What Type Of Hosting Does Your Business Need?

James Cummings

June 20, 2017

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At each stage of a business’ growth, there are certain needs that have to be fulfilled to ensure its future progression, and to avoid its stagnancy or decline.

For example, a business with a booming customer base that’s looking to expand will need to upgrade from a Shared Hosting with more downtime and slower speed to a VPS with less downtime, more speed and more storage space.

“When your website becomes critical to the success and expansion of your business, and your business’ reputation cannot be compromised, it is time to switch to a more reliable, and secure platform…” says Brendan Wilde at Openhost web hosting.

So before you decide to stick with your current hosting service or upgrade to a better one, let the answers to the following questions guide your decision:

1. Will there be a lot of activity/transactions simultaneously ongoing on your site?

To avoid having a slow site because of too much of a workload that your server can cope with, it’s better to leave Shared Hosting and upgrade to a minimum of VPS or a maximum of a Dedicated Server. A slow site can adversely affect your business in more ways than one.

2. Does your site make use of lots of audio and video content?

Media files consume resources and bandwidth. To avoid slow loading speeds, you can stick with Shared Hosting.

3. How many visitors will you expect?

If you’re expecting your site’s visitors to suddenly rise from hundreds to thousands per day, sticking with Shared Hosting might be the wrong choice. For a thousand guests per day, a Virtual Private Server (VPS) or a Dedicated Server is recommended.

4. How much can you afford to spend on hosting?

Investing in your hosting service is a smart business move especially if you pay for the best service that’ll best meet your business needs. Don’t short-change yourself by going for the cheaper option, because in the long run, it’s your business that’ll pay the price.

When looking for the best bargain, make sure the hosting service provides the following features to the degree your business will need it:

Security and Backup: When choosing a web host, pick one that utilizes encryption technology between user and server communication, and all round protects your site and its users. Only choose a web host that offers stable backup solutions. This is to prevent irreparable loss in the event your site suffers a security breach.
Customer support: Round the clock tech support should be provided by your hosting service in case of emergencies or times of need. Tech support should be able to reply to you in your language and across a broad range of communication channels – phone, email, social media etc.
Scalability: Your hosting service should be able to keep up with your business as it grows and expands.
Fair pricing: Be sure to pick a service that matches your pocket but still fulfils all your needs. Get the best bang for your buck.

An online business is successful only if its web host provides what is necessary. As your business grows, your hosting needs will become more complex. Free, inexpensive hosting plans may no longer be able to cut it. If your website starts appearing sluggish as it gets more traffic and activity, it might be time to upgrade. When that time comes, here are your options:

Reseller Web Hosting: A lot like Shared Hosting, but comes with added tools to assist in reselling your hosting space. It also offers greater technical control, free website templates, technical support that handles your clients' tech issues, and private name servers.
Cloud Based Web Hosting: A fairly recent hosting technology that lets individual servers work together as one, sharing the workload.
Shared Web Hosting: Shared hosting means that you’re hosted on a server with other websites. It’s cost effective but your site’s speed will be affected by a neighbouring one that’s getting way more traffic.
Dedicated Web Server: You have a physical server all to yourself, no sharing of resources whatsoever and you can do whatever you want with it. They’re quite pricey though.
Virtual Private Server (VPS): This has many clients sharing one server, but each client is allocated their own dedicated space and resources. Unlike with Shared Hosting, neighbouring sites don’t affect one another on a VPS.