I have seen other web hosting companies claim they have free backups, but what do those backups consist of? The backups that are offered are simply a copy, compressed into one file and then stored locally on the machine that hosts the site. Worse yet most times that backup file counts against your disk allocation as well. There are other hosting companies that provide proper backups, aka at least one copy off of the hosting server, but i have not run across one of them that offers that service for free. ETC Maryland wanted to focus on two things: WordPress Hosting, Privacy, and Data Security.
How do we focus on these two things? The first is concentrating on hosting WordPress. WordPress is the number one website builder at the current time. it is highly flexible giving you the ability to customize your site in a nearly unlimited amount of ways. With the flexibility comes some potentially serious security issues. We wanted to make sure that we could offer some of the best WordPress hosting available while keeping costs competitive. Many business websites are more than simple billboards. These sites are the portal to interactions with their current and future clients. If your site gets attacked and starts attacking your clients that could severely impact your business. Data loss is also a large concern and the lack of multi-layer backups is a serious deficiency in many web hosting offerings. The push for privacy is now on par with the push for HTTPS everywhere. Under the current ICANN rules you must provide accurate personal data for your domains. This includes your mailing address, e-mail address, and phone numbers. There is a provision for private registrations, however many hosts either do not provide this service or charge a fee for it. ETC Maryland also wanted to address this for its clients.
How does ETC Maryland’s hosting address these issues? ETC Maryland offers several features that directly focusing on these core areas:
Proper multi-level backups. The first backup is from the server hosting your site to another server inside the datacenter. The second backup is from the server hosting your site to another server located offsite. The third backup is the offsite server sends a backup to a cloud provider for disaster recovery.
Free private domain registration. Every domain registered for clients will now have the personal details of the domain owner hidden with generic information in the public database.
Free domain privacy for domains transferred to ETC. Every domain transferred to ETC Maryland will now have the personal details of the domain owner hidden with generic information in the public database.
WordPress hosting that comes with the WordFence Security plugin by default. This provides security scanning, update notification, password strength and compromise notifications along with attack vector updates.
All accounts come with free Basic SSL(HTTPS). This gives you the HTTPS in front of your address. As of July 24, 2018 Google requires this for your site to be labeled secure and for your rankings to not become heavily penalized.
FTP is encrypted between your machine and your account. Many hosts still use regular FTP which is not secured. ETC Maryland provides an encrypted link between your FTP Client and your hosting account.
Fully managed services are available for site management of security updates for your site. All security updates and handled and monitored by ETC Maryland. Your Wordfence is upgraded to the premium which give more advanced security enhancements.