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Website Builder vs Content Management System
Website builders and content management systems are different tools that can help you create your website.
A website builder is a visual design tool that typically uses front-end editing, so you can see how your changes will look to visitors as you make them. These tools are easy to use, without the need to install extensions or update the software yourself. Website builders often have limited design flexibility. Most website builders are also proprietary, making it difficult to switch hosts later.
A content management system or CMS is a tool for building, maintaining, and organizing blog posts and other web pages. They usually don’t require coding, but you do need to install themes (site templates) and extensions. The most popular CMS is WordPress — Powering 43.4% of all websites — an open source tool that you can install for free on any third-party web host.
Ease of use
Buying cloud hosting can be a very complicated process, as most web hosts have complex pricing structures. However, once you’re in, you should be able to easily find server management and site creation tools. Most web hosting companies use cPanel to make this possible.
Managed vs. Unmanaged
With managed hosting, the host handles all the details of server maintenance and management, often including automatic updates of your CMS.
Unmanaged hosting requires you to update your CMS yourself, and possibly configure things like your server’s operating system and security software. Unmanaged hosting may be cheaper up front, but you will need to invest time or money to make sure everything stays up to date.
If you use your own website builder, your hosting will be managed by default, as the hosting provider handles all software maintenance and updates for the website builder.
Security
Your cloud hosting service should offer at least three layers of security:
- Secure Socket Layer — SSL — certification: A security protocol that encrypts data sent to and from your site, protecting important information like email addresses sent through your contact form. SSL certification also tells browsers and VPNs that your site is secure. Some won’t even let users open a site without SSL certification. Google can also Penalize sites without SSL certification.
- Fire wall: Software that scans all data sent to your website/web server and filters out malware and spyware. Firewalls can’t promise 100% protection — new malware is created every day — but a good firewall will filter out most malware to keep your site safe.
- Domain Privacy: If you register your domain through your chosen hosting service, make sure the company offers domain privacy. This ensures that your contact information is not publicly available in the WHOIS database.
Many cloud hosting services also offer additional layers of protection, such as DDoS and brute force protection.
Operating time
Uptime measures how much time your website spends online. This is essential because visitors who can’t access your website will go elsewhere, resulting in lost traffic, lost trust, and potentially lost revenue.
The industry standard for regular web hosting is 99.9% uptime, meaning that server issues and maintenance shouldn’t take your site down for more than 10 minutes per week. Some cloud hosting services go further and promise 99.99% or 100% uptime — a promise made possible by the use of multiple servers.
Site Speed
Site speed is how long it takes for your website to load. The faster your site loads, the better — bounce rate drops by 32% when the loading time goes from three seconds to one second.
Most cloud hosting services offer the following tools to improve server/site speed:
- Caching: A system that stores website data in a special storage layer called a cache, which runs at the speed of the server’s CPU (or sometimes the visitor’s CPU), which is typically faster than the RAM normally used to access data.
- Content Delivery Network: An interconnected group of servers that store website data in different locations around the world, allowing users to retrieve data from the data center closest to their location through their browser.
Storage
Storage determines how many files — such as blog posts and landing pages — your site can host. In general, 1 GB can store 10 large pages or up to 100 smaller pages. 5 GB is sufficient storage for most static websites, but long-running blogs and e-commerce sites often need more storage.
You’ll also want to consider the storage type. Most hosts use solid state drives — SSD storage — for fast, reliable performance. Some offer NVMe — nonvolatile memory express — storage, which offers slightly faster and more reliable performance than regular SSD storage. If your host’s storage type isn’t on this list, assume it’s using SSD; we’ve noted NVMe storage where applicable.
Bandwidth
Bandwidth, sometimes expressed as data transfer, determines the amount of data your server can send to users per month. Cloud hosting plans typically express bandwidth as GB or TB. This makes it difficult to determine how much bandwidth you need, since each visitor has access to a different amount of data. If 100 people visit your site each day and view five pages with an average size of 5 MB, you need 7.5 GB of bandwidth. If those same 100 people view 10 pages, you need 15 GB of bandwidth.
The good news about cloud hosting is that many plans offer 1TB or more of bandwidth (or 1,000GB), so you don’t need to worry about these calculations until you have over a million monthly visitors.
Customer Service
You should be able to contact customer service quickly — and get helpful solutions — if your site breaks. Most quality web hosting companies offer 24/7 customer service via live chat, phone, and email. Many companies offer both general customer service and specialized WordPress experts.
Technically, having access to 24/7 support doesn’t always mean you’ll get the help you need. Some hosting companies’ customer service is quite slow and/or relies on poorly trained customer service agents, making it difficult to get help with advanced issues. This is where sites like Trustpilot Step inside: You can read reviews there — or the web hosting reviews here on CNET — to find out how effective a company’s customer service is.
Prices
There are a few things to look for when considering web hosting prices:
- Introductory prices: Many web hosting companies offer substantial discounts — often 50% or more — for the first term. When your contract renews, you will pay what is usually listed as the “regular price.” Always factor this price increase into your long-term budget.
- Contract duration: You may need to sign up for a two or three year contract to get the best discount. This means you need to multiply the monthly price listed on the site by 24 or 36 to understand what you are actually paying.
- Additional costs: This includes things like your domain and perhaps email hosting and security tools. Some companies offer free domain registration for the first year of hosting, but you will have to pay annual domain registration fees in future years.
There are also two types of pricing specifically for cloud hosting:
- Package prices: Cloud hosting plans that include resources — such as bandwidth and processing power — and a cost that is set upfront by the hosting company. These plans typically allow for significant website growth before you need to upgrade.
- Modular prices: A plan that you build by choosing the exact amount of bandwidth, storage, and processing power you need, with a price based on the resources you need. You can then add resources incrementally, for example by adding 100GB of storage at a time, as your site grows. Adding resources incrementally can be more affordable than upgrading from one preset plan to another.
Package pricing is easier to understand, especially if you’re new to the world of web hosting, but modular pricing can be more cost effective.
