Is It Time For Me To Switch To A Different Web Host?

If you’re asking the question then the answer may be “yes”, discovers Nik Rawlinson, but consider your timing carefully

It’s good for your business to think about refining its needs,” said Simon Yeoman, general manager at Fasthosts. “A lot of businesses start with a very basic website and, as their business grows, their ambition often exceeds the limits of their existing web hosting solution.”

This will be a familiar story to many growing businesses. They’re often understaffed and focused on getting off the ground in the early days. A basic web page giving contact details and perhaps a product rundown may be all they can manage unless they have the budget for an out-of-house developer.

Six months later, their needs will have changed, and the factors that informed their original choice may no longer apply.

“Price is super relevant for nascent businesses or anyone who wants to test an idea,” explained vice president of EMEA at GoDaddy, Stefano Marruzi. “But look at larger organisations and more stable businesses who are on version two or three of their original setup, and other parameters become much more important.”

It’s often at this point, when they can afford a more fully-featured hosting deal, that businesses will consider their first switch.

Taking that second step

So, what should businesses be looking for when switching for the first time? Marruzi puts redundancy at the top of the list, followed by performance and reliability.

“We still come across poorly developed sites or those that are hosted in non-ideal locations, which deliver unacceptable load times. So, check the performance of any offering, along with latency and coverage. 99.9% reliability is sufficient in most instances. Adding another .09 to it is an element to consider, but that might have an impact on cost.”