The lifecycle of a website hosting package

An important part of Argon’s branding process is to determine the current size and intended growth of your business. This information ties in with various visual elements of your identity, but also relates to your web hosting. How, you may ask? Well, it’s simple.

Much to many clients’ surprise, not all hosting packages are created equal. The size of your website, the volume of content stored on the server, the amount of traffic it attracts, the number of email addresses and the complexity of installed plugins all add up. These features and considerations require sufficient resources to ensure a quality hosting experience.

The packages fall into three categories; Shared, VPS (Virtual Private Server) and Dedicated hosting. Let’s start with an analogy.

The budget hosting option.

Imagine you moved into an apartment with a roommate. You can bring your bed, wardrobe, the odd kitchen utensil and maybe even some curtains, but the basic structure is already in place. You can fill the flat with only your essential belongings. The bills and any associated maintenance fees are split, keeping costs low, and there is no need for extra storage space.

This example is Shared Hosting. A fantastic entry level option for SME’s. As the name implies, the hosting server is ‘shared’ with others (often thousands) of sites, dividing resources. Because of this communal arrangement, it only takes one bad ‘roomie’ to compromise the whole system ie. if their website gets hacked yours may too.

Time for a hosting upgrade.

But what happens when you’ve got too much stuff? What on earth are you going to do with two washing machines? Plus, you have guests constantly visiting. It’s time to move into your own place. The next most affordable option is to move next door, still in the same block of flats, but you’ve got room to breathe. The apartment even comes with a balcony, pay-tv and all the mod cons. Plus a cleaner comes every third Wednesday, ace! It’s a pretty sweet set-up, and while it may cost a little more, it’s unquestionably worth the investment.

This example is VPS Hosting. An increase in your online business transactions is fantastic, but it can also mean more visitors, advanced plugins and just an overall need for more space. VPS’s are also substantially less crowded than the ‘Shared Hosting’ option and, as a result, run smarter, faster and more securely.

The Taj Mahal of website hosting.

So you and your partner have decided to get married. Congratulations! And you start to have kids. Mazel tov! Family life is going exceptionally well until you, once again, begin to run out of space. You need to upsize! Life, am I right? You move into the biggest house on the block. You have multiple bedrooms, four bathrooms, a massive backyard, tennis court and a maid to keep order amongst the chaos. You have reached the pinnacle of storage, space and grandeur.

This example is Dedicated Hosting. This package is the crème de la crème of website hosting, with maximum speeds and unparalleled performance. Large national and international companies, with extensive databases and thousands of daily visitors, need to upgrade to this level. But for a vast majority of websites, ‘VPS Hosting’ should suffice.

So where should you start?

During the initial briefing stage, we gauge any specific requirements and intended website traffic, then advise on which hosting package best suits your needs.

Are you still unsure on website hosting in general? You’ll be able to find an in-depth explanation on all things ‘hosting’ here.