Web Hosting Options Explained: What Your Business Needs

Hosting is where your website lives—the servers that store files and respond to visitors. It's easy to treat hosting as an afterthought, but poor hosting causes slow speeds, downtime, and security vulnerabilities. Understanding your options helps you make better decisions.

Hosting Types Explained

Shared Hosting

Multiple websites share a single server and its resources. The hosting company manages everything; you get a control panel to manage your site.

Pros:

• Cheapest option (often £3-10/month)
• No technical management required
• Usually includes email, SSL, and basic features
• Good enough for simple, low-traffic sites

Cons:

• Performance affected by other sites on the server
• Limited resources (CPU, memory)
• Less control over server configuration
• Can be slow during traffic spikes

Best for: Small business websites, blogs, personal sites with modest traffic.

Virtual Private Server (VPS)

A physical server is divided into virtual compartments, each acting as an independent server. You get dedicated resources within your allocation.

Pros:

• Guaranteed resources not affected by neighbours
• More control and configuration options
• Scalable—upgrade resources as needed
• Better performance than shared hosting

Cons:

• More expensive (typically £20-100/month)
• May require technical knowledge to manage
• You're responsible for security and updates (unless managed)

Best for: Growing websites, medium-traffic sites, sites needing specific configurations.

Dedicated Servers

An entire physical server dedicated to your website. Maximum resources and control.

Pros:

• Full server resources
• Complete control over configuration
• Best performance for high-traffic sites
• No noisy neighbours

Cons:

• Expensive (£100-500+/month)
• Requires significant technical expertise
• You manage everything (or pay for management)
• Scaling requires hardware changes

Best for: High-traffic sites, resource-intensive applications, strict compliance requirements.

Cloud Hosting

Websites run on a network of servers rather than a single machine. Resources scale automatically based on demand.

Pros:

• Highly scalable—handles traffic spikes automatically
• Pay for what you use
• Redundancy—if one server fails, others take over
• Often global distribution for better performance

Cons:

• Pricing can be unpredictable
• Complexity can require expertise
• Costs can spiral if not monitored

Major providers include AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure. Platform-specific services like Vercel, Netlify, and Railway simplify cloud hosting for specific use cases.

Best for: Sites with variable traffic, applications needing high availability, modern web applications.

Managed Hosting

The hosting provider handles server management: updates, security, backups, monitoring. You focus on your website; they handle infrastructure.

Pros:

• No technical management burden
• Expert security and performance optimisation
• Usually includes support
• Peace of mind

Cons:

• More expensive than self-managed
• Less flexibility in some configurations
• Dependent on provider quality

Managed WordPress hosting (WP Engine, Kinsta, Flywheel) is popular for WordPress sites. Platform-specific managed hosting handles the complexity of that platform.

Best for: Businesses without technical staff, sites where uptime is critical, anyone who'd rather focus on business than servers.

Key Considerations

Performance

Hosting directly affects page speed:

• Server response time (Time to First Byte)
• Available resources during traffic
• Geographic distance to visitors

For UK businesses primarily serving UK customers, UK-based hosting reduces latency. For global audiences, CDN (Content Delivery Network) support matters.

Reliability and Uptime

When hosting goes down, your website disappears. Check:

• Uptime guarantees (99.9% means up to 8.7 hours downtime/year)
• What happens if guarantees aren't met?
• Actual user reviews about reliability

Security

What security does the host provide?

• Firewalls and DDoS protection
• Malware scanning
• Automatic security updates
• SSL certificate inclusion
• Backup systems

Support

When something breaks at 2am, who helps?

• 24/7 support availability
• Support channels (chat, phone, ticket)
• Technical competence of support staff
• Response time guarantees

Budget hosting often has budget support. You get what you pay for.

Scalability

Can hosting grow with your business?

• Easy resource upgrades
• Traffic spike handling
• Migration paths to larger plans

Red Flags

Unlimited everything: Nothing is truly unlimited. "Unlimited" plans have hidden limits in terms of service.

Extremely cheap: Hosting costs money to provide. Ultra-cheap hosts cut corners somewhere—usually support, security, or performance.

No information about data centres: You should know where your data lives.

Poor reviews mentioning downtime: Reliability issues rarely improve.

Difficult migration: Hosts that make leaving difficult suggest they know you'd leave if you could.

Price Expectations

Rough UK pricing guidelines:

• Shared hosting: £3-15/month
• VPS: £20-100/month
• Managed WordPress: £25-100/month
• Dedicated: £100-500+/month
• Cloud: Varies widely based on usage

Don't choose hosting purely on price. A slow, unreliable £5/month host costs more in lost customers than a quality £25/month alternative.

Platform-Specific Hosting

Some platforms have specialised hosting options:

WordPress: Managed WordPress hosts (Kinsta, WP Engine, SiteGround) optimise specifically for WordPress.

Shopify: Hosting is included and managed—you don't choose separately.

Modern frameworks (Next.js, SvelteKit): Platforms like Vercel and Netlify specialise in these technologies.

Platform-specific hosting often provides better performance and support for that platform than generic hosting.

Our Approach

We recommend hosting appropriate to each project's needs and budget. We can manage hosting on your behalf as part of our care plans, handling updates, monitoring, and troubleshooting.

If your current hosting underperforms or you're unsure what your site needs, contact us for honest advice about options that fit your situation.