Servd.host is icing on the Craft CMS cake
Servd provides an all-inclusive hosting experience that allows developers to focus on building great Craft CMS websites without complex underlying infrastructure. Servd’s Craft expertise, performance, and sustainability make them an excellent choice for hosting any Craft project.
Using Servd allows us to prioritise freedom of choice for our clients via Craft CMS partners network. We believe in excellence of service, not infrastructure obstacles or contractual capture.
How things used to be…
We started working with Craft CMS v3 back in 2010. At this time, the most common way to host a Craft CMS was using a custom Linux server provided via cloud hosting companies such as Digital Ocean and Amazon Web Services.
This legacy approach to Craft CMS DevOps involves;
Server specification, configuration, versioning and imaging
Periodic manual server updates via SSH
Custom load balancing and network security
Manual deployment workflows
Complexity around Asset Volumes for user-uploaded images/files
Other technical annoyances that I won’t get into here
As with any bespoke web hosting infrastructure, this was time-consuming for every new project and required many workflows and considerations to maintain security and mitigate server admin errors.
The maintenance burden of keeping this infrastructure up to date was also substantial and had to be frequently upgraded as server architectures and Craft CMS guidelines evolved.
Then came Servd.host
We had been actively searching for an all-in-one hosting ecosystem built specifically for Craft CMS for almost a year, before finally discovering Servd in 2021. It was instantly apparent that the team had thought of everything developers may need to host Craft CMS sites and platforms. The more we explored, the more boxes we checked off our list.
Server configuration, setup and maintenance
Staging environments to test changes before going live
Automated backups and one-click restores
Everything optimized for Craft CMS to deliver fast page loads (by Craft CMS experts)
Handles traditional websites, headless APIs, and other Craft use cases
Automatic architecture updates to keep sites secure and running smoothly
Static caching & Content Delivery Network (CDN) for ultra-fast global response times
Resource scaling and load balancing across multiple server instances for high availability
100% renewable energy data centers to minimize environmental impact
Custom configurations available for unique requirements
New utilities were rolled out weekly, there was a public suggestions forum for any edge case requirements that were initially missing, and support was responsive and personalised. All of this is still maintained by the Servd team today!
After testing the platform for a couple of projects over a few months, we made the frankly easy choice to go all-in and utilise Servd for all sites in our custody.
Servd reduced our DevOps burden by a whopping 90% compared to bespoke hosting.
Then came self-custody
As if things were not already going well enough, Servd eventually introduced ‘Organisations’ and supporting team utilities and permissions. This made it easy for Craft CMS site owners to take custody of their hosting infrastructure and simply invite their developers or agencies to collaborate.
Combined with Craft Console for license admin and Craft CMS partners network by Pixel & Tonic, the founders of Craft CMS, it was now possible for clients to retain custody of their entire web setup without hindering developer autonomy and control.
This quickly caught our attention; self-custody is aligned with our ethos of retaining clients through excellent service, not contractual capture.
Now in 2024, we are proud to have helped all of our clients achieve self-custody setups via Servd in a way that minimises their resource burden and maximises their independence & freedom of choice.
In summary, Servd.host knocked it out of the park. We are thankful that they exist and they totally deserve the market share of Craft CMS hosting they now control.
