Hosting & Managed Services

Website hosting and related managed services ensure your site is always available and your CMS platform and plugins are up-to-date.

Your hosting and managed services options

We host almost every site we build.

You have the option of hosting with Orbit or hosting elsewhere.

We’ll have an in-depth discussion regarding hosting and managed services during the development phase of the project. This discussion includes:

  • Your website’s current hosting services
  • Your upcoming hosting options
  • Hosting decision deadlines
  • Launch planning

This meeting ensures we have sufficient time to plan the launch of the new website and we can immediately transition to post-launch services that meet your needs and budget.

Person wearing headphones, sitting at a desk with a computer, using a mouse, and looking towards the camera. Office setting with framed pictures and plants in the background.

Service fees

Orbit can deal directly with your host so you don’t have to.

When hosting with Orbit, the starting fee for hosting and managed services is $2,100. Here’s the breakdown:

Shared server hosting

$300/year

Your website will live on the same server with other Orbit clients.

Managed website services

Starts at $1,800/year

Complex websites may increase to $3,000 – $6,000/year.

Dedicated “Core Hosting” hosting options are also available and may be purchased directly from WPEngine.

Hosting with Orbit

Website hosting & managed services

When hosting with Orbit, you’ll get hosting, managed services, and support.

Orbit hosting

Our shared website hosting offering is affordable and highly performant. If you have individual requirements, we assess and consult on the appropriate hosting environment based on:

  • Your website traffic and performance
  • Your “ownership” expectations
  • Your IT security and compliance concerns
  • Your uptime tolerance
  • Your budget and hosting fees

When Orbit provides Hosting, we must also provide Managed Services to be fully responsible for the website availability, security and performance

We utilize industry standard monitoring tools, security software, and rely on the expert services of hosting partners to ensure your website is available 24/7.

We provide shared server space with multiple client websites on a highly performant “P” level server (currently named “Core Hosting” by WPEngine)

stephanie and mari working together on a computer discussing a website project

Orbit managed services

Managed website services make it easy to keep your site secure and your environment current.

  • Website maintenance, monitoring and support services are available for sites that are hosted by Orbit
  • Orbit maintains plugins, CMS themes and custom code in version control using Atlassian Bitbucket Cloud (https://bitbucket.org) for git
  • We are responsible for ensuring your website is available, secure, and performing at optimal speed
  • We oversee continual CMS updates, plugin updates, and backups
  • Orbit Support is notified of any downtime, WPEngine failures of WP core or Plugin updates and addresses them with WPEngine support.

Core and plugin updates

  • WPEngine (WPE) maintains WordPress (WP) core and uses Smart Plugin Manager (SPM) to maintain official plugins and theme updates.
  • SPM runs daily M-F during maintenance hours (typically configured from 12am-6am CST) to update WordPress and active plugins
  • During the 5 to 10 minutes that this process runs, the website is put into “Maintenance Mode” – and the public is unable to view the website.
  • A backup is created, plugins are updated, visual regression is completed after each plugin update. Notifications are sent to Orbit upon completion of the updates and status.
  • Orbit Support is notified of any failures and addresses them.

Security, speed and availability

  • Orbit monitors sites for uptime with StatusCake.com checking sites from various locations around the globe.
  • We ensure optimal delivery speed configuration with at least 2 layers of caching.
  • We review a daily digest of file changes, code changed by developers, clients, and potentially foreign sources.
  • Orbit Support notifies you with the status of persistent downtime.

Hosting upgrades

At times, Orbit will advise a client to move their website to a different environment for reasons such as:

  • The website receives significantly more traffic than other websites on that server, causing poor server performance.
  • Large file and/or data storage requirements
  • Specific security concerns due to client systems integration

Non-Orbit hosting

Deploying and launching a website NOT hosted by Orbit will likely require additional budget and incur additional fees on an active project.

  • Maintenance – Managed Services from Orbit is NOT available
  • Plugins – Orbit owned Unlimited Agency Licenses for WordPress plugins are NOT available – You will need to purchase your website CMS theme and plugin licenses
  • Support – Billable Orbit Support Services ARE available based on time and materials – This means you can submit support tickets for website changes and updates.
A person handing a key to another person with the word www on it.

Orbit hosting partners and plugins

Logo of WP Engine with a turquoise geometric design to the left and the text "WP Engine" in bold black and blue letters to the right.

Orbit primarily offers hosting services as an WPEngine Agency Advanced Partner

We currently host and maintain over 250 websites on WPEngine.
Pantheon logo with black text and a stylized black and yellow lightning bolt symbol on the left.

Orbit is an Agency Partner with Pantheon.io for both Drupal and WordPress.
Colohouse logo with a blue diamond-shaped design containing dots on the left and the company name in gray lowercase letters on the right.

Orbit works closely with Colohouse for hosting services. They are a Chicago-based data center.

Orbit plugins on WordPress websites

Orbit extends our Unlimited Agency Licenses to clients with Orbit Hosting and Managed Services (~$1,600/yr). All licenses need to be replaced if migrating to your own hosting environment.

Plugins options include (but aren’t limited to):

Content management

  • Advanced custom fields PRO
  • FacetWP
  • Stream
  • Seamless Sticky Custom Post Types
  • Ninja Forms
  • Max Mega Menu
  • FacetWP
  • Gravity Forms
  • Adobe Fonts TypeKit
  • Elementor
  • WP Media folder
  • Relevanssi Premium
  • User Role Editor Pro

Site performance & SEO

  • Cloudflare
  • Akismet Anti-Spam
  • Yoast SEO
  • Solid WP Security Pro
  • Schema Pro
  • Smush Pro
  • Redirection
  • Jetpack
  • iThemes Security Pro
  • Google Tag Manager for WP
  • WP Rocket
  • FacetWP- Cache
  • AltText.AI

Orbit hosting support

We have a dedicated 3-tier support team available to address any website hosting issues.

If something is broken or there is a problem with hosting, there is no charge for support!

Visit our Support page anytime to contact the team or submit a ticket on the Orbit Support Portal.

All support services are provided according to our Support Policy.

911

Support staff respond to critical issues related to a site outage or broken functionality.

311

Support staff can assist with administrative questions, content management, redirects, etc.

Support staff can also handle issues with our code, existing plugins, the hosting provider partner, DNS, and security.

New requested work

Support may help address new requests.

This support is billable and may require a larger scope of work with help from a Web Strategist or Project Manager

More post-launch services

We want to help you get the most out of your new website. With our guidance, we can further your content strategy, improve your on-page SEO and help increase conversions.

We offer the following services for your post-launch needs:

Statements of work

A Web Strategist or Project Manager will work with you to determine requirements and a fee estimate for a fixed amount of new work. These budgets are most cost efficient when Orbit hosts and maintains the website.

Monthly service agreements

It is very common for a wishlist of new features, additional copywriting, enhancements and improvements to justify an ongoing service arrangement.

An Orbit Project Manager would lead monthly meetings with you to prioritize work with our production team. These services are typically only available when Orbit hosts and maintains the website.

Optimization services

Orbit experts in SEO, CRO, reporting, and client service continually assess, recommend changes, and report on outcomes.

An Orbit Project Manager would lead monthly meetings with you to recommend and prioritize work with our production team. These services are most impactful when Orbit hosts and maintains the website.

What’s next?

The launch is right around the corner. We need your decision regarding hosting and managed services.

Once we know your plan, we’ll provide you with your annual agreement and invoice for hosting and managed services. These need to be signed and paid prior to launch.

A couple of quick reminders

  • With Orbit hosting, you get both hosting and managed services to help with keeping your website live and up-to-date.
  • You can choose to host on your own and if doing so, we’ll send you a full list of the plugins and licenses that you will need to purchase.
  • We’re happy to discuss these details with your full team so they understand the financial and technical details.