Features

• Administrator access to your own WordPress website, hosted on our multisite installation
• 10 GB of storage (disk space) and 50 GB of monthly bandwidth transfer
• The ability to choose from more than 50 pre-installed themes, including the premium Genesis child themes by StudioPress
• The ability to customize your theme with your own CSS code, using the My Custom CSS plugin
• The ability to activate and configure more than 50 pre-installed plugins, including the premium Gravity Forms plugin and some of the premium iThemes plugins
• The ability to sell items with PayPal (the Cart66 Lite plugin, which you can connect to your PayPal account)
• The ability to use Google Apps for email (Google Apps Standard Edition allows up to 10 free user accounts)
• Not having to worry about backups, upgrades, and security

• Access to the hosting environment (cPanel, filesystem, MySQL databases, webmail, FTP, etc.)
• Access to the WordPress installation (ability to install new themes and plugins, edit theme and plugin files, perform upgrades, etc.)
• Advanced e-commerce capabilities (such as shopping cart software other than Cart66 Lite, or the ability to accept credit card payments on your site)
• SSL certificates, dedicated IP addresses, and certain other features that hosting providers may offer

There are many options for hosting a WordPress website. The best choice depends on your requirements. The following table is meant only as a general guide and cannot take all details into account.

Our Managed Hosting is not a typical web hosting environment, such as what you would get if you signed up with a company like GoDaddy, BlueHost, or HostGator. On our Managed Hosting, your site is part of our multisite installation. You won’t have as much control as you would with your own installation; for example, you won’t be able to access the hosting account or database, and install themes and plugins. However, you will still have all the necessary capabilities to edit your website content; activate, deactivate, and configure themes and plugins; add users; change most settings; and style your website with your own CSS. We like to think of it as offering more features, customization, and control than a WordPress.com site and offering higher security and maintenance than an alternative managed hosting or self-hosted WordPress.org site, without the high costs.

You can use Google Apps for email. With Google Apps Standard Edition, you can create up to 10 user accounts (email addresses) for free.

We maintain regular backups on offsite Amazon cloud storage. We perform database backups daily and file backups weekly, and retain backups for 90 days. We can quickly and correctly restore your website in the event of a disaster. If the restoration is necessary due to an upgrade error or a related issue, there is no charge.

WordPress makes it easy to apply upgrades to the software. But to avoid potential problems, you need to know when an upgrade is available, what the upgrade does, and how to fix your website if something goes wrong with the upgrade. When a critical security update for WordPress is released, how long is your site vulnerable? If you don’t log in to your website often, then it could be days, weeks, or even months before you realize that an upgrade is even available.

If your website is hosted with our Managed Hosting, you don’t need to worry about any of this. We research and test the upgrades and figure out any necessary fixes before upgrading the websites we host, so the upgrade process is as smooth as possible.

These are the options for upgrading a WordPress website:

1. Do not upgrade your website.

Advantages:

• Doesn’t cost you any money or time.

Disadvantages:

• Your site will be more vulnerable to hackers as time goes on.
• You may not be able to use new themes and plugins, and installing them may break your site.
• You are responsible for backing up your files and database in case of disaster.

2. Upgrade your website yourself, learning how to do it yourself.

Advantages:

• Doesn’t cost you any money.
• Most likely a higher level of security than the previous option.

Disadvantages:

• Requires a major initial and ongoing time investment.
• Your site could be broken for a long period of time between when you upgrade and when you figure out how to fix it.
• If you don’t upgrade your site regularly, your site will be more vulnerable to hackers.
• You are responsible for backing up your files and database in case of disaster.
• If something goes seriously wrong, it could be difficult or impossible to fix.

3. Upgrade your website yourself and hire a developer if you need anything fixed.

Advantages:

• Relatively inexpensive if you are fortunate and things go smoothly most of the time.
• Low time investment.
• Most likely a higher level of security than the previous options.

Disadvantages:

• Your site could be broken for a long period of time between when you upgrade and when your developer schedules time to fix it.
• If you don’t upgrade your site regularly, your site will be more vulnerable to hackers.
• You are responsible for backing up your files and database in case of disaster.
• If something goes seriously wrong, it could be expensive, difficult, or impossible to fix.

4. Hire a developer each time you want to upgrade your website.

Advantages:

• Low time investment.
• You can choose the balance of cost and upgrade interval that you’re comfortable with.
• Most likely a higher level of security than the previous options.
• Errors will probably be fixed right away.
• Manual backups will probably be done for you, immediately before the upgrade.

Disadvantages:

• If you don’t upgrade your site regularly, your site will be more vulnerable to hackers.
• If you do upgrade your site regularly, this option can get expensive.
• You might not have backups of your files and database in case of disaster.
• If something goes seriously wrong, it could be expensive, difficult, or impossible to fix.

5. Hire a developer on an ongoing basis to upgrade your website.

Advantages:

• Low time investment.
• It could cost less than the previous two options, if the ongoing maintenance prevents serious errors from even occurring.
• Most likely a higher level of security than the previous options.
• Errors will probably be fixed right away.
• Automatic backups will probably be done frequently.

Disadvantages:

• It could cost more than the previous options, depending on the frequency of the maintenance contract.

6. Use Efficient Websites Managed Hosting. Upgrades are included.

Advantages:

• Low cost. Comparable to the cost of hosting elsewhere and not upgrading your website, or upgrading your website yourself and learning how to do it yourself.
• No additional time investment.
• Most likely a higher level of security than the previous options.
• Errors will probably be fixed right away.
• Automatic backups are done on a regular basis.

Disadvantages:

• Fewer capabilities and less control over your website. See the section above, “What don’t I get with Efficient Websites Managed Hosting?”, for details.

Unless you are a web professional, you probably don’t know much about website security. What would you do if your website is hacked? It would be a disaster. You could lose customers, traffic, and revenue from the downtime. Or worse, your brand could be hijacked or your online reputation could be permanently scarred.

If your website is hosted with our Managed Hosting, you don’t need to worry about any security precautions for your website. All you need to do is create a good password and keep it secure.

We take a layered approach to security. First, while we give you the ability to configure, design, and edit your website, we do not give you access to the raw code or installation privileges. This way, you (or someone else using your password, if you do not keep it secure) cannot break the code or install malicious software. Second, we make sure the WordPress software, themes, and plugins are up-to-date, to prevent people from exploiting newly discovered vulnerabilities. Third, follow industry best practices to secure the hosting configuration, the database, file and folder permissions, and more. Finally, we can quickly restore from backups and fix hacked websites, in the rare case that it is necessary.

Naturally, we provide free support for the following:

• Site downtime
• Hacks and security breaches
• Problems arising from any upgrades we perform
• Errors resulting from plugins or themes we discontinue

The comprehensive Efficient Websites Support website provides instructions on a variety of topics: basic editing of your WordPress website, plugin configuration, recommendations for external programs and services, and more. We recommend you look for answers to your questions there.

As a reseller, you will get access to the Efficient Websites forum (coming soon), where you can get additional help.

Change the nameservers for the domain name to NS1.EFSITES.COM and NS2.EFSITES.COM. If you do not already have the domain name registered, we recommend using NameCheap to register the domain name. Do not purchase hosting if you intend to use Efficient Websites Managed Hosting.