Factors to consider when choosing a web hosting provider

There are many different factors to consider when choosing a web host. The most important ones relate to your website's functionality, performance, reliability and security. Each of these can significantly affect how well your site works for your customers and whether it meets your business needs.

Website functionality

The functionality of your website depends on the software and tools it uses. This can affect:

• the range of features your site offers, such as forms, blogs, or e-commerce
• how you update or edit your content
• how complex or interactive your website is

When choosing a hosting provider, make sure they support the applications, scripts or software your website needs - for example, content management systems such as WordPress or Drupal. If you do not have in‑house technical expertise, ask your web designer or internet service provider for advice. You should also follow best practice in web design to keep your site simple, secure and easy to maintain.

Website performance

To perform well, your website needs a fast, stable connection to the internet. The speed and capacity of your host's network (often called the 'backbone') affects how quickly visitors can load your pages. If your connection is too slow or your server is overloaded, pages may take a long time to load or may fail to load at all, especially during busy periods. 

Type of web server

Your choice of web server also affects the performance of your site. You can either go for:

• a dedicated server - where only your site is hosted on the machine
• a shared hosting service - where you share the machine with other sites

Shared hosting can reduce costs, but may slow down your site if other customers use a lot of resources. The server specification - such as processor speed, memory and disk space - is important for how well your site runs. 

Website reliability and uptime

Your website should be available 24/7, especially if it is central to your business. Even with good hosting, some downtime is possible, but many providers offer service level agreements (SLAs) that promise a high level of uptime. When you choose a host, check:

• their typical uptime percentage
• how they respond to outages
• what compensation they offer if the service falls below claimed uptime

If your business relies heavily on your website, you should also plan for contingencies - for example, clear communication channels if your site goes offline.

Website hosting security

Security is an ongoing concern for any device open to the internet. Your hosting provider should take steps to protect your website and data from hackers, fraudsters and other attacks.

Your web host should, at the very least, offer:

• backups and restore points - stored securely away from the main server
• disaster recovery plans - to help you recover your website in case of system failures
• network monitoring - to spot unusual activity and mitigate risks
• firewalls - including other basic intrusion prevention methods
• antivirus and malware scanning and removal
• SSL (secure sockets layer) certificates, if you need to transfer sensitive data such as online payments to and from the server
• some level of management support - most crucially with file management, access and user permissions, logins, applications, software updates, etc

You should also follow wider cyber security best practices to protect your business online.