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simonantony
Hosting, performance and support

Do we have to use Umbraco Cloud?

The short answer

No. Umbraco is an open source .NET platform and runs anywhere .NET runs. Umbraco Cloud is the official hosting platform from Umbraco HQ and it is genuinely good, which is why our most popular plan is managed Umbraco Cloud at £99 a month all-in on the Starter tier. But it is a choice, not a requirement. We also host sites on our own servers at £149 per site per month, and provide fully dedicated servers priced on request for organisations with compliance or performance needs. Whichever route you choose, the managed service is the same: security patches applied within 48 hours of release, and backups verified with real test restores. The right answer depends on your site, and we will recommend the cheaper option when it fits.

Some agencies only offer one hosting route, so every client ends up on it regardless of fit. Because we run both, we can answer this question on the merits.

When Umbraco Cloud is the right answer

Umbraco Cloud is built and run by Umbraco HQ specifically for Umbraco sites. Upgrades, environments and deployments are native to the platform, which removes a whole category of operational work. For most business sites it is the option we recommend, and our managed Starter plan at £99 a month all-in includes the Cloud fee, our management and an hour of support monthly. Sites needing Cloud Standard or above pay the Cloud plan at cost plus our £99 managed service.

When our own servers are the right answer

Some sites do not fit Cloud's model: unusual infrastructure requirements, specific data residency needs, integrations that need server-level access, or simply a configuration Cloud does not support. For those we host on our own servers at £149 per site per month, and for organisations that need full isolation we provide dedicated servers priced on request. Our infrastructure and DevOps services cover the complex end of this.

What stays the same either way

The management layer. Security patches go on within 48 hours of release. Backups run and are proven by test restores. Monitoring is watched by people who understand Umbraco applications, not just servers. This is the part that actually protects you, and it is identical on both routes.

What if we already have hosting

If you are locked into corporate infrastructure or an existing provider, we can work with that too; plenty of our support clients host elsewhere. We will be straightforward with you about anything in that setup that puts the site at risk. Compare the options properly on our Umbraco hosting page.

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