Got some wild advice from a guy at the Eastern Market coffee shop
I was grabbing a coffee before a meeting and this older guy, Frank, saw my business cards. He runs a print shop over on Gratiot. He leaned over and said, 'Kid, you're paying too much for your web hosting. I bet it's over $50 a month.' He was right, it was $55. He told me about a local Detroit host he's used for 12 years that's half the price and keeps the servers here. Anyone else made a switch to a local tech vendor and had it work out?
Oh man, Frank's the best. Switched my site to a local host years ago after a similar chat, and honestly it just feels better knowing it's down the street.
Knowing it's down the street is a nice feeling, but for most sites it doesn't change anything for the visitor. My site loads just as fast from a data center a few states away. The important part is picking a host that's reliable, not just close.