Budget or premium hosting? Which is right for me

Whether you use your website for the bulk of your sales or as for an information page, having an online presence is an essential part of any business.

As well as having a website to host, you may also have a remote desktop facility or specialised software for your customers or staff. All of which require hosting. When searching for a hosting provider, you will notice a huge difference between the budget hosting companies and the premium. There is a wide range in cost, products, and support levels, so you need to pick the one that is right for you. 

Let’s look at the differences and benefits of using both budge and premium providers to help you decide.

Type of hosting

Budget hosting companies often sell you shared hosting. Shared hosting is when you share a server with others. So hundreds of customers are all using the same pool of resources. To ensure that every business gets its fair share of resources, every customer will have a limit on the total amount of server resources they can use,

Shared hosting is the perfect solution for startups with simple hosting requirements, like companies with brochure sites or blog sites, because it’s simple to set up and one of the cheapest options – which is ideal for a business on a tight budget. But it isn’t suitable if you have bespoke requirements or high volume traffic.

Budget hosting companies may offer other hosting solutions; however, they also usually involve sharing with other customers. 

With premium hosting companies, you will have more options. For example, at CWCS, you can choose from dedicated servers, public and private cloud, VPS solutions and colocation. All of these options also have a selection of plans designed to suit every business’s needs, and if you need a bespoke solution, we can also put that together for you. 

Specification and scalability 

Budget Hosting companies can provide the server specification you need for a low price, but there are a few things to be aware of. 

The hosting company governs shared Hosting specs, and in the majority of cases, you cannot amend the set specifications nor scale them. If you needed something with higher resources, it would typically mean migrating to a different plan if a suitable plan is available. Or even migrating to your own server. So make sure you know how easy the process of scaling up in the future will be. Will the hosting company you have chosen offer you a free migration service in the future? Or will you have to pay a leaving fee? 

With a premium solution, you can pick the desired specification using enterprise-grade hardware and scale the resources on-demand or have more capacity in the hardware for growth.

Cost

Cost is one of the most important deciding factors for businesses, but as the old saying goes, you get what you pay for. 

Startups and small businesses are often on a tighter budget than larger, more established companies, so a cheap solution is often the way to go, especially if your hosting requirements are straightforward.  

But if keeping your costs low is a priority, ensure you read the T&Cs carefully to see what services are included in your hosting package. A lot of companies get caught out by picking plans which look like a good deal only to find that there are a lot of additional charges which significantly raise the price. 

One of the benefits of using a premium hosting provider is that their packages and server management plans often include monitoring, backups, server packages and 24/7 support, and not as additional extras. So you can rest easy knowing that your hosting is being taken care of.  

Service Levels

With budget hosting providers, you may get the hardware you want, but you might not get an SLA. And, if there are any SLAs with your budget hosting, these are usually limited to uptime.

Premium hosting companies usually have a financially backed SLA for support levels, an uptime guarantee and protection against hardware failure. 

Support

Everyone needs a bit of hosting support sometimes, so you need to pick a provider you trust to be there for you. 

Budget hosting company’s support levels can range from none to Twitter support to limited phone support for selected issues.

Whereas premium hosting providers offer 24/7/365 support, multiple ways to get in touch with your provider, and a dedicated account manager who clearly understands your business operations and objectives in many cases.

The amount of support you need is up to you, but how much do you stand to lose if your site is down for a prolonged period? Without 24/7 support, your site could be downtime for several hours. 

Summary

There are many factors to consider when deciding between budget hosting or premium hosting providers. 

If you are just starting and looking for a quick, simple and cheap solution, then budget hosting might be right for you. But make sure you know how to upgrade to premium hosting when the time comes. Also, stay informed about different hosting types, packages and solutions, so you know what to ask for when you need to scale up. 

It’s important to consider all of these points and judge them against the needs of your business. To start, work out the minimum requirements for your business hosting to be a success, along with a “wish list” of features you would like and work backwards from there to find the best hosting provider. 

To find out what the best hosting plan is for your business, get a quote or ask for some advice, contact our team at CWCS today.