6 Of The Best Website Hosting Companies For Small Businesses + Nonprofits
The importance of having an online presence is exceptionally high coming into 2023. Does your business show up online? If your business isn’t sure how to build an online presence, now is the perfect time to leverage an online business strategy. We’re sharing the basics of choosing a website host and the best website hosting companies for small business owners, so you can understand and choose the best website host for your small business.
Finding a host can commonly be confusing when you aren’t sure exactly what your business will need for your website to be effective. Or maybe you already have a website but are unhappy with you’re existing host. This blog will help you understand what a website host is and what to look for when picking a host.
What is a website host, and what does it do?
A website host is a server that holds all the audio, video, documents, graphics, and images for your website. Not only does your host hold all your files it also allows you to easily access your website, building tools, databases, and your email accounts.
Many hosts offer a control panel (cPanel) that allows you to see how much storage you have used and gives easy access to your website. The cPanel keeps everything in one place and is extremely convenient for new businesses. While everything is here and easy to access one thing to remember with the cPanel, is this does not update all your resources, this is something you must do on your own or with managed hosting. Managed hosting adds extra cost but is almost like your very own IT department dedicated to your website. Managed hosting takes care of your site’s firewall, updates, and any maintenance needed by your site.
How do I get started with a website?
- Register a domain: This is purchased from a domain name registrar like Bluehost, Squarespace, GoDaddy, or Google Domain, just to name a few. Next, you pick a unique name to simplify people remembering your IP address. It’s much easier to remember “KMDmarketingdesign.com” than “247.180.251.155,” for example. The domain is the same no matter who you buy it from, but the pricing is different depending on features and add-ons.
- Nameservers (DNS): The nameserver is useful for connecting specific URLs with the correct IP address of the site’s server. Many times the same company will provide both your registrar and DNS services, but you can choose to go with a different DNS if you want. Some common ones are Cloudflare, Google Public DNS, Quad9, and OpenDNS to name a few.
- Web hosting: The actual files that make up the website reside in a server maintained by your web hosting company. Again, this can be the same company as your registrar and DNS server, or you can use a different one for this part of the process.
Types of Web Hosting for Small Businesses
We forget that all websites may do the same thing, but they don’t all do it the same way. You need a host to have the capacity of current usage and can grow with your business. How do you choose a web host that can grow with future traffic expectations? By reviewing the critical differences in the types of web hosting and servers that companies provide—distinctions will affect your site’s capacity and price rates.
Shared web hosting
What’s shared web hosting? Basically, you share server space with other websites using the same web host. You’re also sharing costs, which makes shared hosting an inexpensive option. It’s a good starter choice for sites not expecting large traffic, but there are downsides. If another site sharing the server attracts heavy usage (or worse, gets hacked), it’ll affect your site’s performance and potentially take down your website until usage normalizes. Or, if your site generates increased traffic, you could be charged extra.
Dedicated web hosting
While shared hosting is cost-effective for small businesses it is limited in disc space and bandwidth. Whereas a dedicated web host assigns a server to your business exclusively—and it’s usually more expensive. However, the trade-off would be worth it if your site generates significant traffic, or you expect it to in the future. With dedicated hosting, you may also have to take care of your own maintenance, unless you upgrade to managed hosting (another added expense).
Anyone familiar with finding a home should see that searching for a website hosting service presents almost too many choices.
Managed hosting
Although managed and dedicated web host companies do almost entirely the same thing. The only difference is that with managed hosting, the company you work with will handle the maintenance of your site. If you don’t want to hire a technical developer to manage the maintenance of your website, paying extra for managed hosting may be worth the additional cost.
VPS web hosting
Somewhere between shared and dedicated hosting in price and performance is virtual private server (VPS) hosting. VPS hosting replicates a dedicated server within a partitioned shared server, with its own operating system, storage, RAM, and data transfers for a more stable site efficiency. While VPS is still a form of shared web hosting, it’s more expensive—but can cost half as much as dedicated hosting.
Cloud web hosting
Cloud web hosting is another version of VPS hosting, depending on which provider you ask. With cloud hosting, instead of relying on a single server, your site is supported across a network of servers acting as a system. With the heavy lifting spread over a cloud network of servers, reliable uptime is increased (as is regional load-time speed) and more safeguards against site cyberattacks are in place.
What to look for when picking a host
Along with choosing a domain name and site design, acquiring web hosting is one of the three major components involved in building your website. Some website builders or e-commerce platforms will include hosting as part of their service, whereas others will require that you find your own web hosting platform.
In essence, as you search for the best hosting site for your small business, you’ll want to remember that although the web hosting company you choose may not change your domain name or how your website looks, it will determine how quickly your site loads and uptime. Keeping your website online is an important tool for gaining new customers and clients. If your website is down, several people can look right over you without reaching you. It is also important to keep existing customers happy and able to reach you at all times.
In order to choose the best web hosting company for your small business, let’s break down our list of the best web hosting companies:
6 Of The Best Website Hosting Companies For Small Businesses
WP Engine: Easiest To Use
Flywheel: Best Support and Performance
Blue Host: Best Inexpensive Hosting, WordPress Hosting
Wix: Best Beginner-Friendly Hosting
HostGator: Best Shared Hosting
Every business online should prioritize its website strategy. It takes time to see results, but it can result in more people finding your business. While there are not any two businesses that have the same exact requirements when starting a website, the host helps accommodate what is needed for you by keeping all your content in one place. One business may need a hosting manager to help make sure that the website is up and running with no errors and another business is willing to take the time to manage this on its own. Whatever your needs are there is a host out there that will work best for you and your business.
Partnering with external marketing firms can be so impactful to get the talent, access, and expertise necessary to fully leverage your website. The key is to maintain open communication with them, so it is important that you choose to partner with businesses with who you feel comfortable, and who act with transparency so that you can work together to continuously refine and improve your site. Want to learn more about ensuring you are choosing the best website hosting company for your small business, fill out our quick contact form. We would love to hear more about your current website challenges.
Disclaimer
At KMDmarketingdesisgn.com, our research is meant to offer general product and service recommendations. We don’t guarantee that our suggestions will work best for each individual or business, so consider your unique needs when choosing products and services.
