should be transparent to our readers; at most, you’ll be prompted to read our article once again on the new server.
Learn more about HostGator
To learn more about HostGator, and even conduct your own speed comparison to see how much faster your site will run on their WordPress-optimized servers, visit: WebPageTest.org
