The Ultimate Website Hosting Checklist for Business Owners: From Security to Scalability

Why Web Hosting is Important?

Owning a fully functional and accessible website is one of the bread and butter of businesses looking to dominate online. However, purchasing and registering your business domain name will not immediately get your website up and running.

Now, acquiring a web hosting service is crucial for getting your website live on the internet. On top of this, you will also need it for storing, maintaining, and protecting all the digital assets of your business. 

Here are its 5 key benefits:

• Enhances your business’s credibility and global accessibility
• Reflects your brand and supports marketing efforts
• Features like contact forms and live chat improve customer interaction
• E-commerce capabilities enable online sales and broaden market reach
• Provides security measures and ensures fast, smooth site performance

Website Hosting Checklist

Keep in mind that web hosting services vary. This varies not only in terms of pricing but also in the inclusions or packages that come with the service. 

So before choosing a hosting service, we’ve compiled a comprehensive checklist to help you secure a trusted web hosting provider for your website. 

1) Speed Performance

Slow-loading websites are detrimental to any business today. Having this issue will not only bring frustration to your visitors but also cause them to move on to your competitor. As a result, you lose not just a potential customer but also valuable sales. 

According to WP-Rocket, 47% of online users expect a website to load within 2 seconds. Anything beyond this number can lead 40% of them to bounce from your website. So when choosing a hosting plan, make sure that you pay extra attention to their speed performance. 

2) Support and add-ons

Stuff breaks. Or updates go wrong. Or you get locked out. When that happens, you want a host with actual humans who pick up the phone — not a ticketing system that emails you back in 48 hours.

Some valuable add-ons worth checking:

• Business email hosting
• Content Delivery Network
• Daily backups
• SSL certificates

3) Storage Capacity 

Photos and videos are all important for business websites to showcase their product or service. Since you will have many of these on your site, you will also need substantial storage capacity.

Another important thing you need along with capacity is bandwidth. This is a crucial feature to ensure that your website data are easily accessed or delivered to your visitors. Here’s why it’s important:

1. Supports the number of visitors and their data usage without slowing down your site
2. Prevents lag and ensures quick page loads
3. Helps your site handle traffic spikes and grow without extra costs

4) Security and Backups

Even the most secure IT company can encounter it from time to time. That is why a lot of businesses that did not take this seriously have incurred consequences on their finances, operations, and customer confidence.

So when choosing a hosting provider, one of the many things to look into is the hosting plan. Make sure to carefully assess the extent of the security and backup features offered. Ideally, it should come with an SSL certificate setup to encrypt your data and reduce the chances of data breach or hacking. 

In case of such cyber attacks, you should also look for a provider who offers daily data backup. This is beneficial, especially for any downtime and to prevent your data from getting compromised.

5) Control panel

Unless you’re hiring full-time IT staff, you want a control panel that’s simple. Think: cPanel, Plesk, or custom dashboards that don’t need a coding degree to operate.

You’ll use this to:

• Set up emails

• Manage your domain

• Install apps like WordPress

• View logs and stats

If you’re not sure you can handle it — ask your host to show you a demo before you buy.

6) CMS Support (Make Life Easy)

Almost every client I deal with uses WordPress. Some use Shopify. A few oddballs still run Joomla or Drupal (bless them). But your host needs to fully support your CMS:

• One-click installs

• Automatic updates

• PHP version compatibility

• Dedicated support for CMS issues

If your hosting plan doesn’t play nice with your CMS, you’re gonna feel it — fast.

Top 3 Website Hosting Platforms for New Business Owners

1) Panthur

Good local option. Australian servers = faster local speeds. Excellent support team based here — you won’t be waiting for someone overseas to wake up.

Pros: 

• Fast and reliable performance
• Local 24/7 Australian-based support
• Strong security with daily backups
• Scalable plans
• Generous storage and bandwidth
• 99.9% SLA

Cons: 

• Limited global server locations
• No free domain
• Higher costs for advanced features

Price: 

• Business Bronze: $24/month (or $22.80/month if billed annually)*
• Business Silver: $35/month (or $33.25/month if billed annually)*
• Business Gold: $66/month (or $62.70/month if billed annually)*

Recommended Plan for WordPress Sites:

We recommend the Business Gold plan for most WordPress sites due to its balance between pricing and performance. It offers 100GB of storage, unlimited bandwidth, and free daily backups—ideal to support growing businesses.

2) WP Engine

WP Engine is a premium managed WordPress hosting platform known for its superior performance and high-level security. It is one of the leading choices for business owners who are using WordPress. They offer a hassle-free experience for businesses that require premium website speed and support.

Pros: 

• Optimized for WordPress
• Automatic updates and backups
• Built-in caching and CDN
• 24/7 expert WordPress support
• Excellent performance and security
• Includes environments for Development/Staging/Production
• 99.95% SLA with 99.99% available for Enterprise plans

Cons: 

• Higher cost
• Limited to WordPress only
• No email hosting
• Charges for additional sites and features

Price: 

• Essential Startup: $34/month (or $28/month if billed annually)*
• Essential Professional: $66/month (or $56/month if billed annually)*
• Essential Growth: $129/month (or $108/month if billed annually)*

Recommended Plan for WordPress Sites:

The Essential Professional is recommended for businesses scaling up their WordPress websites. The platform’s plan comes with 150GB of bandwidth, and 15GB storage, with a very high 99.95% SLA.

3) SiteGround

This one’s great if you want to get up and running fast. Excellent WordPress support, strong security, decent performance.

Pros: 

• Fast loading times and uptime
• Excellent security with daily backups
• Free SSL and site migrations
• User-friendly control panel
• Great customer support 
• SLA 99.9% 

Cons: 

• Limited storage on basic plans
• High renewal rates
• No monthly billing on lower-tier plans
• Limited storage compared to competitors

Price: 

• StartUp: $2.99/month for first year ($26.99/month after)*
• GrowBig: $4.99/month for first year ($39.99/month after)*
• GoGeek: $7.99/month for first year ($64.99/month after)*

Recommended Plan for WordPress Sites:

The GrowBig plan is the best option for WordPress users, providing 20GB Space and Unlimited Bandwidth. Best for those who need more features like enhanced PHP speed, staging, and advanced backups.

Bottom Line

At the end of the day, hosting’s a bit like plumbing. Quiet when it works, but an absolute nightmare when it doesn’t.

Spend a little time upfront choosing wisely. You’ll thank yourself later when your site stays fast, secure, and problem-free while your business grows.

Prices current as of October 2024.