All hosting is not created equal, and neither are websites. So, one size does not fit all.
A five-page brochure site and a fully functional e-commerce store with tens or hundreds of products don’t require the same resources, and it’s in the choice of the right resources that the important distinctions lie.
Often times people embark on finding hosting by asking around, friends, business associates, Facebook groups and Google. The immediate result, especially on Facebook groups, is that many very well-meaning people will propose their host as “the best”, “great support”, “never had a problem”, etc.
The first issue is that their one, or maybe two websites, run fine on the hosting they use since the resources are adequate. But the advice ignores the fact that the person hunting for good hosting has a website or store that requires more resources, and might not function as desired because the hosting resources may be limited. A single add-on, plugin or script can have a major effect on the resources the site needs.
The ingredients of hosting
Hosting consists of three main components: space on the server, performance resources, and bandwidth.
Without getting too technical we should look at the basics.
Space on the server is the available footprint on the physical drive of the server that the site is hosted on, much like the size of the warehouse. Large files, multiple products with their images and specification sheet PDFs etc, require a bigger footprint.
Performance would include the processing capabilities of the server, memory on the server and the specific memory allocation to the site in question, as well as other factors such as execution times (for specific scripts to run), upload limits, platform software version, etc. This would be like the warehouse infrastructure and staff.
Bandwidth is the number of lanes on the highway to your warehouse and how much traffic it can handle and at what speeds.
Most hosting is on shared servers and the hosting company limits all the factors above in order to add as many websites it can on a single server. Shared hosting is cheap, you can get space on a server for anything from R60 to R100 for a basic package.
But, as I mentioned, at these prices you won’t get the high-octane hosting that your website or e-commerce store needs.
Why it matters
Sure one could argue that a small brochure-ware site with maybe 10 pages doesn’t need high-level hosting, which it might well not. However, if it’s built on a platform like WordPress and a page builder is added, especially one with lots of functionality or that requires additional add-ons or plugins for all that functionality to run, then your site will slow down and stumble. We have seen a marked slowdown in site speeds between late version 5.9 and 6.1 of WordPress.
The key factor is page load speed. Page loading starts with TTFB, time-to-first-bite. Simply put, that is how long it takes for the site visitor to see the first bit of content or take their first action. And we measure this in seconds, three seconds is too long. There are many knock-on effects, one of which is being penalised by Google and its ranking of the site. Having the ability to increase server resources so that this is mitigated is significant, and not possible on shared hosting.
The company you keep
Then there is also the issue of who your hosting company really is. What are their other resources? Is support readily available and is it good? Are support personnel well-trained and knowledgeable? Are they specialists at hosting?
Many ISPs offer hosting along with fibre or Wi-Fi connections and other services. Often their speciality is end-user fibre and hosting is a secondary service. In this case, expect mediocre support at best.
To get the right hosting, ask someone who hosts multiple sites with varied functionality, footprints and server demands to help you evaluate your needs. Don’t dive into the first suggestion and don’t go only on cost. And look for something that can scale as your needs increase.