# Hosting & Support

Managed hosting, security, backups, and ongoing support — so your website stays fast, safe, and current.

We take care of everything needed to keep your website running securely and reliably — hosting, updates, backups, security, and monitoring. You focus on your business.

Platform management is included in all support plans. If you're on a plan, you don't pay for hosting separately.

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## Platform pricing

| | Price |
|---|---|
| Standalone Platform | $150/month, or $1,584/year |
| All prices exclude GST | |

Platform is included in all support plans. If you're on a plan, you don't need to purchase this separately.

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## What your support hours can be used for

- Adding or updating content — text, images, documents
- Adding new pages or sections
- Design or layout changes
- Installing or configuring tools and plugins
- Technical troubleshooting
- Advice and recommendations

Submit a request via email or our support portal. We'll triage, confirm timing, and get it done. Hours are tracked and reported monthly. Need more hours in a given month? Additional hours are available at your plan's hourly rate.

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## Response times

| Priority | What it means | Starter | Growth | Scale / Enterprise |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | Routine requests | Reply within 8 hrs, done within 5 days | Reply within 8 hrs, done within 3 days | Reply within 6 hrs, done within 2 days |
| Urgent | Something broken | Reply within 4 hrs, done within 12 hrs | Reply within 2 hrs, done within 8 hrs | Reply within 1 hr, done within 6 hrs |
| Critical | Site down or security incident | Reply within 1 hr, done within 4 hrs | Reply within 15 min, done within 2–4 hrs | Reply within 15 min, done within 2 hrs |

Response times apply Monday–Friday, 9am–5:30pm Sydney time (excluding NSW public holidays). Hosting monitoring runs 24/7.

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## Common questions

**Do I really need managed hosting — can't I just manage updates myself?**
You can. But plugin and theme updates can break things, particularly on ecommerce sites or sites using complex page builders. We apply updates methodically, test before and after, and roll back if something goes wrong. Most clients discover they weren't doing updates consistently once they have someone else doing it — and that's exactly when sites get compromised.

**My current host says they handle updates. Is that the same?**
Sometimes, sometimes not. Most shared hosting providers run automated bulk updates — which is fine for WordPress core, but dangerous for plugins, where compatibility issues are common. Our process is manual, tested, and logged.

**Where is my site hosted, and who has access to it?**
Your site runs on AWS infrastructure in Sydney, Australia — enterprise-grade, ISO-certified data centres. The only people with access are the String Theory team. We don't host on shared servers or resell consumer-grade plans.

**What happens if my site gets hacked?**
Our security scanning catches the vast majority of threats before they become a problem. If something does get through, we treat it as a Critical incident — response within 15 minutes for our higher-tier plans. We document what happened, remediate it, and advise on how to prevent a recurrence.

**What if I use more hours than my plan includes?**
We'll flag it before going over — you won't receive an unexpected bill. You can approve additional hours at your plan's hourly rate, defer the work to next month, or we can discuss moving to a higher plan.

**Why not just call a freelancer when I need something?**
You can, and for occasional, well-scoped work that can work. The difference with a plan is continuity — a team that already knows your site, your brand, and your history. No briefing from scratch each time. No waiting to find someone who's available.

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[Get in touch](/contact/) to talk about what your website needs.