I'm still learning web development and trying to understand the usual approach to client projects. Do freelancers normally host all of their clients' websites through a preferred provider and charge a monthly or annual fee with a markup, or do they usually let clients purchase and manage their own hosting while handling only development and deployment?
I currently host a few personal websites through IONOS and Fasthosts, but I'm also seeing services such as GitHub Pages and Cloudflare Pages that seem well suited to static sites. I'd appreciate an overview of how developers typically handle hosting, domains, maintenance, and client access.
I'd also like to understand version control, particularly how Git and services such as GitHub fit into a normal development and deployment workflow.
3 Answers
Git and GitHub are good places to start, but version control is a broad subject. The basic workflow is to initialize or clone a project, make a change, review it, commit it with a useful message, and push it to the remote repository. Branches let people work on features independently before merging them into the main version. Once that is connected to hosting, approved changes can be deployed without manually uploading every file.
Git is version control: it records the project's history so you can see what changed, when it changed, and who changed it. If a new feature causes a problem, you can compare it with earlier versions or roll the project back to a working state. A typical setup gives each project its own repository, with branches used for separate features or fixes. GitHub is a hosted place to store those repositories, collaborate with other developers, and connect the code to an automated deployment process.
How does collaboration work when multiple people are making changes? I'm mostly familiar with uploading files through FileZilla, so I'm trying to understand how Git differs from simply giving each person separate hosting credentials.
Many freelancers separate development from hosting, but offer hosting and maintenance as an optional service. For smaller clients, you might manage the hosting and charge a monthly or annual amount that covers the server, updates, security fixes, and minor changes. For larger clients, it is often better to create the hosting account in the client's name so they retain ownership and control.
For static sites, Cloudflare Pages is inexpensive, fast, and requires very little maintenance. For WordPress sites, a managed WordPress provider can make more sense, although renewal prices are worth checking carefully.
When you set up hosting for a client, do you usually create the domain and hosting account for them and then give them the account or FTP credentials? Also, is there a particular reason to prefer GitHub for version control?
The main benefit is not just having different user accounts. Git tracks the actual files and their history, so several people can work on the same project, review each other's changes, resolve conflicts, and restore an earlier version when necessary.