Which hosting suits me best?

Many customers ask us which type of hosting is best for their website. We are happy to share our answers to the most frequently asked questions about hosting and the technical considerations when choosing a server.

Most CMS for general applications can be operated on practically any generic hosting solution. The communities usually recommend various providers with whom they have had good experiences in the past or with whom they have entered into partnerships. In addition, many hosts offer specific functionalities for individual CMSs, which simplify the deployment and maintenance of the website.

We examine the various options and weigh up their respective advantages and disadvantages together with you.

Choosing a good host can have a positive impact on both the performance and security of your website.

In a shared hosting environment, for example, there is a risk that one of your “neighbors” will have high traffic peaks and thus affect the performance of your website. A single website rarely causes noticeable disruptions, but a shared hosting environment can be shared by a few hundred websites. However, if you run a static website without complex user interactions or server-side functionalities, you don’t need to worry too much about this.

Another possible disadvantage of shared hosting solutions is longer response times in the event of potential security vulnerabilities.

Important factors that you should consider when choosing your host are availability, supported functionalities and the quality of support. Check whether the latest versions of PHP and MySQL are used and updated, whether the provider takes care of security gaps at the host level, and whether support is available via several channels. Also, find out how the community rates different providers.

If you consider the uninterrupted operation of your website to be business-critical, we recommend investing in virtual or physical dedicated hosting.

You shouldn’t even ask yourself this question. The short answer is: you want your infrastructure to always be protected against the latest threats – and that’s what managed hosting is all about. A high-quality solution also includes support for migration, scaling and monitoring. Most providers also offer backups and disaster recovery.

The total cost of ownership (TCO) may seem higher at first, but you won’t have to pay another provider to look after your servers. In the end, you will have lower expenses.

Everyone is talking about the cloud these days, and it’s quite possible that cloud-based hosting is the best choice for you. Cloud solutions offer greater resilience and better scalability than traditional hosting. But first, consider whether you really need this.

In the cloud, your data is distributed across different servers. If one of them fails, the others take over its load so that no data is lost and the website remains accessible.

The most important selling point for cloud solutions is scalability. Resources can be scaled horizontally very quickly and you get additional server space almost immediately. If your website traffic is highly volatile, you should consider cloud hosting. Your provider will take care of the traffic spikes, and you’ll never be caught on the wrong foot if your business picks up spectacularly overnight. Keep in mind, however, that cloud hosting is more complex than traditional solutions and only makes sense for larger projects.

With standard hosting, you know in advance how much you will pay. In the cloud, on the other hand, you are charged for the exact amount of resources you use. If you use horizontal scaling options efficiently, cloud-based hosting is usually cheaper. However, if you need more resources than you had planned for, your bill may be higher than expected.

Due to virtualization, cloud hosting was clearly slower than conventional solutions in the beginning. This is no longer the case. But don’t choose cloud hosting because you’re hoping for faster speeds. The cloud only offers clear advantages with high loads.

There is nothing to be said against a public cloud, unless you manage very sensitive data or have such specific needs that a generic offering is not sufficient. This may be the case for financial or healthcare services, for example, or for very complex websites.

Even if you opt for a private cloud, you can obtain additional resources from a public cloud provider, for example, to absorb traffic peaks.

The Drupal community points to several providers who have committed to their project. Similarly, the WordPress community works with four major hosting partners that they consider to be reliable.

There are also the big providers such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure or Google Cloud Platform and a number of newcomers such as DigitalOcean or Cyon. They all have their own advantages and disadvantages.

Shared hosting is like sharing a flat with a few flatmates. This may suit you if you are still studying. But as soon as you have a job, it will become more important for you to sleep well at night.

You will move out and rent your own apartment – similar to a virtual private server. Although you will no longer be woken up at random by your flatmates, the apartment is still not yours and you are not allowed to change everything to suit your taste.

Later on, you may want to own an apartment that you can furnish and decorate exactly as you like.

After the purchase, you will consider what would happen in the event of a fire, earthquake or other disaster. To protect yourself against these potential dangers, you will take out insurance. Of course, you could save yourself the cost, and the risk of your home burning down is actually small. But do you really want to take the risk?

You will also be worried about burglars. Now you could install security cameras and watch your own home, but that takes time and ultimately you are not the right person for the job. Instead, you will hire a security company to monitor your home in your absence.

Both scenarios are in line with what managed hosting can offer you. Your decision will ultimately depend on what your budget is, how critical the website is to your business, what functionality it includes, and how much flexibility you need.

We have worked with numerous hosting providers over the years. In our opinion, Cyon for smaller WordPress projects, Hetzner for fully customizable servers and nine.ch for our larger customers in Switzerland who are looking for a high-end solution offer excellent services in terms of support, performance and customer feedback.

Of course, cost is also an important factor. We recommend that you consult us so that we can work with you to determine the best cost-benefit ratio and find the right hosting for your website.