Council Website Hosting

Last updated 10 October 2026 · By Alex Wood

Hosting is the part of a council website nobody thinks about until something goes wrong. A good host keeps your site fast, secure and available, keeps your data in the UK, and can put things right quickly when there is a problem. This page explains what councils should expect from website hosting, the questions to ask, and what is included with every Zonkey council website.

What Council Website Hosting Should Include

• UK data location: your website and any personal data collected through forms should stay in the UK
• Daily backups: stored separately from the website, with a restore process that has actually been tested
• An SSL certificate: so the site loads over HTTPS and form submissions are encrypted
• Security updates: WordPress core, theme and plugin updates applied promptly, not left for months
• A firewall and malware scanning: blocking malicious traffic and spotting problems early
• Uptime monitoring: so problems are noticed by your provider before residents report them
• Support from people who know your site: not a generic ticket queue

Questions to Ask Any Hosting Provider

• Where is our data stored, and is it ever transferred outside the UK?
• How often are backups taken, how long are they kept, and how quickly can you restore the site?
• Who applies security updates, and how soon after they are released?
• What happens if the site is hacked, or goes down out of hours?
• Who owns and controls our domain name? Is the council the registered owner?
• If we leave, how do we get a full copy of our website and documents?

Your Domain Name and Email

Your domain name is separate from your hosting, and it is worth keeping control of it. Make sure the council is the registered owner, and that login details are recorded somewhere the clerk and at least one councillor can find them. If you are thinking about a .gov.uk address, read should your council change to a .gov.uk domain?

If your council email uses your domain, it depends on DNS records (MX, SPF, DKIM and DMARC) that sit alongside your website settings. Changing hosting or DNS without carrying those records across can stop email arriving. The National Cyber Security Centre recommends DMARC, which helps stop others sending email that pretends to come from your council.

What Our Council Hosting Includes

• UK-based hosting in ISO 27001 accredited data centres
• SSL certificate
• Web application firewall and malware scanning
• Daily backups, stored separately
• WordPress core and plugin updates
• 99.9% uptime, with proactive monitoring
• Carbon-neutral hosting: our servers run on renewable energy, and we have planted over 1,000 trees on behalf of our council clients. Read about our tree planting

Hosting is included in our annual support and maintenance package, so there are no separate hosting bills or hidden charges.

Already Have a Website Elsewhere?

We can move your existing website to our hosting, or build you a new one and migrate all of your content. Read our guide to protecting local councils from cyber attacks, see the features of a Zonkey council website, or request a quotation and call 01225 667 977.