Management + Hosting
How does it work?
We contract with respected WP Engine1 for web servers, support, and other infrastructure. They’re optimized for top-flight WordPress performance and can scale up fast when a flood of traffic heads for your website.
External Design adds services to relieve site owners of routine-but-vital chores, so they can focus on their true passion.
“Hands-free Pro”
We didn’t develop your site? No problem.
Want to offload the maintenance but keep your existing web server? Just let us know.
See the bottom-line details or read on, below, for background information.
How does it compare?
(1) See our plan pricing.
(2) For comparison, see what it costs to rent a server yourself from WP Engine,1 or at any truly reputable firm.
(3) Then consider: with our plan, you get hands-free WordPress maintenance — no logging in regularly to check for important software updates — with gold-standard hosting included at the same price, if you want it.
We advise any self-hosting client to apply pending software updates at least twice weekly. Updates are important for a website’s functions and security.
If the routine grows tedious, we may provide “Hands-free Pro” services even to websites not hosted on our servers. The price is the same, however, as if your website were hosted on our servers.
1. “In our opinion WP Engine is still the gold standard in WordPress web hosting. …if you are a business and you are prepared to spend a bit more for the best WordPress hosting then WP Engine is definitely the place to go. Highly recommended.”
—WP Dev Shed
Why WordPress?
New to web hosting concepts?
- The code and images that make a website work are stored on a web server. Servers are computers designed to be especially efficient at storing, retrieving, and sending things over the internet.
- Web servers are expensive and require expertise to operate well. Therefore, most people who have websites pay a web hosting service to rent space on one of their servers.
- A web server can be expensive even to rent, and most websites only need a fraction of a good server’s horsepower. As a result, most web hosts offer affordable shared hosting plans. That way, site owners share the cost and the space on that server.
- Renting space on a shared server means the hosting company will take care of nitty-gritty, system-level security and server software. But they aren’t responsible for maintaining your website files or your copy of WordPress (if you’re using that).
- Finally, managed WordPress hosting provides web servers optimized for WordPress websites. They’re typically fast, which benefits your site visitors, and the best ones provide robust tech support. They typically do not include support for your website’s particular functions, content, or software tools (e.g., WordPress plugins) it uses, those are typically in the hands of your web developer.
External Design’s “Hands-free Pro” plan offers gold-standard performance. We take care of all routine updates — you won’t even have to think about those important but (yawn) ongoing, recurring tasks.
