If you’re launching a business and plan to buy cheap web hosting because you’re on a budget, consider the downsides before you experience them first-hand. There are many drawbacks to bad hosting – this article draws attention to five of them.
1. Downtime issues
Just like with any service, there’s no such thing as perfect hosting. Things are bound to get shaky now and then due to internal or external factors. Downtime can occur for any number of reasons, from hardware issues and ISP technical problems to internal situations with misuse by customers. If your site is down too often, people will stop visiting it. Cheap hosting makes this a very likely scenario.
If you choose shared hosting, which is the cheapest kind, you will feel the pain of any DDoS attack or vulnerability of the other sites on the server.
2. Poor Website Performance
Ideally, your site should load in less than 1.5 seconds. If it takes more, it’s a good idea to test your speed, analyze the results, and adjust the code. If your hosting provider is cheap, they’re probably running a shared web hosting platform with shared resources. Those include memory, CPU, and disk space. The situation translates to limited resource control and use.
Even affordable hosting providers offer free or unlimited SSD, but this doesn’t necessarily mean you can use it exclusively. If the service was great, it wouldn’t be free. The hosting plan might feature unlimited bandwidth, but once the other sites on the server start using the resources, your website’s performance will be affected.
You might see the message “Reduce server response time” when you run the Google Page Speed test. Most hosting providers will suggest you upgrade to a more expensive hosting plan to improve speed.
3. Bad Customer Service
Cheap web hosting companies tend to have poor customer service. New businesses can face a few typical issues they will need help with, and help isn’t coming because you get what you pay for. For example, you might be building a website and investing in high-quality dev tools. It emerges that the shared RAM and CPU don’t suffice to accommodate these tools. This often happens when you use a drag-and-drop builder to create your own website.
You will find you need to wait a very long time to reach an agent, sometimes as much as a few days, if you email an inquiry or complaint. In most cases, they’ll tell you to upgrade to VPS or dedicated hosting. This will obviously cost more money. If you want to use premium tools, shared hosting isn’t likely to support them, so you might as well start with more expensive hosting.
You’re not rich enough to buy cheap hosting. Consider that a hosting company that invests in multiple communication channels, such as phone, email, and live chat, will be much easier to communicate with. This means lower response time and better service.
4. Limited control over apps and software
Shared hosting users can’t choose which apps or software to deploy. In addition, your software might be limited. For running a large e-commerce website, cheap hosting isn’t recommended. Turning to a web development expert or team pays off to find the most suitable web hosting options for your venture.
Everyone on a shared server has access to the same memory, CPU, and server space. Installing or running apps can make the website slow and overload the server.
Some hosting services have a special policy in place where they only provide limited connections and ports to their users.
5. Security Issues
Last but certainly not least, you are exposed to cybercrimes and security leaks when you’re active online. Poor hosting is associated with all kinds of security flaws and renders your site vulnerable to attacks. If you have an online business, you face a serious risk and potentially grave losses.
