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Automotive website hosting and support
Automotive website hosting is different from brochure-site hosting because the site is doing work: stock syncs at 2am, reg lookups hit a paid API, the Shopping feed rebuilds hourly, and a Saturday outage costs a weekend's leads. We host and support dealer websites, parts stores and garage sites on UK infrastructure, with monitoring that watches the integrations too.
Who we do this for
- Car Dealers
- Car Parts Retailers
- Garages & MOT Centres
- Motor Factors & Distributors
- Leasing & Finance Brokers
Native data integrations
We host on managed VPS and dedicated servers in UK data centres, fronted by Cloudflare for caching, DDoS protection and a web application firewall. WordPress, WooCommerce, Magento, Astro and bespoke PHP or Node applications all run on stacks we manage ourselves. Shopify stores are hosted by Shopify, so for those the plan covers theme, app and integration support rather than servers.
Monitoring covers the things that break quietly. Uptime checks on the site itself, plus checks on the stock sync, the reg lookup API balance, the Merchant Center feed status and the SSL certificate. If the Auto Trader feed stops at 3am you get an email from us in the morning, not a phone call from a customer on Saturday.
Support is a retainer of hours from developers who built or inherited your site, with a ticket system and a named contact. Core, plugin and platform updates are tested on staging first. Backups run daily and are restored on request the same day. We also take on sites built by other agencies after an audit, which is often how relationships start.
Sound familiar?
You probably need this if
- Your site is on a shared hosting account that was cheap in 2016 and nobody knows the login.
- WordPress updates are applied live and something breaks every third time.
- The stock feed failed last week and you found out from a customer.
- Your last agency has gone quiet and the SSL certificate expires next month.
- Black Friday or the March plate change slows the site to a crawl.
Deliverables
What you get
- Managed UK hosting (VPS or dedicated) sized for your traffic, with Cloudflare CDN, WAF and DDoS protection.
- Daily off-server backups with tested restores, and a staging environment for every site.
- Uptime and integration monitoring: site, stock sync, API credit balances, feed status, SSL, domain expiry.
- Scheduled core, plugin, theme and dependency updates, tested on staging before production.
- Security hardening, malware scanning and patching, with PCI DSS considerations for stores.
- A support retainer with a ticket system, agreed response times and a named developer.
- Quarterly performance review: Core Web Vitals, error logs, database bloat, plugin audit.
Hosting for dealer websites and stock feeds
A dealer site is only as good as its last sync. We run the stock jobs on the server, log every run, alert on failures and missing images, and keep the Google and Meta feeds building from the same source. Traffic spikes at plate change and after TV advertising are handled by Cloudflare caching in front of the application.
Hosting for parts stores on WooCommerce and Magento
Large catalogues with fitment filtering are database-heavy. We tune MySQL and search (Elasticsearch or OpenSearch for Magento), cache aggressively without breaking reg-specific results, and keep marketplace sync jobs on their own worker so a Linnworks run never slows the checkout.
Process
How we approach it
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Audit
We review the current hosting, codebase, plugins, integrations and backups, and give you a written report of what is at risk.
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Migration plan
Server sized, DNS and Cloudflare planned, email routing checked so nothing bounces when the nameservers change.
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Migrate
Staging copy built, integrations re-pointed and tested, then a scheduled cutover at a quiet hour with the old server kept warm for rollback.
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Monitor
Uptime, feed and API checks configured, alerting to us and optionally to you.
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Maintain
Monthly update cycle, quarterly review, and the support retainer for changes and fixes.
Hosting & Support: common questions
Do you host sites you did not build?
Yes, after an audit. We review the code, plugins, integrations and backups, tell you what is at risk, and take it on if we can support it properly. Many of our support clients came to us this way.
Where are your servers?
UK data centres, behind Cloudflare. We manage the servers ourselves rather than reselling shared hosting, so we can size, tune and fix them for the way automotive sites actually behave.
Can you host a Shopify store?
Shopify hosts Shopify stores; nobody else can. For Shopify clients our plan covers theme updates, app conflicts, integrations, feeds and fitment data support rather than servers.
What happens if the stock feed or reg lookup stops working?
Our monitoring checks feeds, sync jobs and API balances as well as uptime. If a feed stops or an API key runs low on credit we are alerted and act on it within the support plan, usually before you notice.
How quickly do you respond to support tickets?
Response times are agreed in the plan and depend on severity. Site-down issues are handled first, and outside office hours where the plan includes it; content changes and enhancements are scheduled within the retainer.
Do you handle WordPress updates?
Yes. Core, plugin and theme updates are applied on staging, checked, then pushed to production on a monthly cycle, with urgent security patches applied sooner.
Sectors
Who we do this for
Car Dealers
Car dealer marketing that does not rent all your traffic from Auto Trader.
View servicesCar Parts Retailers
Car parts marketing agency built on fitment: TecDoc K-Type, reg lookup, eBay and Amazon feeds on Shopify, WooCommerce or Magento.
View servicesGarages & MOT Centres
Garage marketing that fills the diary: local SEO, garage website design with online booking and MOT reminders from DVSA data.
View servicesMotor Factors & Distributors
Motor factor website and trade ordering portal with VRM lookup, TecDoc catalogue, MAM Autopart, branch stock and account pricing.
View servicesLeasing & Finance Brokers
Car leasing website design, deal feeds and FCA-compliant marketing for leasing and finance brokers.
View servicesRelated services
Build
Web Design
Automotive web design is what we have done since 2006: websites for garages, bodyshops, tuners, race teams, clubs and dealers, built by people who know what a K-Type is and why your MOT booking form needs a reg field.
Read moreBuild
Car Dealer Websites
Car dealer websites live or die on the stock page.
Read moreBuild
Car Parts eCommerce
Car parts eCommerce has one rule the rest of retail does not: the customer must know the part fits before they buy.
Read moreIntegrations
Integrations
Automotive integrations are the plumbing between your website or store and the systems the trade already runs on: Auto Trader, eBay, Amazon, your DMS, finance providers, Xero or Sage and your CRM.
Read moreTalk to the pit wall
Talk to us about hosting & support
Tell us what you sell, fix, break or race and what is getting in the way. We will come back within one working day with a straight answer and, if it fits, a fixed-price scope.