Which hosting plan for a government office, municipality or public service

The short answer: a public service’s site exists so citizens can find the right information, forms and contacts. It is a content site, without great server demands: for a small service, the entry plan will do. What weighs is accessibility, keeping it up to date and trust.

What the site needs

What What to do
Up-to-date information Correct hours, fees, deadlines and contacts, with a date. Out-of-date information on a public service harms people.
Accessibility The site should be readable by people with poor sight or using a screen reader: Six accessibility checks.
Documents and forms Official documents as well-named, dated PDFs; safe forms: A safe, spam-free form.
Official domain and e-mail A stable domain and e-mail on the domain: they give trust and stop anyone impersonating the service.
Availability Citizens need the site at deadlines and sign-up times. See what counts as being down and how to be warned: An alert when the site goes down.

Getting started

1 Start with the entry plan for an information and contact site.
2 Name an owner for each page and a review date.
3 Put first what people look for most (how to ask for a document, hours, fees) on the home page.
4 Check accessibility before publishing and after each big change.
5 Prepare for peaks: sign-ups, tenders and results bring many people at once: Preparing for a traffic spike.
Do not ask by form for data you do not need. ID numbers, documents and health data call for a legal basis and extra security. If in doubt, ask only for the contact and handle the rest through a secure channel: Personal data protection.
For the legal pages and the cookie policy: Legal pages. For a smaller association or institution’s site: Which plan for an association.

Building a public service’s site? Tell us how many people use it and which forms it has.

Open a support ticket

SEE ALSO

Is your website accessible? Six checks anyone can do

A website form that is safe and spam-free: honeypot, captcha and validation

Getting an alert when your site goes down: a simple uptime check

Personal data protection: what applies to your website

Legal pages for any website: privacy, terms and cookies, and which ones you need

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