We do not charge hosting for a site until it goes live. Staging copies are free as well. That applies to direct customers and resellers alike, however long the build takes.
How Builds Actually Run
A site planned for weeks often takes months. The reasons are rarely technical:
- the content arrives late
- the client’s priorities move
- the budget waits for the next financial year
- a key person on the client side leaves halfway through
Some of the sites our resellers have in development have been there for two years or more. Charging hosting on a site nobody visits means billing the agency for the client’s delay. The agency then either absorbs the cost or has an awkward conversation about a line item that does nothing for anyone.
It Matches How We Price
Our hosting is charged by visitor sessions, measured from Google Analytics. A site in development has none worth counting. Charging for it would mean inventing a price for something our pricing does not measure.
What It Means for Resellers
For resellers the effect adds up. An agency usually has one or more sites in the build at any time, and none of them cost anything until launch.
Those sites are also built on the same platform they will run on, so launch day is not also migration day.
Staging Stays Free After Launch
Once a site is live, every site can still have a staging copy at no charge. Changes and security updates are tested there before they reach the live site, and the staging copy sits behind a popup password so search engines and bots stay out.
Same Support, Wider Conversation
Support is hands-on from a very small team, and retail and reseller customers get the same people.
With resellers the conversation widens from one site to the fleet: using staging sites and our automations the same way on every site, so the agency’s own process gets faster. That part is closer to coaching than hosting.
When the Bill Starts
The bill starts when the site has visitors. That seems the right time for it.
