A lot of website developers have their own servers and ‘offer’ services like hosting your website and maintaining your website for you. Unfortunately, these are not typically discussed as ‘options’, but are simply part of doing business with the developer. There are a few reasons I don’t host or manage my client’s websites:

1. I want my clients to be 100% owners of their website after our work together is complete. By me hosting my client’s websites, I would essentially maintain control and a semblance of ownership (whether I admitted it or not) with regards to the websites on my server.

2. I like building things, not maintaining things. Managing hosting and charging a monthly fee to maintain a website requires dedicating time and energy (often in the middle of the night) to those tasks. I simply don’t have that burning desire to perform that update or change that picture on the home page, so I don’t build that into my service offerings. Selfish reason? Yes, so read below for more (it’s not entirely selfish).

3. It’s more cost effective for the client. Let’s say a developer charges you $100/month (seems inexpensive, right?) to maintain your website for you. That seems great, because you can call him or her and that developer can then make updates and changes for you! However, most WordPress websites (if built well) are so easy to update you would rarely need to call your developer to make a change or update. So, after a year you’ve spent $1200 on maintenance that you likely don’t need. I prefer to thoroughly train my clients on how to make updates and changes, I provide them with a very detailed website editing instructions guide with interactive table of contents and pictures, and voila! I get a call about once every 7 months from past clients with help on crucial updates which usually take less than 3 hours of work even when all hell breaks loose.

That all being said, the business of hosting and maintaining websites is not MY business – and the reasons are as much in favor of the client as they are for myself.