When new or aspiring website owners choose the best services and providers for their needs, weighing out the pros and cons is an essential part of the decision-making process. Especially when facing critical decisions about where and how to host a business website or application, the simple methodology of creating a list promotes analytic thinking that works at any level. Web hosting is great because it enables site owners to design and display an online presence without having to understand complex processes like how to code or optimize and secure a network. Even so, there are so many services out there that it can be challenging to pinpoint the right one.
The first benefit of web hosting platforms is the surprisingly affordable prices. There is a massive amount of competition in the industry, especially with beginner-friendly shared hosting plans. As a result, customers and site owners can get some pretty incredible deals that are very cost-effective or even free. The great thing about it is that with so many hosting providers wanting to stay competitive in the market, cheap does not mean subpar. This is because providers push to offer extra features, more robust security, better support, faster performance, or more accessible design tools to attract customers. According to Market Research Future, established hosting companies need to continuously innovate and expand their cost-effective product portfolios to survive and gain traction in the industry. Fortunately, people can now choose from a wide range of top-tier hosting services for less than $5 a month.
Performance on web hosting platforms is also a top priority. A web hosting platform’s performance directly impacts the traffic that a site attracts and how many readers companies manage to convert into customers. Research has shown that 1 in 4 visitors will click out of a website if it takes longer than four seconds to load. Rather than having to do everything manually, web hosting platforms employ the expertise of hundreds of system administrators from massive data centers to ensure that their customers’ sites appear as quickly as possible. Providing customers with free access to content delivery networks, which effectively reduces load times by storing files on servers that are geographically closer to them, allows hosts to deploy more modern technologies in their servers.
As mentioned previously, the web hosting industry is not just about providing cost-effective web hosting plans. So, to draw customers in, many hosts have also provided easy-to-use and comprehensive services with free features and tools to cover everything they would want on servers. Customers may easily access the programs and services they want, thanks to a graphical control panel interface and complimentary email accounts, as well as SSL certificates and hundreds of one-click software installations. Once they have all the tools they need to succeed, most hosts have customer support agents available 24/7 if something goes wrong. A good host should offer some support via phone, chat, and email. Those that go above and beyond also offer fast response times, experts, extensive base articles and tutorials.
While there are plenty of benefits, there are also some drawbacks to web hosting platforms. The first is that there is generally no room for growth, especially if people sign up for a shared hosting plan. This means that they are slightly constrained if their website or big idea becomes a big deal. The solution to this is moving from shared servers into more scalable solutions like cloud or VPS hosting. Both plans offer ample resources that can be allocated as needed. Cloud hosting means leveraging an extensive network of multiple servers to share the workload of delivering a website.
In contrast, a virtual private server gives people more control over a much larger piece of a server’s resources. Secondly, while no company is immune from data breaches, there needs to be a very high level of trust from customers whose personal or financial information the host will be storing. Thankfully, the web hosting industry has figured out a solution by employing many of the world’s highest security experts. These people are responsible for keeping an eye out for both emerging threats, promising solutions and safeguards. Moreover, web hosting can get quite costly as a website grows. Nevertheless, calculating how much to spend for web hosting is usually a simple task, especially during the first year of service. The majority of new website owners will choose a shared hosting package that costs less than $5 per month.
Some hosts limit the discounts which they offer in the first year, after which they raise the fees either slightly or substantially. However, as the Internet expands, cloud or VPS services will need to offer more resources. As a result, web hosting rates may become exorbitant and difficult to determine once they have crossed that bridge. This is another instance where doing prior research will pay off in the long term. Comparing web hosting prices will show you where you can find high-quality service without breaking the bank, separating the scammers from the most outstanding hosts.
In the hopes of making enterprise-level website hosting through WordPress available for everyone, Convesio has created a platform that represents a significant milestone from a functionality point of view. This is a first in the web hosting industry, as no other providers offer “Managed WordPress Scaling.” With Convesio’s Docker-based architecture and easy-to-use dashboard, customers can quickly set up a highly scalable WordPress website in minutes, unlike the typical timeframe of a complex VPS setup. Getting started is quite simple: customers can configure Auto Scaling by setting the minimum and the maximum number of Docker containers for their website to run on. Convesio will automatically deploy and remove additional containers depending on the required resources, with a load balancer sharing traffic evenly across each.Furthermore, more advanced users can set custom threshold values that trigger scaling events based on different combinations of CPU, Memory, and PHP Worker usage.
Originally launched in 2019, the third iteration of this platform introduces several other essential updates, including environment selection, database options, more granular performance metrics and logs via the dashboard, and performance improvements. Convesio uses Docker technology to package a highly performant WordPress stack that can be deployed in a matter of seconds, the moment a customer clicks to create a new site. The auto-scaling functionality clones containers to match the number of instances required to handle the increase in load.
The platform was built to deliver a consistently fast experience whatever the load on the server. Convesio works particularly well for the following use cases: eCommerce, eLearning, and online events, online publications, and agencies. Convesio has eliminated the need for complex and costly solutions by offering Enterprise-grade availability and scalability at the click of a button. Customers only pay for extra resources when they are needed resulting in a significant cost saving.
Are you interested in learning more about how Convesio works? You can find out more on LinkedIn.