Websites from $499 / You own everything, day one / Spokane & the Inland Northwest
Spokane website hosting, set up in your name
Spokane website hosting from us works one way: the hosting account is opened in your name, on your card, with your login, and we manage it for you. We don’t resell server space at a markup. You pay the host what the host charges, and you can take the site elsewhere any day you like.
What our Spokane website hosting setup includes
Hosting is where your site lives. Here is what we actually do to that address.
A hosting account opened in your name
Your business is the account holder. Your card, your email, your password. We’re added as a user so we can do the work, and you can remove us in two clicks without asking anyone. Most agencies do the reverse — they hold one big account and put you on it as a tenant — which is fine right up until the day you want to leave.
Managed WordPress stack, configured not just installed
A current PHP version, object caching where the host supports it, and the server-level settings that decide whether WordPress feels quick or sluggish. This is the layer most people never touch after signup, and it’s the difference between a host you’re paying for properly and a host you’re just paying.
SSL installed, renewing, and checked
The certificate is issued, forced site-wide so nothing loads over plain HTTP, and set to auto-renew. We check it after launch rather than assuming. An expired SSL puts a full-page browser warning in front of every visitor, and it is one of the more embarrassing ways to lose a week of inquiries.
Daily backups stored off the server
Copies of the database and the files, kept somewhere other than the machine running your site. A backup that lives on the same server as the site it’s backing up is not a backup. We also restore one to a test location so we know the restore works before the day you need it.
Uptime monitoring that tells us first
The site gets checked from outside on a short interval, and the alert comes to us. You should not be finding out your website is down because a customer mentioned it. Monitoring is cheap; discovering a two-day outage on a Monday morning is not.
Caching and image delivery set up
Page caching, browser caching and compressed modern image formats configured against the host you’re on, not a generic plugin default. Hosting decides your ceiling for speed. A fast build on a slow host still loads slowly, and no amount of front-end work fixes it.
Migration from wherever you are now
Files, database, domain records and email routing moved across, tested on a staging URL first, then cut over. If email runs through your current provider we keep it running — the single most common way a migration goes badly is that the website moves and the mail silently stops.
Every login written down and handed over
Host, domain registrar, DNS, WordPress. Documented in one place and given to you at handover. There is no credential in your setup that only we hold, which means there is no conversation you’d ever have to have with us to get control of your own site.
Backups, SSL and server security on your Spokane site
Backups, SSL and server security are hosting-layer jobs, so they sit here rather than on a monthly plan. The database and files are copied daily to storage that isn’t the web server, and we periodically restore one to a scratch location to confirm the copy is actually usable.
Security at this layer means the things that live below WordPress: a current PHP version, HTTPS forced site-wide, sensible file permissions, server-level firewall rules where the host offers them, and no leftover staging copies sitting publicly at a guessable address. Old staging sites are a genuinely common way a business gets compromised — the live site is patched and the forgotten copy at /dev/ is not.
What this section deliberately does not cover is plugin and theme updates, malware scanning over time, or fixing something after it breaks. That’s continuing work on the site rather than the address it lives at, and it’s priced and described separately.
Site speed and uptime we hold our Spokane hosting to
Hosting sets the ceiling on how fast your site can ever be. Time to first byte — how long the server takes to start answering at all — is decided by the host and the stack, and no amount of front-end tuning gets underneath it. We configure page caching, browser caching and compressed modern image formats against the specific host you’re on rather than dropping in a plugin with default settings.
Speed matters commercially, not just technically. Google’s own research put the probability of a bounce up 32% as load time went from one to three seconds. Every one of those bounces was a visitor who had already found you and then left before reading anything, which makes it the most expensive kind of loss — you paid to be found and got nothing for it. Slow hosting quietly takes leads off the table and never shows up as a line item.
On uptime, we monitor from outside the network and we get the alert before you do. We won’t print a percentage next to a guarantee we can’t personally enforce — the host provides the hardware, not us. What we will do is write the monitoring interval and the response expectation into your quote, so the commitment is specific and you can hold us to it.
You own your website and your hosting — no lock-in
The account is yours from the first day
Not transferred to you on request, not released at the end of a contract — opened in your name at the start. Google’s own guidance on hiring an SEO tells buyers to ask who will own the site, the domain and the data. Almost nobody in this market answers it before being asked.
No markup on server space
You pay the host what the host charges. We charge for the work of setting it up and looking after it. Bundling the two together is how a $20 hosting bill becomes a $150 monthly retainer that’s difficult to leave, and we’d rather price the work honestly than hide it in a subscription.
A stated way out, in writing
If you want to move to another provider or another agency, we export everything and remove our access, same week, no exit fee. It’s an easy promise for us to make because the ownership arrangement means there’s very little for us to actually hand over.
Backed by a team that's been doing this since 2011
Spokane Web Design Co is backed by Salterra Digital Services, a veteran-owned agency building and hosting websites since 2011. Elisabeth Samuels leads the design and development division, and Salterra’s team fulfills every project we deliver.
Moving your existing Spokane website onto our hosting
Moving an existing Spokane website onto hosting in your name is a fixed, unexciting process, and unexciting is the goal. We take a full copy of the files and database, stand it up on a staging URL, and check it there: pages render, forms submit, redirects fire, search engine optimization settings survived the trip. Only then do we point the domain.
Two things go wrong in migrations and both are avoidable. The first is email — if your mail runs on the same domain, the DNS change that moves the website can stop the mail unless the mail records are carried across deliberately. We copy them first and verify delivery after cutover. The second is URLs. Anything whose address changes gets a redirect, so the rankings and the links you already have follow you across instead of resetting.
If you’re mid-contract somewhere else, you don’t have to break it to start. We can build and stage first and cut over on the date your current arrangement ends.
Website hosting vs website maintenance — what each one covers
These two get sold as one thing by most of the market, and the difference is worth a minute of your time because you may not need both.
Hosting is where the site lives. The server, uptime, SSL, backups, the speed ceiling, and moving the site in or out. It’s a fixed address and a set of conditions at that address.
Maintenance is what gets done to the site over time. WordPress core and plugin updates, security monitoring, content edits, bug fixes and reporting. It’s ongoing work, and it’s optional in a way hosting isn’t — every website must be hosted somewhere, but plenty of small sites go months without needing a single change.
If what you’re actually after is someone to keep the thing updated and make edits, read website maintenance instead. If you just need the site to live somewhere sensible, in your name, this page is the one.
Managed WordPress hosting for Spokane businesses, and what it costs
There’s no monthly hosting fee from us, because we don’t resell hosting. You pay your host directly at their published rate — for a small business site on managed WordPress that is typically in the region of $15 to $50 a month, and the bill comes from them, to you, at whatever they charge. Setup, configuration and migration are included when we build your site: from $499 for up to 15 pages, $999 for 16 to 50, $1,499 for 51 or more, with ecommerce and compliance work quoted separately. If you want hosting set up without a build, ask and you’ll get a written price for the work rather than a monthly subscription that never ends.
Spokane website hosting questions, answered
How much does it cost to host a website for a small business?
For a typical small business site on managed WordPress hosting, expect roughly $15 to $50 a month paid directly to the host. Cheap shared hosting goes lower and dedicated or high-traffic setups go considerably higher. We don’t add a margin to that number — the hosting account is in your name and the host bills you at their rate. What you’d pay us is the one-off work of setting it up and moving you across, quoted in writing before it starts.
How much should I pay someone to host my website?
Ideally, nothing — because you should be paying the host, not a middleman. Plenty of agencies buy one hosting plan, put twenty clients on it, and bill each of them a monthly fee well above their share of the cost. It’s legal and it’s common. It also means you can’t leave without asking. Our position is that you hold the account and pay the host directly, and we charge for work rather than for access to a server.
Can I host my own website for free?
You can, on the free tier of a builder platform or a static host, and for some things that’s a perfectly sensible answer. The catch for a business is usually the address and the control: free tiers commonly put their branding on your site, put your site on their subdomain, or reserve the right to change the terms. If the website is meant to bring in customers, the $15 to $50 a month for real hosting is not the expense worth optimizing.
What are the risks of free hosting?
Four that matter. You often don’t get a proper domain, so the address doesn’t look like a business. Backups are usually your problem, or nobody’s. Support is a forum rather than a person. And the terms can change or the service can close, taking the site with it — the internet is littered with free hosts that shut down and gave a month’s notice. For a hobby site, fine. For the site your inquiries come through, the downside is not proportionate to the saving.
What are the 4 types of web hosting?
Shared, VPS, dedicated and cloud. Shared puts many sites on one server and is the cheapest. VPS gives you a reserved slice of a machine. Dedicated gives you the whole machine. Cloud spreads the site across pooled resources so it scales with traffic. Managed WordPress hosting, which is what most small business sites should be on, is usually cloud or VPS underneath with the WordPress-specific configuration already done for you.
Which hosting site is best for a small website?
For a small WordPress site in Spokane, managed WordPress hosting from a reputable provider is the right category — the specific brand matters less than people think. What matters is that backups are automatic and off-server, the PHP version is current, SSL is included, and support answers in hours rather than days. We’ll recommend a host for your situation and open the account in your name, and if you already have a preference we’ll work with it.
What is the best web hosting for beginners?
Managed WordPress hosting, because it removes the decisions a beginner shouldn’t have to make. Server configuration, caching and SSL are handled at the platform level, so the failure modes that catch people out — an expired certificate, an out-of-date PHP version, no working backup — are largely designed out. The trade is that you pay a little more than bargain shared hosting for the privilege of not having to think about it.
What is the simplest way to host a website?
Buy managed WordPress hosting, point your domain at it, and let the host handle the server. That’s genuinely it for most business sites. The complexity people run into almost always comes from somewhere else: migrating an existing site without breaking email, or trying to save $8 a month on a host that then can’t restore a backup when it matters.
How much does it cost to host a website for 1 year?
Around $180 to $600 a year for managed WordPress hosting at typical small business rates, plus roughly $15 to $25 for the domain renewal. Many hosts discount the first year heavily and then renew at the standard rate, so check the renewal price rather than the signup price — the second year is the real number and it is often double the first.
Is GoDaddy or Domain.com better?
For registering a domain, both work and the difference is mostly price at renewal and how hard they push add-ons at checkout. Neither is our first recommendation for hosting a business WordPress site. The more useful question is whether your domain, your hosting and your website are all in accounts you control — if they are, switching any one of them later is an afternoon’s work instead of a negotiation.
Do you have to host with you if you build my site?
No. We’ll set hosting up in your name because that’s the arrangement we think is right, but you’re free to host anywhere you like, including somewhere you already have. If you’d rather run it on your own account with your own provider, we’ll configure it there and hand it over. The site is yours either way and nothing about the build changes.
What happens to my site if I stop working with you?
Nothing. The hosting account is already in your name, the domain is already registered to you, and every login is already documented and in your hands. There is no migration to arrange and no files to request, because there is nothing of yours that we hold. You’d carry on paying your host and either take over the management yourself or hand it to someone else the same week.
Get your Spokane website hosted this week
Tell us where your site is hosted now and what’s wrong with it. You’ll get a written price for the move and a date. Hosting isn’t a lead generation channel on its own, but a site that’s down or slow costs you the inquiries it would have converted — which is the whole reason this is worth getting right.