If you’ve ever looked at your monthly hosting bill and wondered what you’re actually paying for, you’re not on your own. Website hosting is one of those things almost every small business owner pays for but few really understand. Here’s what a proper website hosting and maintenance plan should include, and why it’s worth more than just “keeping the site online.
What website hosting actually means
Hosting is the server space that stores your website’s files and serves them to visitors when they type in your web address. Without it, your site doesn’t exist online. But cheap, bare-bones hosting just keeps the lights on. It doesn’t look after the site itself.
What a decent hosting and care plan should include
When I set up hosting for a client, here’s what’s actually covered every month:
- An SSL certificate, so your site shows the padlock icon and “https” in the address bar. Browsers now flag sites without one as “not secure”, which puts visitors off before they’ve read a word.
- Regular backups, so if anything goes wrong, whether that’s a hacking attempt, a bad plugin update, or a page deleted by accident, the site can be rolled back to a working version.
- Software updates. WordPress, and the plugins that make it work, get updated regularly. Some of those updates fix security holes, and skipping them is one of the most common ways small business websites get hacked.
- Minor edits. Need to change your opening hours, swap a photo, or fix a typo? That should be included as standard, not billed separately every time.
What happens if you skip it
I’ve taken on more than one client whose previous “cheap” hosting turned out to be exactly that: a server with no backups, no updates, and nobody keeping an eye on it. When something breaks on that kind of setup, there’s often no way back, and the site has to be rebuilt from scratch.
Out of date WordPress installs are also a genuine security risk. Most hacked WordPress sites I come across got in through a plugin or theme that hadn’t been updated in months, not through some clever targeted attack. It’s the digital equivalent of leaving a window open.
What it should cost
My hosting and care plans start from £25 a month, and that covers SSL, backups, updates and small edits as standard on every website I build, including my free starter sites. There’s no long contract tying you in either. If a plan isn’t working for you, you’re free to move on whenever you like.
It’s worth asking any web designer exactly what’s included before you sign up to anything. “Hosting” can mean very different things depending on who you ask, and the cheapest option on paper isn’t always the cheapest once something goes wrong.
Not sure what your current plan covers?
If you’re paying for hosting somewhere and you’re not sure what you’re actually getting for it, get in touch and I’ll happily take a look and give you an honest answer, no obligation either way.