The following is a guest post from Bud Kraus of Seriously, Bud? Seriously, Bud? is a podcast that focuses on sharing personal stories and experiences of people within the WordPress community.
First Impressions
I don’t know where I was – probably WordCamp US 2024 – when I first heard of BigScoots. I thought, “What’s that?” Soon, I figured out they are in the WordPress web hosting business.
The first thing I heard was how exceptional their service was. But come on, doesn’t every host say that? I assumed it was just more marketing hype.
“But then, out of curiosity, I signed up for an account. Right away, I saw the difference.”
BigScoots reached out and told me they would handle the migration process. I assumed they would use some proprietary script to do the job.
I was wrong.
They took over and did the migration manually to make sure there would be no hiccups or downtime. What a relief, as I didn’t have to bother with something that – even though I could have done it myself – I would rather not. Along the way, humans – not bots – promptly asked me a few questions about the site, and presto, they handled the rest, telling me what was going on all the time.
Yep, it was like they were sitting next to me doing all the work. I loved it.
Once Onboard
I noticed that there were two login points, the Billing Portal and the WPO Portal, the latter being where I went to manage my account.
The UI takes a while to get used to (they all do), but soon I didn’t feel like I had to learn it all over again each time I logged in.
Once at the Dashboard, it is easy to access everything you’d expect from a web host and more. One thing I loved was their integration with Cloudflare, so I had the benefits of their services without any tricky setup needed by me.
Most important are the staging and backup services. Having used both now I can attest to how easy it is. A staging site automatically includes credentials for accessing the public facing side of the site. A nice and necessary touch.
Over Time
Now that I have been with BigSccots for some time, I see things running smoothly. I haven’t needed to reach support because of that. I sort of miss talking to someone over there and know they’ll help me quickly if I need it.
Speaking of support, their engineers go all the way, even fine-tuning individual WP sites for performance.
I’ve also learned that BigScoots owns and operates its own hardware and data centers. This gives them control over resolving issues when they arise and is a cornerstone of their service.
You Gotta Love This
What about that silly mascot? Makes you think that they know that web hosting is not brain surgery. BigScoots is not afraid to inject a little fun into what they do for everyone’s benefit.
About Bud Kraus
Bud Kraus is a WordPress educator, content creator, and the host of the “Seriously, BUD?” podcast. He’s known for his work in the WordPress community, including teaching, content creation for WordPress businesses, and hosting the podcast where he interviews people in the WordPress community about their life stories, including an interview with BigScoots CMO, Tim Monner.
