Hosting is what your website lives on.

It can be simply explained as a computer that is always constantly on, that then keeps your website visible on the web. As long as the server is on/up, the website is available for customers to see.

Having the correct hosting is particularly important for ecommerce websites, as it will have an effect on how quickly customers can access and navigate your website, and each extra second of load time on an ecommerce website has a direct effect on your bottom line.

As Magento is a highly customisable ecommerce system with a large range of tools, it can make it demanding on the resources it needs from a hosting solution, making it an important/careful consideration when choosing the right hosting option.

We’ll look at the different options and give examples of where they would be the best Magento hosting solution.

Shared hosting

Shared hosting is when a server hosts multiple websites, they are all using/sharing the same resources. How many websites are on a single server, will depend on the service provider.

Shared hosting is normally one of the lowest cost options for Magento hosting. However, because your website will be sharing its hosting with other websites, it can mean when that if a website gets a surge in traffic, it will require more resources, pulling them from the other websites on the server, causing the other websites to slow down.

Because Magento can be heavy on resources to work, we can only advise this solution for websites that receive a very small amount of traffic.

VPS hosting

Virtual Private Servers (VPS) look similar to shared hosting, in that is a single server that hosts multiple websites.

The main difference is that the uses a virtual machine to create separation between the websites and better balance the server. This offers all the websites better stability than standard shared hosting, as it guarantees that no site can exceed its given limit.

This solution is best for small websites, with a small, but steady stream of traffic, where the added reliability and stability is needed.

Cloud hosting

Cloud hosting is an infrastructure of multiple servers working together to provide a cloud hosting solution. It also provides a high degree of flexibility, being able to tailor what resources you use ​​allowing for infinite scalability. Some examples would be such as [Amazon Web services (AWS) hosting] and Google Cloud web hosting.

Certain cloud hosting solutions, have the ability to adapt based on the resources it needs, for example, if you get a surge of traffic from a marketing campaign that goes beyond your normal set up, it can automatically adapt the resources to cope with the extra demand, without your customers ever noticing. Due to this flexibility in having control over the amount of resources the website uses, you can expect it to deliver fast performance.

Ideal for those with the budget to do so, especially if they see have high fluctuation in traffic.

Dedicated hosting

Dedicated hosting is a server that is dedicated to hosting a single website. This can be customised to the requirements of the website’s usage, this includes both the hardware (RAM, processors etc.) and the software (operating system).

Because the server is dedicated to running only one website, you won’t experience the resource issues you see with shared and VPS hosting.

Ideal for those who need the reliability of their website staying up.

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The next consideration, after you have decided what type of hosting you need is who is going to manage the hosting, there are 2 choices:

Unmanaged hosting

Unmanaged hosting is where you take care of the hosting yourself. You have full control over the server. While this does give you more control over everything, it also means that you need to do the upkeep and maintenance of the server. Any problems and issues that may come up will need to be handled by you, which, if you are not familiar

You are the owner of the infrastructure, you have full control over all processes, but at the same time. You are entirely responsible for the maintenance of your Magento website, and make sure it is always accessible.

Managed hosting

Managed hosting is where a web/hosting company looks after the servers for you. This will include:

• Hardware configuration

• Software set up

• Administration

• Management

• Support

If a problem were to arise, the hosting company would be able to react and fix the problem, allowing you to concentrate on your business.

What to for in a Magento hosting provider

• Magento hosting with a reliable up time.

• We take care of the technical work for you.

• You have a single point of contact for technical queries.

• A team that can manage both your website and hosting needs.

• Secure & PCI Compliant

• Can scale your hosting as you grow.

We are a experienced Magento Agency, working with brands both large and small. If you need any help with your Magento Store, get in touch with us today!