I have been developing websites for entrepreneurs and small business owners for over 25 years. I know better than anyone that the key to a successful website starts with the right hosting. In this article, I will cover how much it costs to host a website. I’ll also explain what to look for as you choose your hosting company.
Websites are no longer just a set-and-forget project.
To be successful, you will need to continuously update your site to reflect the latest developments in your business and industry.
The hosting options available for setting up a website are varied, and there are many factors to consider when deciding which is right for you. Let’s walk through the steps.
Step 1: Define your needs
To begin, you will need to decide on the type of website you need. Will it be a:
- Micro one-page website?
- Website with features such as service or product listings, a blog, videos, social media integration, online store and contact forms?
Your website should be designed in a way that it provides all the information about your company and its products or services in a clear and concise way.
Remember, this site is the online home for your company. It can help you not only generate leads but turn those leads into paying customers.
Step 2: Answer a few questions
Now that you know the features you would like as part of your company's website, we need to look at other factors:
- Does the hosting company support the software used to set up your website? (e.g. Wordpress, Drupal, Joomla)
Related: How to know if your business needs managed WordPress hosting
- What options are available for bandwidth? For example, a website with many images and videos may require additional bandwidth to keep your pages loading quickly.
- Does the hosting plan give you enough data storage for your website content? Can the storage space be increased as your website grows?
- What types of security features are available and are they included or do they cost extra? For example, a security feature like an SSL certificate may be included in some hosting plans, whereas others may charge a yearly fee for this.
- Is the hosting company reliable? Do they offer a service guarantee? Many hosting companies offer a 99% uptime guarantee. The company you choose needs to be reliable and provide quality services. Remember, if your hosting company fails, your business website may never be seen.
- What type of support does the hosting company offer? It can be one of the most critical factors to look at when choosing a hosting company. Do they offer 24/7 support? How easy is it to reach their support? Do they have live chat, phone support or just a support email address?
Step 3: Look at the types of hosting
Hosting companies offer many different hosting plans, from very low-cost shared hosting to more costly dedicated servers.
Most small businesses don't need their own server to host their website.
Let's look at the three most popular hosting options. These are web hosting, VPS (virtual private server) hosting and cloud hosting.
Web hosting
Web hosting uses a shared server to store web pages, images, videos, and other content for a number of websites. The main benefit is this type of hosting is relatively low cost and easy to set up. This hosting will likely work for a startup or small business.
Tip: All annual Web Hosting plans from GoDaddy come with a free domain offer.
VPS
This type of hosting uses one server that is divided into smaller virtual servers. The plan will include one of these smaller virtual servers for you to set up your website on.
Cloud-based web hosting
Often called cloud hosting for short, this option takes the idea behind web hosting and VPS and expands it with increased processing power and storage. Cloud hosting uses multiple servers at the same time to help balance the load and increase the performance of your website.
Which you choose depends on what type of website you want to create. For a micro site or small company website, the low-cost web host plan should work.
However, if you have an eCommerce site or need extra storage space or bandwidth, you may want to consider going with VPS or cloud hosting.
Will your website be storing and offering a large number of videos to your site visitors to watch? For this type of site, it would be best if you considered cloud hosting with the added performance.
How much does it cost to host a website?
So now that you've thought about what you want and need, how much will it actually cost to host your website?
There isn't one price for hosting. As shown on GoDaddy’s hosting landing page above, there are many price points depend on the size of the website, hosting features, and volume of traffic. GoDaddy also offers a cheap hosting plan.
It is best to compare hosting companies and the products and services they offer.
Many hosting companies let you increase your hosting plan as your company's website grows. This can be very helpful if you are unsure of the amount of storage space and bandwidth your site will need.
Finding the right web hosting provider
Doing a Google search you will find numerous hosting companies around the world. While they all host websites, they're not all equal.
There are a few key points to keep in mind when looking for a web hosting provider:
- Is the hosting company reputable?
- If they have an uptime guarantee, how much is it?
- Do they offer easy access to customer support?
In closing, choosing hosting providers is not a task to be taken lightly. How well your business website performs depends on this choice.
Remember when picking a provider, they need to provide reliable customer service, be accessible and responsive, have a good reputation, offer 24/7 technical support, and offer high-quality servers.
The information in this post was accurate as of 23 May 2022. Check GoDaddy’s website for the latest hosting prices.
