Web hosting explained: how to choose without the fine print

What web hosting is, in one paragraph

Web hosting is a computer that stays on all the time, connected to the internet, storing your website's files and sending them to every visitor who types your address. When someone opens yourbusiness.com, their browser asks that server for the page, and the server answers in a fraction of a second.

You could run that computer yourself, but almost nobody does. You rent a slice of a server from a hosting company, and they take care of power, network, hardware and security updates.

Hosting, domain and DNS: how the pieces fit

Three things people mix up all the time:

• Domain: the name, like yourbusiness.com. You register it yearly with a registrar.
• Hosting: the server where the site's files live.
• DNS: the address book that tells the internet "yourbusiness.com lives on that server".

You can buy domain and hosting from different companies and connect them through DNS. It works, but every renewal, every SSL problem and every email setting now involves two support teams. For a small business, having both in one place is usually simpler.

The main types of hosting

Shared hosting is cheap and fine for most small business websites. A site with a few pages, a contact form and some photos uses very little.

A VPS gives you a whole virtual machine. You get more control and predictable performance, but someone has to manage it. If nobody on your side knows what SSH is, a VPS is usually not the first step.

Builders like Wix include hosting in the plan. Convenient, but the site only runs there. If you leave, you rebuild.

The fine print to check before you sign

This is the part that costs money later. Read the plan page with these questions in mind:

1. What is the renewal price? Most hosts advertise a first-term price. The renewal is often much higher. Ask for both numbers.
2. How long is the term? The lowest monthly price usually requires paying several years upfront.
3. Is SSL included? The padlock is not optional anymore. It should come free and renew by itself.
4. Are backups included, and can you restore them yourself? "We do backups" is not the same as "you can roll back yesterday's version in one click".
5. Is email included? Some plans include mailboxes, others sell each one separately.
6. What does "unlimited" mean? Unlimited storage or bandwidth almost always comes with a fair-use policy. Read it.
7. Whose name is the domain in? If the host or your web designer registers it in their name, they control it.
8. Can you take your files? Ask how you would leave before you join.

None of these is a scandal on its own. Promotional pricing is normal across the industry. The problem is only finding out at renewal time.

Signs you picked the wrong hosting

• The site is slow even with little traffic.
• Every small change requires opening a support ticket.
• You find out about outages from customers.
• The renewal bill is a surprise.
• You cannot see where contact form messages go.

If you recognize two or more, it is worth moving. Moving a simple site is usually a matter of hours, not weeks.

When it is time to move to a VPS

Shared hosting stops being enough when:

• You run a custom application, not just a website.
• Traffic grows to the point where the shared server limits you.
• You need software the shared host does not allow.
• You host many client sites and want them isolated.

We have a full post on that decision, but the short version is: start simple and move up when a real limit appears, not before.

How to do it at Basely

At Basely, hosting is part of the platform plan, not a separate product you have to wire up. In the same panel you can run:

• Static HTML sites, PHP sites and WordPress, side by side.
• SSL turned on automatically.
• The client's own domain, with DNS and SSL connected to the site when the domain is with us.
• Form responses visible in the panel.
• Web Apps (Next.js with login and a Postgres database) on our server within your plan's limit, or on a VPS if you need more.

About the fine print, here is ours: plans start at $2.99/month on Basic with a 48-month term. That is the first-payment promotional price, and renewal is $10.99/month. On the 12 and 24-month terms, hosting, the domain and email mailboxes come free in the first year. Domains are registered in the client's name.

If you are a web designer hosting several client sites, the Hub keeps every client, site and domain in one list, and the client gets their own login to see their site.

The one-sentence version

Pick the simplest hosting that runs your site, compare renewal prices instead of promos, and make sure the domain and the files are yours. Then put your site online and get back to running your business.