Daniel J. Lewis

Internet entrepreneur, award-winning podcaster, podcast consultant, keynote speaker

Review of Synthesis managed WordPress hosting

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In this week's managed WordPress hosting review, I'm going further back in history to when I first got into managed WordPress hosting.

My podcast network was growing fast, especially my Once Upon a Time podcast with its new forums. I was hosting on a virtual private server from HostDime, but that couldn't keep up with the large demands of my WordPress multisite and phpBB forums. Then I upgraded to a dedicated server for $160 per month.

But it still wasn't powerful enough for my sites. (Since then, I've learned a lot more about managing a server and know how to run my websites with fewer resources.) Thus, it was time to find a better host.

Around that time, I heard about Synthesis managed WordPress hosting from one of my podcast-consulting clients. Considering that I was already paying $160 per month for hosting, Synthesis's $147/month plan looked like it would save me some money and give me better performance and features. I also heard great things from my client, so I jumped in.

I stayed with Synthesis for over a year, and here are my thoughts on their service.

Synthesis's features

As a managed WordPress hosting provider, Synthesis would only host WordPress-powered websites. They designed their infrastructure specifically for this purpose, and also optimized their system for websites running the Genesis Framework (though it's not a requirement).

In addition to the backend technology, they also provided attractive extra features (on top of everything you would normally expect), like daily backups, SEO tools, uptime monitoring, and “Personal Backups” to my own Amazon S3.

When I joined, their site said they supported WordPress Multisite on the $147/month plan and higher. Since they are WordPress and Genesis experts, I could trust that my site was in good hands. They could recommend plugins, settings, and tweaks for my site performance or features.

Synthesis is very generous with its traffic limits—especially when you compare with other managed WordPress hosting providers, like WP Engine. Their lowest plan, $47/month Standard, allowed 10,000 page views per day. My sites required the Advanced plan for $147/month and supported 85,000 page views per day, which has always been more than enough for my needs (maximum 20,000 page views per day).

With Synthesis, I could also request SSH access and managed certain aspects of my site by myself, or perform certain actions faster.

Synthesis's performance

Synthesis was designed for speed, and they provide W3 Total Cache (W3TC) Pro, fragment caching, and special optimizations for WordPress with Genesis-Framework-powered themes. On Multisite, they recommended their own server-side caching system instead of W3TC, but it would always cause more problems than it solved on my network.

Compared to my previous VPS and dedicated server, Synthesis loaded my sites quickly and could handle a large number of simultaneous visitors.

Synthesis introduced me to a different way of running a web server. Most regular hosting companies will use Apache. That software is designed to do many, many things. Nginx is the cool, new kid. Nginx doesn't have all the bloat that Apache has, but Nginx has what it needs to run most standard websites with popular content-management systems. Synthesis is naturally faster because of using Nginx instead of Apache.

Since Copyblogger makes both Synthesis and the Genesis Framework, Genesis is included with Synthesis hosting, which could save you a little money if you want to be just a Genesis child theme from StudioPress or Appendipity.

Synthesis's missing features

When I first started hosting with Synthesis, I wasn't too concerned with extensive features. I was impressed with the features Synthesis offered.

But after signing up and migrating my WordPress Multisite, I discovered that some of Synthesis's features don't work on WordPress Multisite: Personal Backups to S3, SEO Scribe (no longer offered), and their own server-side caching (at least with my site).

Synthesis has no built-in methods for version control, CDN, or staging sites. However, with the Professional and higher plans supporting more than a single WordPress installation, you could have a second WordPress installation function as a staging site. That would require your own synchronization (such as with WP Migrate DB Pro).

Why I left Synthesis managed WordPress hosting

My time with Synthesis was good, but I was becoming increasingly frustrated with memory errors (even though I think they generously gave me an extra 2 GB for free), caching problems, and stability. All of these problems are related to the complexity of my site and are not directly the fault of Synthesis.

I was also looking at the recurring $147/month fee and trying to find a way to reduce my business's operating costs. Now that I have more knowledge on running my own server, I went back to a virtual private server (VPS) to save a lot of money, but missing all the support that Synthesis could provide. (I'll detail my final hosting destination more in a future post.)

Of all the managed WordPress hosting providers, Synthesis offers the most traffic for the best price. My same sites would cost more than $200/month to host with other companies, but only $147/month with Synthesis.

If you choose Synthesis, I know you'll be in good hands and won't have to expect a high price in the managed WordPress hosting industry. (And if you sign up, I, unfortunately, won't receive any affiliate commission.)

All my podcast subscriptions in 2014

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To celebrate this week's National Podcast Day, I'll take you inside my podcast app and show you every podcast I subscribe to and listen to regularly.

When Apple released iTunes 4.9 on June 28, 2005, I immediately started looking for these new things called podcasts. I quickly fell in love with the medium and ditched terrestrial talk radio in favor of the niche topics I could listen to in podcasts.

My podcasts subscriptions come and go, but I thought you'd like to see the list of podcasts I listen to as of September, 2014, in case you're looking for something new. Some of these podcasts have podfaded (no episode in six months), but I remain subscribed in hopes of new episodes someday.

Podcasting

Marriage

Business

Comedy

Technology and web design

TV/film

5 ways to use Google Voice (and why it’s not going away)

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Google Voice is a communications web and mobile app that can make and receive phone calls, send and receive SMS, transcribe voicemail, and more. Learn more about its features here or watch the video below.

Here are five creative ways to use Google Voice for business, hobbies, and home.

1. Use Google Voice as a business phone number

Google Voice can forward to any other phone number, and it's easy to make call from a Google Voice number through your computer, mobile device, or any other phone.

I created a Google Voice phone number for my business, and I have the convenience of answering calls either through my personal wireless phone, or my computer through Gmail/Hangouts.

The greatest business feature of Google Voice is the “do not disturb” (DND) feature. This can be enabled on demand, or for any number of minutes, hours, or days. It will not forward Google Voice calls to any of your phones, but send the caller directly to your voicemail inbox. DND is perfect for focus times or preventing business calls in the evenings.

2. Use Google Voice to ring multiple phones

You may be a multiphone person: you have a home phone, wireless phone, and work phone. Your Google Voice number can ring all of these phone simultaneously to ensure you don't miss an important phone call.

But don't just think about your own phones. You could have a single “family” number that rings your phone and your spouse's phone.

If you don't want to continue the conversation from a particular line, press * and you can switch lines.

3. Use Google Voice as a feedback voicemail system

I host several podcasts and love the convenience for my viewers and listeners to send feedback with their own voice. This is especially convenient for celebrities.

Google Voice can be set to never forward to another phone number. This will make it function like a 24-hour voicemail system.

You can have these messages forwarded to any email address (like your podcast feedback address) so you'll have a rough transcript and the audio recording file.

4. Use Google Voice to protect your privacy

Concerned about giving out your home or wireless phone number to businesses? Make a Google Voice number in your local area code and you'll never have to give away personal, direct numbers.

This is also a convenient way of having a local phone number, for the rare case where that actually matters.

My wife and I used a Google Voice number when selling our house. That allowed us to also have a custom voicemail greeting to point callers to our house website for more details when we couldn't answer the phone.

5. Use Google Voice to make and record phone calls with your computer

One of my favorite features of Google Voice is the ability to make a phone call through the Internet. My home office is currently in the lower level of my home, and our home is in a valley. So wireless phone reception isn't always the best.

Google Voice solves this by allowing me to conveniently make and receive phone calls through my computer and not have to worry about wireless signal strength. If I need to leave the computer, I just press * to switch the call to my phone.

Also, by routing a phone call through your computer, you can easily record the call with several apps and devices. This is great for interviews, or conversations you simply need to document.

Why I'm convinced Google Voice isn't going away

I've seen some old fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD) about Google Voice's future. But I'm quite convinced that—like Celine Dion, World of Warcraft, and the ending of The Lord of the Rings—Google Voice will go on. Here are several quick reasons.

  • The Google Voice website uses the standard Google account bar, which is on all of Google's most current and updated properties. (Interestingly, this isn't on FeedBurner, which is the more likely candidate to shut down since it has already ceased development.)
  • The Google Voice website also uses the same clean design as other, modern Google properties. (Again, FeedBurner doesn't.)
  • Google Voice calling has been integrated into Hangouts, which enables sending and receiving calls in Gmail, Google+, Google+ Hangouts, and YouTube Live / Google+ Hangouts on Air.
  • The Hangouts app and Google Voice app for iOS have been recently updated to include phone-calling with a Google Voice number from any iOS device. (Yes, you can even call phones for free from your iPod Touch or iPad!)
  • The Google Voice app for iOS has finally been updated to iOS 7 design standards (the week before iOS 8's release).

Considering all of these things, I would not be surprised if the Google Voice service is eventually merged completely into Hangouts, but I'm convinced that the core functionality will remain.

How do you use Google Voice?