Transforming Inkling’s Hosting Roadblocks into Seamless Operations
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Every successful web development agency thrives on a partnership that seamlessly blends creativity and technical expertise. Andrea Krones began this journey in 2004 with the launch of Inkling Design, dedicating her passion to crafting exceptional designs. In 2018, Kelley Gibson joined her, bringing a fresh wave of technical prowess, and together they have built a flourishing web agency.
When hosting challenges threatened to derail their growing success, their strategic move to SiteGround transformed their operations and delivered the rock-solid foundation they needed to thrive.
The Challenge: When Deadlines Meet Downtime
By 2024, the challenges with their current hosting provider had become a critical issue, not just for their own projects but for their clients’ websites as well. During a particularly busy fall season, with numerous client projects on tight deadlines, the disruptions became unbearable. Staging sites were frequently inaccessible, causing significant delays and stress.
“We had staging sites that were becoming completely inaccessible over and over again. I kept being reassured that it was fixed, but then I kept losing access and losing time on tight deadlines. That’s when I knew it was time to leave.”
The support experience only added to the frustration, with repeated false assurances and hours wasted on unresolved issues.
“The constant runaround of it’s fine and then having to go through another one-hour support call for them to be like, ‘I found the issue. Now it’s fine.’ And I did that five or six times with it still not being resolved.”
As an experienced developer, Kelley suspected that the root of the problems lay not in their code but within the hosting infrastructure itself.
The Solution: A Familiar Face with Proven Results
Fortunately, Kelley already knew where to turn. Through years of working with clients who used SiteGround, she had experienced our platform’s reliability firsthand.
“We had clients on SiteGround and I really liked the collaborator access and the interface in general. The support was always great, so I’d always had really good experiences working with SiteGround.”
Despite having “so much to migrate,” including staging servers for multiple clients, Kelley made the switch. Her familiarity with SiteGround’s setup made the transition smooth, even though she chose to migrate sites manually.
The Results: Stability, Speed, and Peace of Mind
The transformation was immediate, providing validation that Kelley had been right all along about the source of their technical problems.
“Definitely none of the same issues that we were experiencing before. I kept saying it wasn’t our code causing the issues with our previous hosting provider – it was the server. And sure enough, that was the case.”
This instant improvement proved that Inkling Design’s websites and staging environments weren’t flawed – they had simply been held back by inadequate hosting infrastructure. The same code that had been causing constant headaches on their previous provider now ran smoothly on SiteGround’s servers.
The relief was palpable for the development team, who had spent months troubleshooting problems that weren’t actually their fault. Moving to SiteGround didn’t just solve technical issues; it restored confidence in their development processes and eliminated the stress of wondering whether their next deployment would mysteriously fail.
Enhanced Performance and Reliability
The performance improvements were noticeable across every aspect of their hosting experience:
“More reliable performance, better uptime, everything is just faster.”
Beyond the basic metrics, SiteGround’s approach to resource management impressed Kelley with its proactive nature:
“I really like the emails I receive when our account resources are at the 80% mark. This gives us time to manage the situation before it becomes a critical issue and address it and get it handled.”
This thoughtful approach to capacity management meant no more surprise downtime or emergency scrambles to resolve resource issues. The staging environments that had been disappearing at crucial moments were now rock-solid, allowing the team to work confidently on client projects without fear of losing their work.
A Rock-Solid Security
Security has become one of the most compelling reasons Inkling Design recommends SiteGround to their clients. Having witnessed firsthand the vulnerabilities and issues that plague budget hosting providers, Kelley emphasizes the critical importance of investing in proper security infrastructure:
“The security side of hosting is something that I like to bring up, given that I’ve been through issues myself and I’ve seen other clients have issues with the more budget hosts. That’s why I don’t just go with this one that’s cheaper. It’s like because you’ll get service that is worth that price.”
This security-first approach has proven invaluable for Inkling’s clients, particularly those who have experienced security breaches in the past. For businesses that have dealt with malware attacks or hacking attempts, the robust security measures provided by SiteGround offer essential peace of mind and protection for their online presence.
Streamlined Support Experience
The difference in support quality was staggering, eliminating the frustration and time waste that had plagued their previous hosting experience:
“At SiteGround, it’s rare that even a support ticket needs to be opened. It’s typically resolved in one chat with the support when we have something. I love the support team. They’re my best friends.”
Kelly also emphasizes SiteGround’s support when presenting hosting provider options to her clients.
“I always speak about the availability of the support because I find that that’s something that’s crucial with hosting.”
Kelley shared a personal example of why this matters so much:
“Years ago, I ended up working on my honeymoon because somebody’s site went down and it was under our hosting at the time, and that was when I kind of moved the line.”
Now, with SiteGround’s reliable support system and client collaborator access, there are no such problems:
“This way, it allows us to tell clients they can discuss with the hosting provider directly if we’re unavailable. So it provides that kind of larger team support feel for a smaller team like us.”
Fewer Technical Complications
Having worked with numerous hosting providers through client projects, Kelley has developed a comprehensive perspective on hosting reliability. Her comparative experience highlights SiteGround’s technical superiority:
“I work with another hosting provider for two different client sites where there are caching issues, like their caching is interfering with something else, and it ends up like pulling images from the site. And I’ve never run into that on SiteGround.“
This technical stability extends across all hosting providers they work with:
“I’ve worked with a lot of different hosting providers, and I have the least amount of technical issues with SiteGround.”
The reduction in technical complications has freed up valuable development time that was previously spent troubleshooting hosting-related problems, allowing the team to focus on what they do best – creating exceptional websites for their clients.
Tools That Make a Difference
Collaborator Access
Inkling Design has adopted a strategic approach to client hosting – rather than hosting all client websites under their own account, they encourage each client to maintain their own individual SiteGround account, giving clients complete ownership and control over their digital assets.
That’s why the collaborator access has become the cornerstone of this operational model, allowing Inkling’s team to seamlessly manage client websites.
“It’s very easy to get in and out of the different sites that you might need to get into there. I don’t think I’ve really had any issues finding anything as I’ve looked for it around the site.”
Site Tools
Both Kelley and Inkling’s clients also find the Site Tools interface user-friendly and easy to use.
“Our clients range in their tech abilities – some will never log into their account, while others do get in there to check things out. I’ve never heard any issues from them either.”
Speed Optimizer Plugin
The hosting-specific optimization plugin has proven particularly valuable, offering performance benefits tailored specifically to SiteGround’s infrastructure:
“I really like the Speed Optimizer plugin. It’s nice to know that there’s something that’s specific to your hosting environment that’s in use there.”
Kelley’s experience with the plugin on client sites before making the switch gave her confidence in its effectiveness:
“Having used that on client sites who were on SiteGround back in the day, I knew that it was a really good option for caching.”
This prior experience meant they could immediately leverage the plugin’s benefits without a learning curve, providing instant performance improvements for their clients’ sites.
SSL Certificate
Another fantastic and free feature at SiteGround that Kelly greatly appreciates is the SSL certificate.
“One of our clients who hosted with another provider only gets one free SSL certificate, but they have two domains. So they were wondering if they should go somewhere else? I don’t think anybody should pay for an SSL certificate when Let’s Encrypt is out there.”
She also appreciates the ease of use when setting up the SSL and configuring the domain:
“The ease of adding an SSL certificate, the ease of getting a domain set up, all of that is fantastic.”
Business Impact: Credibility and Growth
The switch to SiteGround didn’t just solve technical problems – it enhanced Inkling Design’s credibility with clients and streamlined their recommendation process.
The impact was immediate and measurable:
“I will say that I feel like since we have started hosting with SiteGround, more of our clients are choosing SiteGround when we send them options for hosting.”
This shift represented a significant improvement in their client consultation process. Previously, there had been an awkward disconnect between their recommendations and their own hosting choice:
“When we were on the previous hosting provider, it was my third recommendation on the list for clients, and I was already putting SiteGround before them. So, we would get questions like: “Why aren’t you on SiteGround?”
Now there’s complete alignment between their recommendations and their practice!
This “practice what you preach” approach has eliminated uncomfortable questions and strengthened their authority as technical advisors to their clients.
The Perfect Hosting Match
For Inkling Design, switching to SiteGround meant moving from constant technical firefighting to focusing on what they do best – creating beautiful, functional websites for businesses making a positive impact. The combination of reliable infrastructure, intuitive tools, and exceptional support has transformed their daily operations.
“The reliability, the performance, the support – everything just works. When you’re running a small team and working on tight deadlines, that peace of mind is invaluable. We can focus on delivering great work for our clients instead of worrying about whether our staging sites will be accessible.”
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