Under the hood

How our managed WordPress hosting actually works

No black box, no buzzwords. This is the real path a request takes from your visitor's browser to your WordPress site — and why each stage exists.

The request path

From browser to WordPress, in four stages

Stage 1

DNS resolves to the ScaleShield edge

Your domain's A record points at 31.132.2.56 — our ScaleShield edge. Host your DNS with us (all record types, zone import included) or keep it wherever you like; either way, every visitor arrives at the edge first, never directly at the server running your site.

Stage 2

ScaleShield terminates TLS and filters the noise

Your free certificate (wildcard included, auto-renewed) terminates here. WAF rules and bot detection then strip out the exploit scanners, credential-stuffing scripts and request floods that make up a large share of raw WordPress traffic. Only legitimate requests continue inward.

Stage 3

Your dedicated container renders the page

Each site gets its own container with WordPress pre-installed and the PHP version you chose (7.4–8.4). Its resource allocation is not shared with other customers, so nobody else’s traffic spike, cron job or badly-behaved plugin can slow your renders.

Stage 4

A MariaDB database that is yours alone

One database per site — never shared tables, never a shared instance where a neighbour’s slow query delays yours. Databases are replicated to a hot standby between worker nodes using MariaDB GTID replication.

Designed to fail well

What happens when things go wrong

We will not promise you a nines figure — no host can honestly guarantee one. What we can show you is how the platform is built to keep your site serving when parts of it fail, and to make recovery a proven path rather than a prayer.

  • Worker-local routing

    Traffic routing lives on the worker nodes themselves. If our management plane goes down entirely, workers keep routing and your site keeps serving.

  • Database hot standby

    Your MariaDB database is replicated worker-to-worker with GTID replication, keeping a warm copy of your data on separate hardware.

  • Restore-tested backups

    Every backup is restored into a sandbox nightly to prove it works. Recovery is rehearsed every single night, automatically.

  • Independent monitoring

    Per-minute checks alert you by email, webhook or Slack the moment your site stops responding — with a public status page for the platform itself.

Your keys, always

Managed doesn't mean locked out

We run the infrastructure; you keep full access to everything that is yours.

SFTP & WP-CLI

SFTP on port 2222 with scoped sub-accounts, and WP-CLI for scripted admin — search-replace, exports, plugin management.

phpMyAdmin

Direct access to your dedicated MariaDB database whenever you need to look under the bonnet.

Cloning & backups

One-click site cloning before risky changes, manual snapshots on demand, and full / file / database-level restores.

Dashboard control

PHP version, domains, DNS, email, monitoring, team roles and 2FA — all self-service, all audit-logged.

Dive deeper: performance, security, maintenance & backups — or see plans & pricing.

Architecture questions, answered plainly

What actually runs my WordPress site?

A dedicated container, created just for your site, on our UK worker infrastructure. It holds your WordPress files and PHP runtime (7.4–8.4, your choice), and connects to a MariaDB database that belongs to your site alone. No other customer shares your container or your database.

What happens when a visitor requests a page?

DNS resolves your domain to our ScaleShield edge. ScaleShield terminates TLS with your free certificate, applies WAF rules and bot filtering, and forwards legitimate requests to your container, which renders the page from your dedicated database.

What happens if part of your platform fails?

Routing on our worker nodes is local: even if our management plane goes down, workers keep routing traffic and your site keeps serving. Databases have hot-standby replication between workers. And every backup is restore-tested nightly, so recovery paths are proven, not assumed. We do not publish uptime percentages — we publish how the system is built.

How do I get files and data in and out?

SFTP on port 2222 (with scoped sub-accounts for contractors), WP-CLI for scripted WordPress admin, phpMyAdmin for the database, and the dashboard for everything else — backups, cloning, monitoring, PHP version, domains and email.

Where do custom domains point?

You point an A record at 31.132.2.56 — the ScaleShield edge — or move your DNS to us entirely (full DNS hosting with all record types and zone import is included). TLS certificates are issued automatically once the domain resolves.

Now you know how it works — try it

A dedicated container, your own database and ScaleShield in front, from £9/month fixed. Free assisted migration and a 30-day money-back guarantee.