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Written for people spending their own money. No affiliate links, no "top 10 hosts of the year" filler — just the decisions and the commands.
The single most confusing question in web hosting, settled in one page: the software, the company, the plans, and the point at which you should self-host.
Ubuntu 24.04, nginx, PHP-FPM 8.3, MariaDB, Let's Encrypt, firewall, automatic backups and updates — from a bare £4/month server to a hardened WordPress site.
The normal way most people should self-host: one-click installers, the manual five-minute install, and the six settings to change immediately afterwards.
What actually matters — data centre location, renewal pricing, backups, support hours, VAT and exit routes — and the marketing claims you can safely ignore.
Free managed migrations, plugin-based moves, and the manual method — plus the hosts file trick that lets you test the new site before touching DNS.
The realistic threat model, the 3-2-1 backup rule applied to a small site, and the hardening that gives you most of the benefit for very little effort.
Where the time actually goes on a slow WordPress site, and the fixes in order of how much they help per hour spent.
Why to keep your domain away from your host, what each DNS record does, and how .uk registration and transfers actually work.
A plain-English map of hosting types, what each costs, who each suits, and the point at which you should move up a tier.