IONOS (before "1&1") was our web hosting partner for almost 20 years. We were aware of the pros and cons of using a big partner.

Benefits:

• High reliability
• Low downtime
• 24h customer service

Disadvantages:

• Inflexible (see below)
• Relatively expensive

We had booked their "Managed Server" service due to the quite high number of visitors. "Managed" means that the underlying Linux web server is maintained by their technicians who check, install and configure software updates for the different modules and keeps everything nice and smooth.

We outsource this competence, because as an internet-based software company, a functioning website is mission critical. Although we are familiar with Linux web hosting, we rely on experts who can do this much better because of the many very special aspects of running a web host. It's a science on its own.

For almost twenty years this has worked without problems. 1&1 is not cheap, but our requirements were quite "off-the-shelve" and their 24/7 service was immediately available and until recently, every problem has been solved quickly.

However, this ended on the day we converted our internet pages to a new CMS, which required the modification of a itsy-bitsy single parameter. This parameter could not be configured due to the general restrictions of the Managed Server. That was the show stopper. To resolve it, we would have to switch to a self-maintained Linux server which was no option.

It is surprising, what little things can force you to break up after almost two decades.

After a long search, we went with the small but fine German company "php-friends.de" which offers the best of both worlds: A dedicated web server, maintained by experts and at the same time highly individual configurations up to root access. All this at even much lower price!

While with the IONOS ManagedServer we never really knew exactly how much load the server was under, we can now check this out in detail:

The service at "php-friends.de" is unparalleled: When we reported a critical problem with the hosting handover, the customer service literally dropped its breakfast roll on a Sunday morning to solve the problem. There is nothing more you could asked for.

We hope the server change has been successfully completed. If you still encounter problems, we would be happy if you let us know.