WebFaction migrates to tsoHost

Update 11/3/2020

Sebo has found a new hosting company and put together some recommendations.  Although our experience with them is very short we have been very pleased with the results thus far.

Under the first 4 options, You (the Client) are responsible for keeping your site secure and protected by: Maintaining offsite backups, keeping WordPress, plugins, and theme updated, and site recovery in the event of malware or loss of data. Although you will be responsible for these you can hire Sebo to do these things for you on an as needed basis.

Original Information (10/23/2020)

If you are reading this page then chances are you are hosting your website(s) with WebFaction.
You may have noticed an email from WebFaction with the subject line “Important information about the future of your WebFaction account”.  If you haven’t read that email yet, I would recommend you go read it now.

Summary of the email from WebFaction:

WebFaction will be migrating all of their clients over to their sister company tsoHost starting in November.  You have until October 31st to opt out of the migration if you don’t want to host with tsoHost. You can read more about this here: https://www.webfaction.com/faq/

Some Things to Consider with Migrating to tsoHost

I’m sure you are wondering what is the best option for your business.  Here is some information to keep in mind as you make this decision.

• The amount you pay each month will likely change with switching to tsoHost.  I don’t know what the new price will be. This will also depend on what plan they set you up with based on your current usage at WebFaction. You can see tsoHosts’ plans and pricing here: https://www.tsohost.com/
• tsoHost sites will be hosted in GoDaddy’s datacenter in France (previously hosted in a USA datacenter) – this can affect your website’s speed and latency here in the USA.
• The WebFaction team will handle the migration to tsoHost for you and will notify you if your setup will not be compatible with tsoHosts’ environment.  Once they finish the migration DNS records will have to be updated as well as billing information entered but overall they are trying to make the transition as seamless as possible.
• WebFaction supports a free auto-renew SSL service with Let’s Encrypt SSL on every plan.  I have mixed info on the support of Let’s Encrypt SSL on tsoHost but it sounds like their basic plans will not include this support which means you would have to purchase an SSL certificate.  Some information I found indicates that their higher plans include this option.

What do we do if we opt out of the migration to tsoHost?

If you opt out of the migration they say you will have until December 9th, 2020 to migrate your site(s) to another hosting provider.

Sebo Marketing has been using WebFaction for over 10 years and has been our preferred recommendation for hosting for our clients/partners/friends.  As you can imagine, we are less than thrilled about this news.  We are currently in the process of testing a couple hosting alternatives as we would prefer not to have our own websites hosted outside of the USA.  If you are interested in our findings let us know and we will give you an update later on.

If you would like to have Sebo help with migrating your site(s) from WebFaction to another provider please let us know.  We are anticipating a lot of companies will be requesting our help with migrations during November and depending on demand we may not have the capacity to help everyone.  Priority will be given to our active clients on retainer.  After that we will help others on a first come first serve basis. The cost to have Sebo help migrate a site will be between $100 – $200.

You may also want to consider letting WebFaction migrate your site to tsoHost for the short term which will then give you more time to move the site to another host.

What You Need to Do?

If you transition to tsoHost:

If you let WebFaction migrate your site(s) to tsoHost please make sure you keep an eye out for all of their communications via email.  They will be providing additional information as the time gets closer.  During the process there will be a few things you will have to do.

1. Read the emails you get from WebFaction and follow their instructions as they come.
2. At some point you will be given an account.  Make sure you can log in and enter your billing information.
3. Once the site is migrated you will need to update your DNS records to point to the new server.
4. You will also need to make sure that your site is properly secured with an SSL certificate (https)

If you want to host with someone else:

Please feel free to reach out to us if you have any questions or concerns.

[email protected]

801-227-7326