20 Jun Problems with Cheap Hosting Services
How Low-End Shared Hosting Services Will Cost You a Lot of Money
Cheap hosting (shared) is one of the most affordable ways to put up a website online and be part of the virtual world. But it can still go unbelievably cheaper, what with the stiff competition going on. The problem with cheap, however, is that the services may be low-quality as well. It can be a case of getting what you pay for.
Web hosts provide the technologies and services necessary for a website to be viewed and accessed online. Hosting services are either shared or dedicated, depending on the servers used in hosting. The former is where several websites are hosted on one server, while the latter is where one server is dedicated to one website.
Premium VPS Web Hosting
- Flexible hosting plans
- WordPress optimised hosting
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Shared hosting is inexpensive, what with the cost shared among many website owners. But when the price is too good to be true, it usually is. You may be able to save money, but there could be drawbacks that go with it..
Problems with Cheap Hosting Services
Slow loading speed
Think of it this way, if you’re a customer buying over the counter, you would want to be served the soonest time possible. If that doesn’t happen, you’re highly likely to walk away and find another store than wait another minute. If you were the business owner, a customer walking away is money lost.
The problem with shared hosting, however, especially cheap ones, is that service providers will try to cram as many websites as possible into one server, which will have an effect on the processing speed. Imagine if all of those websites are being viewed at the same time. The bandwidth would suffer big time.
So you want it affordable, but your website’s page loading time should not cost you more than what you’re willing to spend on your hosting service.
Poor customer service
Web hosts run a business, so the low-cost price should give you pause and make you think as to how they can fund their organization at that amount. Obviously, they had to cut corners or cut down somewhere. Unfortunately, they usually tighten the grip on customer service, hiring only one person to handle all of their customers.
This idea is often backed by the fact that many website owners put up their site and not bother with it again until a few months or even years. Cheap hosting services also cover their tracks by giving new customers more attention, creating the illusion that the 24/7 guarantee is valid and true. Once the ‘novelty’ has passed, your concerns and issues will be left unattended.
Did you know that the amount of time it takes for your website to load has a significant effect on your conversion rate?
This is when the ugly truth comes out and the quality of customer service is uncovered. Unfortunately, if it took you a long time to figure that out, you’ve probably been paying for the hosting service and getting nothing in return.
Lack of support for custom CMS setups
A content management system (CMS) is where you can manage, edit and maintain your website and all digital content. This is available on several platforms, such as Drupal, Joomla, and WordPress. While this is automatically installed with the website, support to it is not automatically provided by the hosting provider. That is, you can’t rely on cheap web hosts to do that.
Custom CMS setups require specialized skills, which means hosting providers need to hire someone equipped with such skills. If their rates are low, where will they get the money to do so? Expect custom installations to be unsupported, which would not work to your advantage.
Increased security risks
Apart from poor customer service, low-cost hosting could also mean low-end security at the server side. Not only is it unmanaged, but left vulnerable to exploits as well. Considering that the virtual world is rife with threat actors who make a living out of searching for unprotected or weak systems, an insecure server would be an easy target.
What happens when your website is hacked?
- It will be vandalized
- Used as a tool to hack into your clients’ systems or steal their personal information
- Your reputation as a credible and trustworthy business will be ruined
- You will lose customer trust and loyalty
It is important to note that cheap hosting providers may lack the security system to safeguard your website and your clients. So make sure that you look into this closely.
Lacking or no backups at all
Off-site backup is vital if you want to avoid the possibility of restoring an entire website from scratch due to a hard-drive crash or any other reason. It’s not cheap, however. But you might have a backup with your web host, provided that their cheap rates cover such service.
The reality, however, is that most of them either don’t bother with backups or doesn’t have the most reliable one. You have to pay more for this extra, and you shouldn’t think twice about doing so. Restoring a website without a backup is time-consuming and labor intensive. So you might want to steer clear of cheap hosting services when backups are unreliable.
Lack of business security
Are you willing to risk losing your data and money to low-end shared hosting providers? Because the possibility of them vanishing into thin air without notice is real and quite high. If you hire their service based on the cheap price alone, you could be setting yourself up for failure.
This is not to say that start-ups can’t be trusted, but be sure to check for customer feedback and reports on how they dealt with customer problems, technical or otherwise.
Conclusion
We recommend using managed VPS (Virtual Private Server) hosting where enough resources are allocated to each client all the time. You need a hosting provider which takes care of their clients in the best way possible and ensures security and superior service. You’ll pay more, but you also get more in the process. So why settle for less?
