Hosting can be described as the “land” which all websites are “built” on. As in real land, you will find can vary in cost. This is true with web hosting. When we went looking for a host we had three things in mind, Cost, Quality and Location.
Let me start with Location. It is important for us that all our client’s sites run as quickly and efficiently as possible; there are many things that affect this. We wanted the physical distance between our client’s sites and their customers to be as minimal as possible. Our client base is 100% based in the UK, consequently, we chose a UK based host. This choice has other benefits which I will get into later. Hosting with a UK based company with datacentres in the UK was of prime importance. Both Krystal’s datacentre and backup datacentre are in London, the heart of most UK web traffic. This allows us to communicate with Krystal easily and effectively as we all work to the same times. If our choice of host was located in the USA, we would be in different time zones, therefore making communication that bit more difficult. We want issues to be ironed out ASAP.
Cost is important to us all. We didn’t want the cheapest, we wanted the best value. Krystal isn’t the cheapest, but it did tick all our boxes. Of course, we could have gone cheaper, but this would have resulted in a loss of resources, datacentres in other parts of the world and less support being provided. Krystal had everything we wanted so it was an easy choice.
Last, but not least is quality. Goes without saying we all like quality, but this usually comes with a much higher price tag. Krystal proves that isn’t always the case.
Green Credentials
Their green credentials are excellent. All power consumed at their datacentre facilities uses 100% renewable energy. The offices use Ecotricity for power, the first energy company in the UK to offer true 100% renewable energy. They encourage clients to adopt a ‘greener approach’ to technology, hence this was one of the reasons we chose them.
Client Support
They provide us with support 24/7. This is not standard amongst hosting companies. Some only offer email as a communication method during office hours, Krystal provided phone, live chat and email any time of the day or night. If there is any issue with your site, we can get onto it quickly and often before any of our clients are aware!
No Monopoly Here
Believe it or not, but there are two major players in the hosting world that between them own over 100 hosting companies around the world. Many of the customers of these companies have said that after they were swallowed up by these “big boys”, customer service took a drive and prices went up. In their own words, Krystal says “Krystal has remained true to its creed. Today we’re the largest independent hosting company in the UK. We’re also rated the number 1 UK hosting company by TrustPilot. And we’re not selling.”
We are happy to have chosen Krystal and it has proved to be a great partnership.
