Learn how to find the right Magento hosting for your store
A product assortment and website design contribute to the store’s success, but store owners often overlook the fact that they need a good hosting provider, a company they pay to host the website, to make certain that the store is functioning as intended.
A quality hosting can be described by the three adjectives starting with ’S’: speed, security, and support. Today hosting service prices range from a few dollars per month to thousands of dollars, and available services vary from provider to provider.
Large stores should be extremely cautious when selecting a hosting provider. A mistake may cause massive losses for the business. Having been working with Magento for over a decade, we know for sure how to choose a provider for a large Magento store.
In this article, we are going to guide you through important factors large Magento stores should consider when picking a Magento hosting.
Define Requirements
The very first step towards choosing the right provider is discovering your requirements. Bandwidth and disk space are the most basic needs. Make sure that the offered bandwidth is high enough for your store unless you expect just a few users to visit your site. Please note that your bandwidth requirements may surge one day and you must be prepared for that.
If your online store has 100 pages, a 200 MB disk space will do. But if you are going to add new pages and update content regularly, opt for a larger disk space.
Select a Server
There are three server types to choose from. Which one is the most appropriate for your store?
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Shared Servers
In this case, several websites with different domain names reside on the same server. Many providers claim that such serves give users unlimited bandwidth and disk space, but it’s far from reality. Any server has its limits, and shared servers are no exception.
So if your web store has many pages and a large product assortment and receives a massive volume of traffic, this option is not for you.
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Cloud Servers
Cloud servers work just in the same way as physical servers do, but the functions they perform are different. When renting virtual server space, clients typically pay on the per use basis (by the hour, week or month). It means that such servers can easily deal with unexpected traffic peaks but the cost increases too.
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Dedicated Servers
These servers cater just one website on a single hardware platform. The cost of such hosting is high, but its benefits (speed and dedicated services) ensure the proper store’s functioning.
Choose Between Self-Managed and Managed Hosting Solutions
The efficiency of the day-to-day management of a Magento store depends on the hosting solution its owner uses.
Self-managed hosting solutions are the best bet for tech-savvy people who want to get full control over the whole installation. You must have technical skills and knowledge to keep your store is up-and-running.
If you want someone to take care of your hosting, opt for a managed hosting solution. You hosting provider will spare you the need to worry about any aspects of server management (e.g., daily backups), including hardware and software issues that may arise. Check Cloudways, one of the best managed Magento hosting provider on the market.
Pick a Server Location
You may decide to use a server located in another country or even another continent, but it’s better for your Magento website to have the same geo-IP as your business has. The reason is simple: search giants like Google will use the location to rank your store for local searches.
But if you are physically located in = Spain and your main customers are in the U.S., may host your site on a U.S.-based server.
Check a Provider for Security and PCI Compliance
Security is the number one priority for e-stores. They must protect valuable business and customer data against cybercriminals. Good hosting providers take all the necessary measures to keep their customers’ information safe.
Ask your hosting provider what security precautions they take and find out whether they are PCI-compliant. It’s also a smart idea to find a GDPR-compliant hosting provider.
Pay Attention to Support
Getting timely support is crucial for an online business. So invest in a provider where you will get 24/7 support and that has low response times. To take advantage of best-of-breed services you may choose a provider specializing in Magento like Nexcess and SiteGround. Such providers are well positioned to fix all the Magento-related issues quicker than others.
Final Thoughts
Finding a good hosting provider is not so easy. In this article, we’ve described vital factors that owners of large Magento stores should keep in mind to make a wise choice. We hope that our pieces of advice will help you take the right decision.
