Shared, VPS or managed cloud? We demystify the options so you can pick hosting that's fast, reliable and won't blow the budget.
Hosting is one of those decisions that feels technical and unimportant — until your site goes down during your busiest week. Getting it right is mostly about matching the option to your actual needs.
Shared hosting is cheap and fine for small, low-traffic sites, but you share resources with strangers, so performance can be unpredictable. A VPS gives you dedicated resources and far more control, which suits growing sites and custom software.
Managed cloud is the option most growing businesses end up happiest with: you get the power and reliability of cloud infrastructure, but someone else handles the servers, updates, backups and monitoring.
Whatever you choose, insist on three things: automated daily backups, uptime monitoring with alerts, and HTTPS everywhere. Those basics prevent the vast majority of hosting horror stories.
If managing infrastructure isn't how you want to spend your time, that's exactly what a managed plan is for.