How to choose a web host

woman sitting on living room floor home using laptop, working from home — (Image credit: 10'000 Hours)

Does your business have a website? The answer is “no” at more than one in five small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the UK, according to a recent report, but two-thirds of those SMEs felt that setting up a website would be good for business.

That doesn’t necessarily mean launching an e-commerce channel. Merely having an online presence can boost your brand and enhance your company’s credibility. In that context, web-hosting firms have become hugely important. These are the businesses that will provide you with the internet space you need for your website, and ensure it is accessible to internet users.

Web hosts can support you with everything from registering a domain name to ensuring your site is safe and secure, but above all, they provide the digital real estate that your business will inhabit online.

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Web host needs to consider

To make the right choice, you will need to think carefully about what your business needs from a web host, which will really depend on what you’re hoping to do – and achieve – with your website.

At one end of the spectrum, some firms simply want a very basic online presence: a way to tell the world that they exist and what they do. At the other, businesses have extensive digital strategies. They see their internet site as a crucial part of their value proposition, spending a great deal of time creating new content and often selling their products and services online. Clearly, businesses in the latter camp are going to need a web host capable of supporting all those activities, while those in the former require something much more basic.

But there are other factors too. You certainly should not only look at price, even if you want a simple service. One question is what type of web hosting service to go for. The cheapest option is typically shared hosting, where your site will sit on a server alongside all the other sites your host works with. These arrangements can work well, but there is a risk that if all the sites on the server attract large numbers of visitors, response times will be slow. Your customers may become frustrated with the speed of your site.

For this reason, virtual private servers (VPSs) are increasingly popular with SMEs. You’re effectively getting your own server rather than having to share space. That costs a little more, but should provide faster and higher quality internet performance.

Another issue is support. How helpful will the host be if you have a problem, and what are its customer service arrangements? If you want access to a phone line with a human being manning it, for example, make sure this is an option. Reading reviews of web hosts from other SMEs is one way to compare customer service.

Security and reliability are also crucial considerations. Your web host should offer “secure sockets layer” (SSL) functionality to keep your customers’ private information safe. And check what its backup plans are in the event of an outage. If your site goes down, how will the web host get you back up and running quickly, with no loss of your data or content? No single web host will be best for all SMEs. But PCMag UK highlights Hostwinds, Accuweb Hosting and A2Hosting as worth considering. Bluehost, InMotion and HostGator have also won plaudits from advisers.

This article was first published in MoneyWeek's magazine. Enjoy exclusive early access to news, opinion and analysis from our team of financial experts with a MoneyWeek subscription.

David Prosser is a regular MoneyWeek columnist, writing on small business and entrepreneurship, as well as pensions and other forms of tax-efficient savings and investments. David has been a financial journalist for almost 30 years, specialising initially in personal finance, and then in broader business coverage. He has worked for national newspaper groups including The Financial Times, The Guardian and Observer, Express Newspapers and, most recently, The Independent, where he served for more than three years as business editor.