We provide affordable hosting for clients which is suitable for anything from a 1 page website to something with tens of thousands of users every day.
We work with a managed servers supplier, using data centres in London. Our supplier is Carbon Negative - using green powered data centres wherever possible as well as offsetting all operations. All servers and datacentres used are PCI DSS compliant and have achieved the ISO security standards. You get our support and the expert knowledge of staff who pro-actively keep everything up to date.
The benefit of working with us is that we’re like your outsourced procurement for everything you need to have a site online. We’re not tied to one data centre or software package, but work with tried and tested apps and providers. We work as a small team with our customers on their needs, no mass hosting trying to deal with thousands of clients as simply a number. We know your name, we know your organisation/service, and we deliver what you need.
We work with clients to design and manage the service most useful to them. For cloud based shared hosting it’s all set - twice daily backups stored offsite, london based hosting, easy to install auto-updating apps like Wordpress, the option to add CloudFlare DNS for free, Immunify360 antivirus and customisable PHP modules as standard.
We’re available to support every day of the year, with swift responses to support tickets and emails, and at the end of a phone in business hours. Our personable, great value and high quality service is hard to beat.
FAQ’s
What’s the spec of my hosting?
For a bespoke hosting customer this will be as agreed, for shared hosting, ‘cloud’, customers this will be as per the package you order in terms of space and features. For all cloud customers we ensure you get decent performing specs, with upgrades and positive changes included when available.
For the detail interested, our current tech spec includes, per CPanel account:
- 2GB of Physical Memory (often known as RAM)
- 1vCPU (That’s the processor for the site)
- 1,024 IOPS (Input/Output processes per second - this means a lot of computations!)
- 100 Simultaneous Processes (Again, loads for a simple site)
- 10mb of I/O usage (This determines the speed of operations - good if you are running lots)
- 20 Entry processes (Essentially a script running as someone hits your site or other operations, most last less than a second so this allows plenty of traffic)
- Unlimited Bandwidth is allowed (The amount of traffic, images and data being transferred)
- PHP 5.5-8.1+ supported
Is my hosting secure?
Yes. Your hosting uses the CloudLinux Operating System, with CageFS which essentially isolates your hosting account from anyone else on the server. All logins and transfer is done via SSL (The security padlock) and we offer free automated security certificates for you to make use of a website starting with https://. Immunify360 is also in place, which scans for malware and further helps to protect the account. Only you know your password to login to the hosting and we use Two Factor Authentication for our access.
We manually check and process all hosting orders; this helps us to proactively ensure genuine orders are placed and we’re only ever hosting real requests - not auto provisioning to bots who want to try bad things. The chosen data centres are PCI-DSS compliant and has accreditation for ISO 27001:2013 for the provision of physical security, power, space & cooling. Check out the certifications page from Digital Ocean at: https://www.digitalocean.com/trust/certification-reports/ and OVH (Shared Server) at: https://www.ovhcloud.com/en-gb/datacenters-ovhcloud/
Do you take backups?
Yes! Twice daily backups are created and stored offsite. Although we do recommend you have your own routine set-up for any critical data should you need it as we can't be held responsible for loss of data - simply because the causes can be so varied including your own staff's human error, installing an app that isn't kept maintained and causing a critical error or via hacking. But we do check our own backups run and should have most users covered.
What domains can I use?
Anything which is legal. We are registrars of .uk domains directly with Nominet, and partner with Enom who are ICANN accredited to offer 150+ other domain name extensions, all managed through our portal. Although you don’t have to use us to register or manage your domain and can simply point to our hosting.
What Nameservers should I use?
If you use CloudFlare, then the ones specified by them. If you’re not, then ab.cloudns.co.uk & cd.cloudns.co.uk are our defaults, which are typically entered as 'Nameserver 1, and Nameserver 2'.
What is CloudFlare?
A great system with added DDoS protection (attacks on a site) and a CDN (content delivery network) which stores a cache of your site on servers around the world to make it quicker to load. The free version is great, and the pro version even better with enhanced functionality. Find out more at: https://www.cloudflare.com/dns/ - And you can set-up an account through us when ordering a domain or hosting (choose this link to add it to your cart: https://www.cahost.co.uk/cart.php?a=add&pid=27).
If you are using CloudFlare for your DNS provider, here's their help guide to getting set-up: https://support.cloudflare.com/hc/en-us/articles/201720164-Creating-a-Cloudflare-account-and-adding-a-website
The IP Address for your A Record to point to us can be found in your CPanel control panel or please just ask us to confirm.
How do I cancel my hosting or domain?
Simply login to your account on cahost.co.uk and select to cancel your account. You can also email us on [email protected]. Please note that if you’ve entered a new hosting period your invoice is still technically due, but we’re real people and will forgive the odd few days here or there. However, if a domain renewal has been processed then that sale is usually final.
What happens if I don’t pay my hosting renewal on time?
Firstly, you’ll get reminder emails. Secondly, we may follow up with you in person. If you still haven’t paid and haven’t been in touch with us a few weeks in to a yearly billing, or a few days in to a monthly period, then we reserve the right to suspend your hosting and then cancel it completely if we still don’t hear from you. But good news is - if you’re taking a well deserved holiday, or simply need to get the invoice in to your next pay run, just let us know by email and we’ll always be reasonable - no automatic cancellations on the day of expiration.
How do I access support?
Simply email us on [email protected] as the simplest way to get in touch. You can also raise a ticket in the support menu of cahost.co.uk. We’re on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook too if you’d rather message us there, but we prefer an email. Do also call us on 0330 229 2525 if you want to speak to someone. We might need to call you back if we’re already in a meeting or on the phone though.
Do you offer a free trial?
No, we trust you’ll love your experience with us. We’ve never had anyone cancel in a week or the like. But if our hosting doesn’t suit you we’ll refund your payment in full within the first month of use.
Are there any discounts for charities and non-profits?
We work with a lot of small charities and non-profit organisations. Simply drop us a line to discuss your needs. But our ‘personal hosting package’ is very cost effective and suitable for most organisations, we can give you some more storage or email accounts if you needed, no problem.
How long do I have to pay my bill?
Usually 14-28 days is standard. But your individual reminders will come out sooner so you have more warning. For domain names, note that will only be renewed once you’ve paid.
How do I renew my domains?
Simply login to your area on cahost.co.uk, click on ‘domains’ and then select renew next to the one you want. We’ll also email you automatically and generate an invoice, which when paid, will renew the domain.
Can you handle email accounts?
We prefer to work with GSuite and highly recommend this to all our customers. Although we can offer email accounts with your web hosting too, no problem.
Can you make me a website?
Definitely. From completely bespoke solutions to template based Wordpress, we can help. Web design & Development is our primary business. Check us out at https://cloudartisans.co.uk
When can I use my hosting?
If you place a new order, please be aware that we manually check and provision all orders. This will usually be done within an hour, during the day (UK time) but it can vary, order at the right time and you’ll have your login within 5 minutes. This manual check ensures we reduce the risk of bots trying to get on the server. Once you have your login, you can use it 24/7 whenever you like.
Who will I be hosting with?
Cloud Artisans Ltd. We proactively manage and select our hosting providers, also checking for things like performance, reliability and data quality. Currently we work with a provider who manages the service for us in terms of platform updates, software running etc and we’ve chosen to be on a London Datacentre with hardware managed through Digital Ocean. This could change in future as we actively look to enhance and update our service.
Can you offer a managed Wordpress service?
Yeah sure. Get in touch if you have complex needs. If you have a simple site that you need - it’s £25 a month+VAT, that includes updates to the core and addons we install. That also includes the cost of hosting and a UK domain too. That offer is on our ‘personal hosting’ package and you can see more details at: https://cloudartisans.co.uk/smallbiz
Are you a member of any organisations?
We are long time members of the Federation of Small Businesses. And members of the UK registry, Nominet. We’re also registered with the Information Commissioners Office.
How do I register domains?
Simple, head to the homepage of cahost.co.uk and type it in to the search box then go from there.
How do I transfer a domain to you?
When you’re ordering a hosting package, you can choose the transfer a domain to us option. Or email us on [email protected] and we’ll get you sorted. If you have a UK domain, simply change the TAG to our own one, ‘MDK’ (without the apostrophes).
How can I pay?
Via Bank Transfer is always a great option for us, but you can also use any credit/debit card or ask us to set-up with Direct Debit.
Where do I login?
To order hosting / manage your billing then here on cahost.co.uk; to access your services check out our page: https://www.cahost.co.uk/knowledgebase/8/How-to-login-to-services.html
Why don’t I have one login to access everything?
Technically we can enable this, however as per a briefing we attended with Nominet, having multiple logins and isolated services helps with behavioural security. You should have different logins to different sites and this will help keep your accounts as secure as possible. Your billing and ordering is all under one roof, and then each service you have will have a unique login to that service.
Do you monitor for uptime?
Absolutely. We use external monitoring with Pingdom.com and track every site for uptime with uptimerobot.com - our sever management providers also run their own network monitoring so any issues are proactively managed. We update Twitter with any significant service disruption but it’s a rare occurrence thankfully.
Are you environmentally friendly?
We try to be as considerate as possible in our operations, The data centre we use is powered by green energy and they hold ISO5001 and ISO14001 Energy/Environmental Management accreditations. We offset our other carbon usage with donations to plant trees and support projects that reduce CO2 levels, see our forest at: https://offset.earth/cloudartisans
Do you offer Windows hosting?
We don't offer Windows based shared hosting anymore, our focus is on providing linux based hosting that supports all the most popular apps. If you're a client that needs Windows based hosting, then we can support you and manage such hosting with another server provider.
How do I ask another question?
Simply email [email protected] our call us on 0330 229 2525.
How do I order hosting?
Visit our hosting packages page at https://www.cahost.co.uk/cart.php?gid=3
