Why Cheap Hosting Is Not Always The Best Choice
We are often asked what the difference is between budget hosting solutions versus Mediaura’s Secure Cloud Hosting solution.
While every business likes to save money, there are certain things that aren’t always the bargains that they seem to be. The reality is, cheap hosting can be a false economy and an expensive mistake.
Why Secure Website Hosting Matters
What most people don’t understand, is the reason why secure website hosting needs to exist in the first place – and that’s because the internet for all its convenience is also home to more nefarious characters. We’ve touched on this topic before; but the truth is, as more businesses develop an online presence they are running the risk of attracting hackers. Some hackers simply do it because they can, while others are looking to compromise the security of both your business and your clients. This can be anything from personal information, emails, credit card information, banking details, customer details, etc.
Did you know that humans only generate 49% of all internet traffic?
If you think you know who is visiting your website, you may need to think again.
Approximately 51% of all Internet traffic is created by bots, according to a data research study. Now bots can come in a few forms. First, you have the “good guys” – search engines like Google (whose servers never rest) compose about 20% of traffic. However, the remaining 31% would love nothing more than to worm their way into your computer and cause all sorts of mayhem.
Of that menacing 31% of “bad guys”, hacking tools account for 5% of that traffic. Hacking tools are software that visit a website to crash it and/or steal data from it. Another 5% are so-called “scrapers” that are notorious for pulling information from one website and publishing it to another, to pillage search-engine traffic. Comment Spammers (2%) do just that, posting malware and other annoying content to bog down a website. Spyware (19%), covertly gathers information that can compromise competitive advantage. This about rounds out the overall negative bot groups, but as you can see they are everywhere.
The Main Drawbacks of Cheap Hosting
While there are many reasons that cheap website hosting is a bad idea for businesses (but not necessarily a bad thing for individual users, such as bloggers), here are a list of just some of the top reasons that your website needs to move from a budget hosting solution towards a more dedicated and secure one:
Out-Of-Date or Obsolete Servers
Some web hosting companies keep their costs low by keeping their old servers running longer than they should. Not only are these older servers slower and more likely to crash, but they’re also more vulnerable to viruses and hacker attacks. So while they are offering prices that seem “too good to pass up” I’m sure your customers would rather you invest in something that will help keep their information safe.
Bad Customer Service
Imagine for a moment that your website has gone down (either due to server error or a successful hacking attempt). While many cheap or budget hosting solutions claim to have a quick-turnaround-time for problems or issues, the truth is, when one of their servers goes down it affects EVERY website housed there (and there are many). This means that while they may be doing their best to get your website back up and running, it won’t be an immediate fix. Delays such as this negatively effect not only your bottom-line but also your branding. Customers may not know why your website is down, but their assumptions will run from bills not being paid to unattentive management. A portion of the costs for a dedicated secure web hosting goes towards high-quality customer service and technical support staff, as well as new and updated servers. When you call with a problem, you will be speaking to someone who can address any issues right then and minimize downtime (or even have the set the system up in such a way so that your website is never “down” even when issues arise). A cheap web hosting solution, on the other hand, is likely to outsource its support or do away with it altogether. In either case, the end result from your point of view is that if you have a problem, it will take a long time to get fixed, if it gets fixed at all.
Lack of Space
It doesn’t matter how cheap your deal is, if you don’t have enough space to build your site, your hosting account is worthless. Don’t just think in terms of initial allowances. Remember your website is likely to grow, so you need to be sure that you can get as much disk space as you need when you need it. Also, beware of cheap web hosts who keep their costs down by overselling disk space. This is a bit of a conjuring trick, as it relies on users not taking their full allowances. Not only is this a vaguely unethical business practice, but it could also very easily come crashing down if people start to use all the space allotted to them.
Overcrowding
Cheap web hosts deal in quantity, not quality. This is how they make their profits. From your point of view, the limited bandwidth and disk space allowances on cheap hosting deals mean that you could find yourself sharing server space with hundreds, if not thousands, of other websites. Statistically, not all of them are going to be good neighbors. This has a direct effect on your site. Your neighbors might be sucking up server resources at an alarming rate, causing your website to run slow or to crash altogether. More accounts on one server also mean a greater risk of virus infection spreading across that server.
Find a Secure Solution
Do you really want to risk your time, money and reputation for the sake of a few dollars? You would be surprised at the number of websites that are routinely attacked and taken down with relative ease on budget hosting solutions. The reason hackers focus their attention on them is simple, they’re easy targets. So make sure you give your clients and customers the confidence to do business with you, through providing them a cost-effective and secure website hosting solution. At Mediaura we have a variety of packages available, so you can make sure that you’re putting your website in a secure environment, without having to break the bank.
