Over two decades of working professionally in the web development industry, I’ve used numerous web hosting services and platforms. On numerous occasions for enterprise level projects that were complex, we even housed and hosted our own windows based servers using IIS (internet information service). We also ran local web server software directly on our working desktop and laptop computers for development and testing purposes. Modern web development practices and platforms have evolved greatly over the past years and my organization has for the most part been able to abandon the old model of local development and multiple staging and live servers. We have also learned our lesson the hard way with using low cost shared hosting solutions like HostGator, GaDaddy, and 1and1. As we’ve evolved in web development to specializing in WordPress development we’ve come to love specialty platforms that simplify the WordPress development workflow process and allow development to happen in a cloud-based team environment. There are several good ones out there but Patheon has become HALE.GROUP’s go-to platform for WordPress related development and site administration. Our overall opinion of it is that we think it’s awesome! In fact, I personally think it’s hands down the best hosted development platform on the market for WordPress related development. With a huge thumbs up overall, here the pros of why we love Pantheon and cons as well.

Cons

The Cost is not Cheap
At $50 per site for the most basic plan, Pantheon is not cheap shared hosting! That’s not really a con in our opinion because as the old saying goes, you get what you pay for. With Pantheon, you get a specialized platform for pro level WordPress development with full workflow control.

Pros

It’s a Secure Solution for WordPress
WordPress powers over 30% of all websites on the internet that use a CMS (content management system). With that much popularity, it makes it a target for hackers across the world to exploit and attack any weaknesses in its common open source core. We have found that with common low cost shared hosting solutions (ie HostGator, GoDaddy, 1and1, etc) WordPress sites get attacked, hacked, and sometimes even destroyed. Additional special services are needed to resolve the hackings and threats and suddenly the low cost is not low cost.

About the Author

Dusty Hale
I'm a professional photographer and website solutions consultant living in beautiful Tamarindo, Costa Rica for over a decade. It is my joy and pleasure to serve others using my creative and technical skills in the digital industry.