Have you heard about buying hosting space, but you’re not sure where to get started? Let’s take a look at this together – and by the end of this blog, you’ll have all the information you need to make an informed decision.
Hosting is renting space on a computer, where your files are held so that anyone looking at your website can actually access them. Our previous blog ‘What’s What on Websites?’ gives you some more information what hosting is and why it’s important. Your hosting setup also determines how powerful your website is – can it handle big files, complex processes, and lots of traffic?
You definitely need to buy hosting but there are lots of choices and it can be confusing. This blog looks at the best hosting options for building a small website, which could be a few pages about your shop or services, a blog, contact forms and basic e-commerce.
What about website builders?
Places like SquareSpace and Wix bundle the hosting with the package, so when you pay them your monthly fees, you are actually paying for hosting as well. This is convenient, but often the packages are pre-set and bundled with other features with no flexibility.
For example, on SquareSpace, if you are an individual selling one niche product to a handful of people as a subscription, you need the top package of advanced commerce at £43 per month, but a large shop can sell unlimited items to a huge customer base on the much cheaper business plan (£24p/m). You also can’t trade off low traffic with advanced functions (or vice versa) which can make it costly if you want anything beyond a very basic website.
Website builders can be a great way to get started online, and often use pre-built templates that allow you to DIY a presentable site with little knowledge of code or design. However, we find they often lack the customisation and SEO features our customers expect, so the convenience and ease of use do come at a price.
Shared Hosting
Pros of Shared Hosting
Let’s move onto shared hosting, which is also known as web hosting. Here the server is managed by the host and contains data from several different websites for different customers (hence ‘shared hosting’). As you share the resources and cost of running the server with other customers, you pay less.
It’s very affordable! You can often get special offers and intro rates that give you a year’s hosting for under £50. Many hosting companies have very user-friendly interfaces & setup wizards, so you don’t need to know anything about how to configure a server (e.g. you click that you want WordPress when opening your account and you automatically get allocated a server that is optimised for WordPress 👍). Also, as hosting is a really competitive market, lots of hosts will try to attract business with extra features like free email, SSL certificates and CDN access.
So, what’s the catch?
There are a few cons to shared hosting. There is limited ability to change settings, which can be bad if you need a specific server environment (but this is unlikely if you are building a basic website – we’ve never had a shared hosting client who needed this level of customisation in 10 years.)
Also, the other websites on the server can impact yours, so high traffic for a neighbour could slow your site down (to go back to the bricks and mortar example, if the shop next door is doing amazing business, the queue to visit will block your door and stop your customers getting in easily). However, this is unlikely on a reputable host as they will monitor performance and put safeguards in to stop one website hogging resources.
Another unlikely but possible issue is if one of the other sites on the same server gets hacked or is infected with malware, it could affect your site (again, in the real world if the building next door is on fire or being burgled, it could affect your building). However, as with the other downsides, this is VERY UNLIKELY on reputable host with good security protocols.
Generally, you only definitely need your own server if you are handling top-grade sensitive data such as medical records, financial details*, military intel, or state secrets on your site (in which case you probably need a full-time IT security team too!)
* Even if you take payments on your site, if you are using a 3rd party like Stripe, SumUp, GoCardless etc they are handling the financial data for you. Your site is just passing the traffic so you don’t need to worry about using a shared server for this type of transaction.
Recommended Hosting
This section contains some affiliate links; however, each review is our honest professional opinion of that service regardless of affiliation.
Now that we’ve had a look at website builders and shared hosting, here are some hosts that are worth exploring!
Siteground has great intro offers, although price does increase after initial period. My absolute fave feature is that even the cheapest plan allows you to add a collaborator – which means you can add a developer to help you out without having to share your password and give them access to all you finances/billing data. Siteground are very reliable, have fast speeds and their customer service is great (I’ve chatted with them a lot over the years!)
CloudAbove is based in Cornwall, and also has amazing customer service. We use them for our own server and find them really reliable with good load speeds. Their pricing is competitive, and even the basic package has loads of great extras like free SSL and 5 emails. The only drawback we’ve found is that cPanel can be intimidating for beginners (but they’ll help you if needed!)
Hostinger is another good host to check out. They have some amazing intro offers, but keep in mind the price will go up when your offer expires. However, even at full price they offer great value for money; the premium plan offers 100 websites with emails, free SSL and unlimited bandwidth for only £1 more than basic plan. My favourite feature here is the variety of server profiles on offer – as well as WordPress they have servers tailored to eCommerce, a range of back-end languages and even Minecraft! Hostinger also have a collaborate feature that lets you share your account safely with a developer.
Which Web Host is Right For Me?
Before you decided which hosts are right for you, don’t forget to think about the statistics. Some people might skip over this (even just the word stats can put people off!) but comparing different host stats can make a huge difference to which host you eventually choose. Here are some key stats to think about:
- Cost (obviously!)
- Look at intro offers and what the real price will be long term. For example, can you buy a 12/24/36 month package to lock in a cheaper price?
- Also, don’t forget to add on VAT if this applies to your business.
- Bandwidth and storage
- Be realistic about the number of visitors you will get – most websites get low amounts of traffic, and that’s ok.
- Local businesses target local people, so think carefully about how many people live in your service area AND are interested in your offer. There’s no point paying extra for the bandwidth for 100,000 visits per day if your target market is the 500 people looking for yoga classes in your neighbourhood.
- This is the same with storage – it’s tempting to get the biggest size and not worry about running out of room, but a handful of photos and some text will barely fill up 1gb. Don’t forget you can always upgrade later, best to start small.
- Uptime
- Location
- Again, thinking back to where your customers are, pick a host that runs a server centre in that country or area. Hosting your site in the USA when your customers are in Europe will significantly slow your site down, it literally takes a split second more for your data to cross the Atlantic but add that up over the course of a visit and it gets tiresome quick.
- On a related note, GDPR in the UK and EU has strict rules about where you can store data, so using a server centre to process/store customer info outside of these areas may put you in breach of data law
- Bonus items
- Look at emails, SSL certs and access to a content delivery network (CDN). These can be annoying to buy separately, and costs add up, so it’s usually worth paying a little more for a host that includes these features.
- Usability
- Some hosts are tailored for the non-tech market, and provide user-friendly interfaces, setup wizards and 24/7 support. Others are a bit more hands-off but might give you more controls to fine-tune via cPanel.
- Alternatively, many hosts offer collaboration and developer access, which allow you to get a pro in to help get everything setup without having to share your account password and billing info.
Hosting can seem like a tricky topic, but hopefully now you feel more confident to pick the right host for you. If you still need more help to find the perfect place to host your site, or need a hand getting it set up, let us help you! We can make sure you pick the right package for your needs, and ensure all the settings are fine-tuned to keep your site running smoothly.
