At Kualo, we're big fans of Craft CMS.
We first became aware of Craft a few years ago, but more recently we've seen an notable increase in the number of sites that are using it on our hosting platform.
Compared to other content management systems, Craft remains relatively unknown - but those who discover it quickly fall in love.
It's easy to see why, too.
Craft has many advantages over the "big gun" content management systems such as WordPress, Drupal and Joomla - both for content creators and developers alike. Craft is simple, intuitive, elegant and lightweight, yet at the same time, extremely powerful and extensible. But let's get one thing clear - Craft is not for bang-it-out template sites, nor DIY website enthusiasts. No, Craft is for designers and developers who want total creative freedom and flexibility, with the need to work within the constraints and bloat of a CMS with countless plugins, template limitations and security woes. Craft is aimed at people who see web development as a true craft.
So, this brings me to the purpose of this post - Craft CMS hosting.
There are relatively few hosts that have any degree of specialism in Craft CMS hosting, and those that do tend to provide virtual server solutions. There's nothing inherently wrong with using a virtual server to host a Craft website, and indeed in many cases it's the best solution for particularly busy or demanding websites.
However, there's also inherent simplicity in using a shared server solution, with a simple to use and familiar control panel (to both developer and end user), complete and total management, as well as cost effectiveness. The problem is that most shared solutions don't pack the technology that make Craft sites fly - and that's why we made it our mission to ensure that our shared hosting platform was the best it could be.
Here's what makes Kualo a perfect home for Craft CMS:
1. Redis & Memcached Support
Our Craft hosting supports both Redis and Memcached. Most shared hosts don't offer Redis and Memcached, because there is no out of the box way to securely implement them on a shared environment. At Kualo, we engineered our own solution that ensures that these technologies can happily and securely run on a shared server, allowing you to implement these as a cache store in Craft.
2. Multiple PHP Versions
Without any recompiling or wasted time, our Craft hosting comes pre-packaged with multiple PHP versions. You can easily switch your account or even individual folders between PHP versions, or instantly add modules in the click of a button from the control panel.
3. LiteSpeed Enterprise Web Server
Our Craft hosting servers run the LiteSpeed Enterprise web server. LiteSpeed is a drop-in replacement for Apache that is faster, more efficient and with a built-in caching layer that makes sites scream (including a Craft plugin to automatically handle cache eviction). Craft sites running on our platform that leverage LiteSpeed Cache are breathtakingly quick with an exceptionally low time to first byte (TTFB) - on average between 27 and 37ms. That's insanely fast.
Experience the speed for yourself by visiting Bremont, an award-winning British watch company who chose Kualo to host their recently designed Craft CMS website.
4. Backups are Included
Our Craft hosting includes free account backups, with the ability to self restore individual files, databases, email addresses or even the entire account. We take backups up to once every four hours depending on the plan, or more frequently if you'd prefer your site to live on it's own server.
5. Free SSL certificates and HTTP/2 Support
You get unlimited SSL certificates for all of your domains and subdomains. Activate them instantly in a click via the control panel, and don't worry - they'll automatically renew, too. Ensuring your Craft site runs over https:// is increasingly important, not only because it provides your visitors with better security, but also because sites not running over SSL will soon be highlighted as 'insecure' in Chrome. What's more, as our hosting supports HTTP/2 which requires SSL, your sites will load even faster.
6. SSH Access with Git and Composer Pre-Installed
It seems obvious, but not all shared hosts provide SSH access, let alone pre-install the tools that will actually be useful for you. So, voila!
7. Insane Security & Stability
We take security incredibly seriously. Our hosting includes a machine learning firewall, a well maintained mod_security application firewall, malware scanning and full account isolation, incorporating both a caged file system and per-account resource allocation. Each site on the server has it's own allocation of CPU, RAM and other resources that ensure that our systems are not only super secure, but also highly reliable. Find out more here.
8. Powerful Plans and Infinite Scalability
Our Craft hosting starts with 1GB RAM and scales to 8GB RAM. Combined with LiteSpeed Cache which ensures most requests are served without even invoking PHP, this is generally more than sufficient to host even busy websites. Of course, we can scale way beyond this if you move your site to its own server, or for huge projects, a load balanced cluster.
9. Powered by 100% Renewable Energy
We take our environmental and social responsibilities incredibly seriously. The internet is a polluting monster, and now has a bigger carbon footprint than that of air travel. That's why our hosting is powered by 100% renewable energy, and energy efficient design principals go into our hosting and datacenter design.
10. Fast, 24/7 Support by people who get Craft
We're passionate about supporting our customers. We work 24/7 to deliver the fastest possible response times, with support that truly goes the extra mile. Whilst we're not all Craft developers, our team are very familiar with how Craft works and we will do our level best to assist you with any query. You'll even find us in the Craft Slack channels.
Ready to level up your Craft CMS hosting? Check out our plans here. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to call us or contact us via live chat - we'll be happy to help.
