The Power That Is In Our Hands

It has been pointed out to me that I spend more on my email provider than I need to. That it would be easy to switch to a different provider and way more cost effective. Thus, last week, I debated whether to switch. I called GreenGeeks—my current provider—three or four times with questions, looked at other platforms…and felt overwhelmed by the idea of learning a new setup. But I was determined! Take control! Carl runs our entire house from the apps on his phone. I could jolly well figure out the best housing for my email. But I felt nostalgic and a bit guilty thinking of deserting GreenGeeks. After all, I’ve been with them since I started up my first website in 2012, and a real person answers the phone when I call.

I compared GreenGeeks with Zoho and Google Workspace. Google is a Goliath; the other two companies are wee. Zoho is used by less than 1.5% of all websites and GreenGeeks by fewer than 0.1%… which might account for why they answer the phone.

Here is an article from Yes! magazine about the energy cost/use of our World Wide Web.

I mention this because it was during my debate about what company to switch to that I remembered the reason I originally went with GreenGeeks: it is an eco-conscious web hosting service. Yes, they use energy, but they work to offset it. For every amperage they pull, they match it 3 times in the form of renewable energy and plant trees for every hosting account provisioned. (I paraphrased this from their website.)

And so, once again, I’ve decided to align my money with my principles. Instead of Zoho at $1 a month or Google Workspace at $6 a month, I will pay GreenGeeks $11.95 a month. I do it because I can.