Is cheap hosting worth saving a little money? You can build an online presence for your business through a website. You need to purchase website hosting services to have a website with your domain name. The purpose of maintaining an internet presence is to attract audiences and engage them with your products and services. Cheap hosting can cause significant security, performance and SEO issues. Being the owner of your website or business, you need to understand what is good and bad for them. Naturally, we might be inclined towards inexpensive things. But here, you need to understand the negative impacts cheap hosting has on your business website. You will know why choosing cheap hosting is a poor decision if you read this article till the end. We have compiled all the reasons for you to understand why you should not buy cheap hosting.
Additional Hidden Costs
One major problem with free or cheap hosting services is they charge you for every service your site needs later. These hidden and unexpected charges give a blow to your budget. And then you realize that the cost of expensive but reliable hosting was lesser as compared to this. It is possible that they also use your data to sell and earn. You might face hidden charges which you cannot avoid because they are for essential services. For instance, the host demands unexpected payments for security layers, performance boosters, or technical support requests. This is not good; you could have availed of all these services in a single purchase by buying a budget package from a well-known hosting server.
Inadequate Security Leading to Security Leakages
Does not matter if your website just started; you need security protection against online attacks. Security is the most essential part of your website. Visitors will avoid your site if they fear it might cost them their information. A security breach on a database across your server with poor to no backup can cause you to lose your website forever. You might be saving money with cheap hosting, but attacks on your website will happen more than often. These attacks might cost you your data and even your business. Expensive hosting plans offer you layers of security and more protection. An investment in an annual security plan can save your website from DDoS attacks as your host fails to protect you against them.
Non-existent or Limited Backup
Backing up your website is vital; if servers crash or your website goes offline for any reason – the backup saves you from trouble. A cheap hosting plan rarely gives you backup services. Even if they tell you there is backup storage, know that it will be limited. You cannot rely on backups once a month. Websites need, if not daily, at least backups with every update. Cheap web hosts do not offer you automatic backups at regular intervals. If your site breaks down without backup, you will lose all your hard work. So, it is better to acquire a hosting plan that offers frequent backups and does not store them on the same server.
Prolonged Downtimes
There is a high probability that cheap hosting causes long downtimes for your website. Prolonged downtimes extending to a significant part of the day prevent you from gaining new traffic. The reason for extended outages or shutdowns is the compromised staff of your hosting server. The cheap hosting provider earns less and pays less to the employees. Employees who are not paid well are likely to cut corners; this affects the maintenance process of servers. Traffic means everything for your eCommerce site because additional traffic means more profit. All the technical work behind the face of your website is dependent on good technicians; therefore, unskilled staff at your hired cheap web host can cost you a handsome fortune.
Limited Resources
Another main reason you should avoid cheap hosting is resource limitations. Cheap hosts fit several users onto one server to avoid spending on numerous servers. This results in your website suffering from slow speed. You also share collective RAM with multiple people on the server and experience overloads. These can negatively impact the user experience on your website. Cheap hosts are trying to earn more while spending less themselves. But you should beware of it. Think wisely before you unknowingly fall prey to cheap hosts.
Limited and Unprofessional Support
A disadvantage of cheap hosting is they pay little or no attention to your requirements. As a result, your website suffers. Even if you request them to resolve issues with hosting, inexperienced or unskilled staff will not be able to resolve them. All your problems will remain unresolved, like the prolonged downtime issues due to underpaid or inexperienced technicians. Even if you get lucky and find a skilled technology operator, you will be asked to pay more. So, it is better to pay more for a premium web host and receive an experienced and professional support team capable of resolving your technical issues.