Case study: Pixxels and Silversurfers

Background:

By migrating from an expensive, unreliable legacy setup to hosting.com modern, transparent infrastructure, Silversurfers and Pixxels achieved exactly what they needed: performance without the pain.

Today, hosting.com powers one of the UK’s largest over-50s online communities - reliably, securely, and quietly in the background, just as it should be.

About Silversurfers

Silversurfers is one of the UK’s leading online communities for people aged 50 and over, reaching nearly half of the UK’s adult population. With over 1.1 million Facebook followers and 11,000+ articles, the platform provides trusted content, news, and offers that resonate with its vibrant over-50s audience.

The brand’s mission is to offer a safe, positive space for connection, where reliability and trust aren’t optional, but essential. That’s why dependable hosting performance has always been critical to their business.

Challenge & Requirements:

Before partnering with hosting.com Silversurfers was hosted by a large global provider they chose for its reputation in reliability and security. However, the experience was far from smooth.

The site suffered from persistent downtime, slow speeds, and escalating costs, all while support became increasingly unresponsive and inconsistent. Hardware limitations caused repeated outages, and every interaction meant starting from scratch with a new account manager.

For an audience made up of users in their 50s, 60s, and 70s and investors who demanded confidence in site security, these reliability issues became a serious risk.

Key challenges:

• Frequent downtime and slow site performance

• Costs five times higher than hosting.com’s equivalent solution

• Dual-server setup connected by an underpowered firewall, creating bottlenecks

• Incorrect issue diagnosis “it’s your code” became a repeated refrain

• High staff turnover leading to inconsistent communication

• Lost productivity and added costs for Pixxels, their supporting agency

• Heightened anxiety over data security and investor trust

The Solution:

Pixxels recommended migrating Silversurfers to hosting.com having experienced first-hand the platform’s transparency, technical expertise, and personal support.

Hosting.com delivered:

To support Silversurfers’ demanding traffic volumes and long-term scalability, hosting.com deployed Virtual Dedicated Servers (VDS) powered by AMD EPYC processors. This architecture provided dedicated power with the flexibility of virtualisation, delivering higher performance, enhanced reliability, and stronger data isolation than their previous setup. The result was faster processing speeds, improved efficiency under load, and a stable foundation for future growth - all at a fraction of the previous cost.

Clear onboarding with direct communication between Silversurfers, Pixxels, and hosting.com’s technical team.

Scalable infrastructure designed to grow with their business needs.

UK-based servers, ensuring data residency compliance and dependable uptime.

“They gave us a clear layout of what the server would be, what technologies it used, and where it was based. Everything was explained simply enough that we fully understood it.”

- Simon, Pixxels

Impact:

The migration was seamless and the improvement was immediate.

Silversurfers gained a faster, more stable platform and a level of transparency and support they hadn’t experienced before. For Pixxels, hosting.com became more than a vendor; they became a true technical partner.

Outcomes:

• Zero downtime reported in more than five years

• Faster page load speeds post-migration

• Significant cost savings while increasing server power, approximately 5x cheaper than before

• Stronger confidence in security and infrastructure

• Simplified management and faster issue resolution

Testimonial:

“All we want is for it to work and it just works. We’ve hardly had to call anyone in five years, which is exactly how it should be.”

- Martin, Silversurfers

“Having hosting.com by your side feels more like working with a colleague than a company. They’re always on hand to help.”

- Simon, Pixxels