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In this post, we’ll answer the question “how much does web hosting cost for a small business?” You’ll learn what different web hosting plans include, but more importantly, what they don’t.
Without getting too technical, web hosting is the activity of providing access and storage space for websites.
However, most web hosting solutions don’t come with the additional support that businesses need.
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Opportunity Cost
Let’s say that you want to focus on creating top-notch images and content for your website, but you don’t want to deal with all the technical hassles of managing a website.
Most web hosting options (including free hosting, DIY VPS hosting, and shared hosting) don’t provide hands-on support for their customers. They leave the grunt work of maintaining your website to you.
That means you’re responsible for WordPress and plugin updates, daily backups, integrating Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools, and the list goes on. To do all of this on your own, there’s quite a big learning curve to overcome.
This represents a significant opportunity cost for most businesses that aren’t very knowledgeable about web hosting. Instead of worrying about all this technical stuff, you could be investing that time directly into your business.
Why Managed WordPress Hosting is different
But what if there was a better way? Is it possible to take a hands-off approach with the technical challenges that come with running a website?
The answer may surprise you. Not only is it possible, but it’s also an excellent idea if you’d rather focus on the more important aspects of running your business.
Maintaining a website is a lot of work. There are multiple aspects of website management, including website design, SEO, security, and more. Some of that is taken care of by your hosting provider, but the rest is up to you.
Unless.. you opt for the right kind of WordPress managed hosting.
Some businesses might object to the higher price tag of WordPress managed hosting. But first, you must ask, “what is the true cost of web hosting for small businesses?” Many things that you might expect out of the box are not included in shared hosting plans, which is why choosing a web hosting plan based on price alone isn’t such a good idea!
How much does web hosting cost?
“How much does web hosting cost for a small business” is quite a loaded question, because every small business has different needs and every hosting company charges their own prices for different services.
Instead of giving you specific prices and figures that can change, it’s more useful to understand the different things that you would have to pay for separately if you didn’t have managed WordPress hosting.
For example, if you choose a shared hosting plan, you might end up paying more than a managed hosting plan for everything that you want.
The following 7 additional features are critical for your website’s security and for ranking higher in the search engines. Here’s the breakdown:
2 step authentication
Be sure that no matter who your host is that they offer two-factor authentication. If someone gets your account password they can do all sorts of horrible things like changing your password, deleting your websites, or changing DNS records.
Automatic backups
Automatic backups should be part of a managed WordPress hosting package. Shared hosting backups are typically included but at higher costs. With VPS you have to set up your own backup system as well as VPS snapshots, which all cost extra.
Having multiple options for backup is good so that you don’t have to mess with several different backup plugins, Cpanel, FTP, PHPMyAdmin, etc.
One-click environment
Many managed WordPress hosting providers provide a one-click environment for testing and development purposes. With most web hosting providers you’ll have to copy your website locally, test, then migrate the changes back. This can be time-consuming, and for small businesses time is money.
Customer support
There’s nothing worse than communicating with customer service and feeling like you know more than they do. This should never happen with your WordPress managed hosting provider, but it can happen with shared hosting providers.
How much does web hosting cost for a small business? Part of the answer includes how much support you expect.
In addition, it’s also time-consuming to always be watching your limits with shared hosting. As for DIY VPS, it’s easier to scale but sometimes requires more server knowledge to expand disks, etc.
Managed WordPress hosting usually handles this. If you go over the pre-defined limits they’ll notify you and you can just upgrade with just a click.
Global reach costs more
Managed hosting providers usually have a larger infrastructure. This includes global data centers. So no matter where your customers are located, they can access your site at decent speeds. Shared hosting plans, on the other hand, don’t usually have this feature.
By making sure your website is closer to your visitors and customers, you’ll reduce their network latency, TTFB, and loading times. This will make your visitors happier, and happier visitors is also an SEO benefit!
In case you didn’t know, latency refers to the delay in transmission of data over a network. The further the distance away from your website’s server, the greater the latency.
Content Delivery Network
A CDN is sometimes included in managed WordPress hosting packages. Utilizing a CDN can speed up the rest of your website’s media.
Networking only makes up a small part of your total page load time, but still, every second adds up!
Plan for the future
Many people don’t know this, but when you sign up for a shared hosting plan, it’s not guaranteed to last forever. If you become too much of a burden on their server they may suspend you. You’ll be forced to migrate to a dedicated server. This will cost you both time and money. Time you could have spent on your business instead!
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