How to choose the right hosting for your website?

When creating a website, few people think about where this site will be located. However, high-quality hosting for a website plays a very important role.

Choosing a hosting is an important step for launching a new website. Every Internet resource needs a stable foundation that can ensure its uninterrupted operation. Ignorance of the key criteria for choosing a hosting often leads to the choice of unreliable hosting and, as a result, problems (instability of the server, etc.), the solution of which reaches a dead end.

First, let’s clarify what “Domain” and “Hosting” are, because Sometimes novice users confuse these concepts. In simple, accessible language:

• Domain Name - this is the name of the site, the link through which it will be searched and seen by users and search engines.
• Hosting - this is the place on a remote server where your website (code and database) will be located and to which your domain will be linked so that all this will be available on the Internet for visitors.

There are free and paid hosting, expensive and cheaper, as well as different types of hosting servers. Here we will help the average person understand what is what and which option is best suited for your project.

Below is our brief instruction and life hacks, secrets and pitfalls that are important for you to know in order to choose the optimal hosting for your project.

1. Free hosting or paid?

To decide once and for all which hosting to use, paid or free, think about why you are creating your website.

If you just want to try your hand at creating a website for yourself, your family or friends, then you can use free hosting. If you have an interesting idea for creating a web project or are making a website for your business, then you definitely need to use paid hosting for the site.

Let us briefly explain the main disadvantages of free hosting.

1. The hosting provider does not guarantee the safety of your website.
2. Most likely, advertising from your hosting provider will be displayed on all pages of your site.
3. Slow and/or unstable operation of the hosting server and, as a result, your website.

The free hosting provider is not responsible for anything and does not guarantee the safety of your site. At any time, your site may be completely or partially destroyed or become unavailable. And you won’t even be able to make any claims against it, since you are not its owner. Since you do not pay money, it means that you will pay in another way, for example, advertising of the hosting provider will be placed on the pages of your site. Why do you need someone else’s advertising on a project in which you invest your strength, soul and money.

Free hosting may not have the technical capabilities sufficient for the normal functioning of your website.

2. What type of hosting should I choose and what tariff?

There are 5 main types of hosting servers:

1. Virtual server/hosting (regular hosting).
2. Virtual dedicated server (VPS, VDS).
3. Dedicated server.
4. Physical hosting or Collocation.
5. Cloud hosting.

The server will “pull” almost any load, except for very large service sites like facebook.com, rozetka.ua, booking.com or auto.ria.com, which, with millions of traffic, require almost an entire data center to operate.

The choice of hosting server type depends on the scale of the project—functional load and traffic. Based on this, it is often recommended:

• For small projects (up to 30 thousand visitors per month): regular hosting or as it is also called a virtual server is enough. This server assumes the use of shared disk space, software, and bandwidth by all sites that are located on it. Problems that arise with the server are resolved by the hoster's support service. A virtual server is most suitable for sites that do not require a lot of space to host information. As a rule, this type of hosting is optimal for those who are planning a small startup or business card website. It is inexpensive and easily copes with small sites, cheap and, if necessary, the hoster can help in setting it up and solving hosting problems;
• For medium projects (from 30 thousand to 200-300 thousand visitors per month, depending on the functionality of the site): you need a virtual dedicated server (VPS, VDS server). This is a dedicated space on the server, which can also host websites of other clients of the hosting provider. VPS works faster than regular hosting and copes with significantly larger loads of functionality and traffic; its configuration and administration is carried out by the client’s developers, not the hoster. Therefore, if something stops working correctly on your server (except for the performance of your server), for example, server mail, then in most cases the hoster’s technical support will not be able to help you;
• For large projects (more than 200-300 thousand site visitors per month): If the project has reached a truly impressive scale and the traffic amounts to hundreds of thousands or even more than a million, then VPS, VDS will no longer be enough and then use one of the options:
• Dedicated server: in this case, the client is given a completely separate physical server. It is more flexible than shared hosting; the company has full control over the server, incl. selection of operating system, hardware, etc. It is often offered by hosters and is sufficient.
• Physical hosting or Collocation: The client places his own server on the hosting provider's site. The performing company ensures the connection of the server in its data center, its uninterrupted operation, technical support and security of site data. In this case, all server resources work for a specific web project. It is also possible to use any software and run several projects at the same time. Often used in projects with traffic of more than 1 million visitors per month. This service is especially convenient if the server is located abroad (both for the purpose of entering a new market and reducing risks) in order to optimize the costs of its support;
• Cloud hosting: In cloud hosting, servers are combined into a cluster. Using multiple servers expands the site's capabilities and increases its power potential. Also, the presence of several active servers is a safety net for the client. If one server fails, the other will continue working. Cloud hosting is characterized by the flexibility of allocated resources. Their volume may vary depending on the load. At the same time, payment for cloud hosting services depends on the power consumption, so you don’t have to waste time choosing or changing a tariff.

  These are good options for large projects such as large e-commerce sites, marketplaces, web services and platforms.

Regarding the choice of tariff, it is worth noting one key aspect:

As the project grows within the service, you can increase the hosting tariff, which is done after payment by the hoster in a couple of clicks and after rebooting the server, more resources will be available to you, which is often done within 30 minutes and does not require manual transfer of the transfer site. But if/when the project grows and regular hosting is no longer enough and you need to use another type (for example, VPS), then for this purpose the site is transferred by technical specialists. Therefore, the main task is to determine the optimal service.

3. Does hosting matter? Adequate price for reliable hosting

Don't choose the cheapest one. A high-quality technical solution cannot be cheap, but the cost of reliable hosting is low and amounts to hundreds, rarely more than a thousand per month, and the risk of losses in the case of cheap or free hosting is high, so choose proven paid hosting with good reviews and high positions in the ratings.

We work with the best hosters in Ukraine according to many ratings (included in the Top 3 in Ukraine) - HostPro and hosting Ukraine and recommend them for our projects in Ukraine.

Why we use and recommend them:

• "Price quality": the cost is not high, but optimal and is based on the quality and reliability of the hardware (servers) and support;
• Stable server operation: modern equipment and good tech. maintenance that allows you to avoid failures and downtime of the site when it is unavailable on the network due to unstable server operation, and as a result, loss of sales;
• Wide range of tools and user-friendly interface: availability of technical functions, convenient and understandable settings in the hosting panel, necessary to implement the project’s tasks;
• Quality support: quick and qualified answers from those. support allows you to quickly solve problems.

All this ensures the smoothest operation of the site and quick setup and operation of its panel. Therefore, if our client agrees to be hosted on one of these recommended reliable and convenient hostings, then the transfer of the developed website is carried out free of charge within the project budget, but if he has his own hosting, then such work is performed for an additional fee depending on the chosen hosting, i.e. To. the process of transferring and setting up on other hosting sites is often more labor-intensive.

After choosing a hoster, the next procedure is simple and clear - you sequentially fill out the form fields, which may vary slightly depending on the hoster, and pay for hosting. Fill out only the required form fields; you can fill out optional fields at your discretion. If the address field does not require the office/premises number to be indicated, then it is better not to indicate it.

If you have any questions, you can simply contact the support of the selected hosting and they will help you quickly resolve all your issues with simple instructions.

4. Where to choose server location?

The closer the server is geographically to the target market, the higher the site loading speed, which indirectly affects conversions, because According to Google estimates, an acceleration of 1 second of work gives an increase in conversion by +26,2% to 47,8%.

Accordingly, if the market for your website is Ukraine, then when placing a server abroad, the speed will be lower than when placing it in Ukraine. And at the same time, the issue of geographical placement of servers has a second side for large projects - security.

For large-scale projects, for security reasons, it is recommended to host the site on servers abroad, for example, in Europe or the USA. In this case, the loading speed will be slightly lower, maybe by tenths of a second, but it could be more or less, no one can say for sure, because... it depends on a number of parameters, you need to test. In any case, the server has a free trial period and, if necessary, if the loading speed is low/unsatisfactory, you can transfer it to another one that will be geographically closer. But if the security issue is relevant, then a slight drop in speed can be compensated by increasing the server power, setting it up, or optimizing the speed of the site itself.

If your project is at the first stage of development, and the target market is Ukraine, then feel free to choose server location in Ukraine, because as the project grows, if desired, you can always transfer it to a server with a different geographical location.

5. Should the domain be purchased from the same hosting? Where to buy a domain?

It is always more convenient and simpler when the domain is purchased from the same hoster as the site hosting, then there is no additional payment required when transferring to hosting with the client’s domain. Because if on different hostings, then you will need to transfer the domain to the hosting. But in general, the procedure is not complicated and any developer can do it for a small fee.

If you have a team of developers, then domains can be purchased slightly cheaper at TheHost.

If your domain is purchased on the same hosting, then its purchase must be made under the same account so that it is associated with the hosting. If on another hosting, then similar to the procedure for purchasing hosting, you register on the hosting on which you buy a domain, fill out the form fields sequentially and pay for it. The forms on each hosting are slightly different, but in general they are quite simple and there should be no difficulties, and if you have questions, you can always contact the developer or hoster. You only need to fill out the required form fields; it doesn’t matter if you have any difficulties filling out the optional fields.

More details about how to choose the right domain that will help the development of your website We will tell you in one of our next articles.

6. Who should buy hosting and domain? Or is “hosting and domain as a gift” from the developer a good solution or a trap?

Despite the fact that many developers, mainly in the budget segment, trying to sell website development use such a “cheap trick” as “domain and hosting as a gift”, which at first glance may seem very attractive to clients, in fact the cost of a domain and hosting is very insignificant and ranges from less than 1% to several percent of the budget of an average project (from hundreds of hryvnias to thousands). And this manipulation (gift/free) is designed to remove the emphasis from the main thing - the quality of the site.

At the same time, it is important that the client, as the owner of the site, must register the domain and hosting in his name for the safety of the project, so that he is the main owner of the account, which guarantees his further freedom in choosing developers who will be involved in the development - modifications and promotion of the project.

So, in some cases, if a domain and hosting as a gift means that the developer will register them in his own name, it may mean that the client will be tied in the future to this developer in matters of service and project management, which is not desirable. Unfortunately, in some cases such dishonesty occurs. And the process of transferring rights to a domain and hosting account is also quite time-consuming.

Yes, there are cases when the developer simply means that he will pay for the first period, often for a domain this is a year, and for hosting a month. But, as a rule, in these cases, not the best hosting is used, which may experience failures more often than the ones we recommend, which means that the site is likely to be unavailable for some time, which negatively affects search engine rankings.

Therefore, the domain and hosting must definitely be purchased and registered in your name. Don't fall for such tricks “free cheese is only in a mousetrap”.

If you need to choose hosting and a domain, then, despite its apparent simplicity, this task must be approached responsibly, since this, indirectly through the speed of its operation, can ultimately affect the return on investment in website promotion - because speed affects traffic through Google ranking factors and conversion, because... every second downgrade results in an average -27% reduction in conversions, and a clear, simple, short domain will help your brand be remembered.

Google and visitors love fast and stable websites.

We will help not only to develop a high-quality website, but also to select the optimal hosting, its type and tariff for high speed of the site, as well as the domain, which determines whether it will be memorable and convenient for your users to enter, as well as some aspects of SEO depending on the region of promotion.

I want a stable website