We are at a time when there are countless digital solutions for our business, some meet our expectations, and others, sometimes, fall short.
Let’s take the example of web hosting, which can host the corporate website or any other application or database your business has. It is possible that you have great websites or web applications but they are hosted in places with certain limitations (low capacity, servers located far away from your facilities, etc…), this means that although you have these ideal tools for you, you can not be taking full advantage of them because of these restrictions, and therefore, you are wasting time and even money limiting the growth of your business.
Does this all sound strange to you? Relax, we’re going to go from the basics to the point where you can say, “Okay, I know what to look for when choosing cloud hosting for my business.
What is web hosting?
Web hosting is storing information on a server so that we can access it from any computer directly and easily via the web. You will also find other terms such as online hosting, internet hosting or hosting, do not worry, we always refer to the same thing.
These servers are responsible for acting as the “host” of your online hosting, managing the security of your online applications, whether they are open for public use (such as your company’s website) or private (applications for the management of your business).
What can I host in my online accommodation?
As we have been discussing this is not only used for your business website, we can give it many more uses, such as example:
- Corporate website
- Applications or software that you use every day for the proper functioning of your company.
- Online storage of your company’s data (database), from information about your customers and suppliers to images or files of any kind.
- Have you ever lost information and had to redo hours of work? That is why periodic backups are scheduled so that if this happens you do not have to repeat, sometimes, days of work because you only had it saved on your computer.
- Corporate email hosting services, you manage all the accounts you need and can backup, create or delete accounts with relative ease.
Types of online hosting
There are different types of web hosting that you need to know in order to properly evaluate these hostings when selecting one. While you read these options keep in mind that there are two ways of hosting, one is that you buy your own servers physically (not recommended, only used by medium and large companies, already in disuse) or rent them to providers via online (you only perform the maintenance of the content of these, nothing physical).
Free web hosting
This type of hosting is usually the one that people use to start, but it is not recommended. It always has limitations in speed, storage, and possible crashes of the page, plus you have to take care of the maintenance of what is stored on those servers yourself.
Paid web hosting
There are a variety of options on the market, depending on your needs the cost of this hosting will be higher or lower. One thing that these services usually have in common is that although it offers better servers with more features (we tell you about them in the next section) they do not include the maintenance of these servers, you must manage them yourself or find technological providers to do it for you, the latter is the most advisable, we assure you that from experience “saving” that small support fee saves you big headaches that sometimes make it more expensive having to maintain it on your own, with the time that implies
Shared servers
These services are the most common to start with, a powerful server is used on which you host several websites. In other words, a space is reserved for your website within that server. This option ceases to be functional when you require more storage capacity or have a lot of simultaneous traffic.
Dedicated servers
Following the definition above this would be the case in which you have a complete server for you, you will notice that everything goes more smoothly which in the case of e-commerce can result in more sales. The only downside of this option compared to the shared one is that it is a bit more expensive but sometimes it is necessary if you want your business to continue its growth.
Cloud hosting
This case stores your information in several servers in such a way that you have a backup copy at all times and also offers you the highest speed available according to the load that your digital tools are receiving.
5 Essential features for choosing a good web hosting plan
When choosing your online hosting provider you should take into account many factors, we will discuss the main ones here:
What capacity do I need for my server
You must be clear about the use you are going to give to your hosting, will you use it only to host your corporate website? Then a shared server will do. On the other hand, do you need it to store a large amount of information or host several applications or websites? Then look for a dedicated server.
The capacity you need will depend on each specific case, do not hesitate to tell us without obligation what you would need in your case.
Quality of service and availability of a web hosting service
A good online hosting service provides fast and secure servers that allow you to have the tools stored there operational 24/7, without downtime. Can you imagine having your store or factory closed because the servers are down? You would lose money for every minute lost, unthinkable, right? This is the reason why you should take care of this feature.
Web server load times
We all hate waiting for the screen to load when we perform an action on the computer… Keep in mind that the cheapest rates may have higher loading times. These can be reduced either by optimizing the web or application (which usually requires programming) or by purchasing a higher plan with more capacity.
This factor is key for web pages when it comes to positioning in Google since search engines reward fast web pages because they understand that it improves the user’s experience
The difficulty of installation and maintenance of online hosting
The first decision to make here is, do you want to manage it yourself or do you prefer to outsource this part? From MORHE we always offer the second option because from our own experience, you always have to deal with a thousand things in your business and for a slightly higher cost you save yourself from many problems.
If you prefer the first option, a control panel such as CPanel is often provided to make the experience more “friendly”. Even so, you are still working with databases and a mistake can cost you dearly.
Last but not least, how much does web hosting cost?
This usually has a monthly or annual cost facilitating the change between different plans according to needs. The prices usually vary from 5 to 50 euros per month (without maintenance included), this range is due to all the above, it allows you to select one or the other according to your needs.
In the end, for that small cost per month, you have everything described above in a relatively easy way and if you want to forget about any problems you can outsource the maintenance of your servers for a little more per month.
