best business web hosting: what to look for before you commit
Choosing a host for a growing company means balancing reliability, speed, and support. Look for an uptime SLA, fast NVMe storage, global CDN options, and responsive 24/7 help from real engineers. Strong security and predictable pricing matter just as much as raw performance.
Frequently asked questions
For most teams, the essentials include daily backups, free SSL, built-in WAF and DDoS protection, and staging environments for safe changes. If you handle payments or data, ask about compliance and audit logs.
- Performance: NVMe, HTTP/2 or HTTP/3, and generous CPU/RAM.
- Support: real-time chat, fast escalation, clear incident history.
- Scaling: easy plan upgrades and autoscaling for traffic spikes.
- Security: malware scanning and proactive patching.
- Transparency: clean pricing, no surprise renewal jumps.
Managed vs. unmanaged?
Managed hosting handles updates, monitoring, and backups; unmanaged gives you control but demands in-house expertise. Most small and mid-size firms prefer managed to reduce risk.
How do I compare plans quickly?
- Check the SLA and past uptime reports.
- Run a speed test on a trial site.
- Read the renewal terms and bandwidth policies.
- Open a support ticket and measure response time.