Exabytes (SG) has been a web hosting sponsor for theoccasionaltraveller.com since 2014, and I thought I’d share a bit more about my experience working with them through these years.
Hosting Plan
I’ve been on several different Exabytes hosting plans to date, from their E-Biz business hosting plans, to their Virtual Private Server (VPS) plans, but now I’m currently on their WordPress Hosting Plan WP12 Business. What I like about it is that the backend stuff is on Plesk, which is a more user-friendly interface compared to cPanel which is what some of their other hosting plans are run on, Plesk is a little less intimidating for noobs like me.
On the Plesk dashboard, you can also access the WordPress Toolkit, and one useful function there is the Security Check. This runs a check on your website’s security regarding access, scripts and etc, and quite an easy tool to use to enable security of the website against potential hackers. I like that it classifies the level of seriousness for you so you know what’s most important to fix immediately.
One other important feature here is the Backup and Restore feature. Now this is one of those things many people take for granted, but when your site is hit by hackers or you accidentally break it by installing a rogue plugin, being able to roll back to the latest version easily is a godsend. This particular plan comes with a one-click backup system that’s easy to use and schedule, so you can ensure your site is up when you need it.
Support
I have stuck with Exabytes all this years because I’ve mostly had a good experience wth their support. That’s quite important to me because as a noob, I need a lot of tech help with some of these things. Most of the time support has been quite fast and helpful at least 90% of the time, though I will be upfront and say that my recent server migration was a bit of a nightmare as my site went down in a period when they were very busy so response was slower than I would have liked, but I’ve generally had good experiences in the past so I hope this is just an anomaly.
I’ve also found most of the support engineers to be quite helpful, though unfortunately again like anywhere you go, you do run into a handful of those who could be more helpful. You can reach out to them via their support ticket system or the chat function on the website.