How to Choose Ecommerce Hosting Provider: Complete Guide

Starting an online store can be tough, especially when picking the right host for your website. The hosting you select can greatly affect how well your ecommerce business runs.Many hosting options are out there today, making it hard to find the best one for your online store. 

In this guide to choosing web hosting for ecommerce, We’ll explain the types of hosting you need to know and highlight the key features that can set your business up for success. Keep reading to discover all you need to know about choosing the right Ecommerce hosting provider.

What to Know Before Choosing Ecommerce Hosting Provider?

What is Ecommerce Hosting?

Ecommerce hosting is a special web hosting made just for online stores. It is like renting a space on the internet for your online store. Regular web hosting gives your website a place to live online so people can visit it. But ecommerce hosting is special because it’s made just for online stores. It’s designed to make sure your store runs smoothly.

With ecommerce hosting, your website can handle many visitors and sales simultaneously, thanks to high performance. It also has strong security features like SSL certificates to protect customer data. Plus, it can grow with your business, handling more traffic as you get bigger. Ecommerce hosting includes tools like shopping carts, payment systems, and ways to manage inventory, making the shopping experience easier for customers.

In short, ecommerce hosting gives online businesses everything they need to run a secure and reliable online store.

Types of Ecommerce Hosting

Dedicated Hosting

With dedicated hosting, you get a special computer just for your ecommerce store. This means your site can be fast, work well, and be extra safe to keep your online store running smoothly.A dedicated server might sound great, but it’s usually the most expensive choice. You might also need to know a lot about computers to set up the server, put software on it, and keep everything updated. If you don’t want to do all that, you can pay more for a hosting company, but it will cost more.

Shared Hosting

Shared hosting is cheap hosting that lots of people use. Many websites share one big computer, using its memory (RAM) and power to run. It’s easy because the hosting company sets up and takes care of the computer, so you don’t need to know a lot about computers.However, shared hosting has limits. If your website gets lots of visitors, the computer might need to handle it better. It would help if you had a plan that gives enough space and can manage your site’s visitors. If not, your website could have problems that make customers unhappy.

Managed Hosting

Managed hosting means the hosting provider does most of the tech work so you can focus on your business. It’s great for ecommerce owners who don’t want to spend time setting up and maintaining their websites.With managed hosting, your provider keeps everything safe and working well. They also help with many website tasks whenever you need it. Managed hosting often comes with extra things like special themes, tools, and software for running your online store. Managed hosting can be used with different setups, such as cloud hosting.

VPS Hosting 

VPS hosting works like dedicated hosting, but with VPS, you get a virtual machine on a dedicated server. VPS hosting is a great option with many features and is a popular choice for fast-growing companies and e-commerce start-ups. Although VPS and dedicated hosting give you more freedom and flexibility, you have to manage your server. This can be good if you want to create a custom setup and know what your e-commerce business needs.

Cloud Hosting

Cloud hosting uses lots of connected servers. It’s good for websites with many visitors because you can add more power and take it away later. This makes it flexible. However, cloud hosting costs more than shared hosting.When making an ecommerce website, you must pick the hosting service and an ecommerce platform.

Importance of Choosing the Right Hosting for an eCommerce Website

Choosing the right hosting is very important for an eCommerce website because it affects how well the site works. First, performance is key. A fast website that rarely goes offline helps customers shop easily, leading to more sales and fewer people leaving your site. Second, security is crucial in eCommerce hosting. It is important to keep customers’ sensitive information safe, like how they pay. The best hosting providers use SSL certificates, firewalls, and regular backups to protect data from hackers and ensure nothing gets lost.

Lastly, hosting should be able to grow with your business. As your online store grows, more people will visit and buy things. Good hosting can handle all that extra activity smoothly. Choosing the right hosting ensures your customers have a safe, dependable shopping experience, which makes them want to buy more and trust your store.

Choosing Ecommerce Hosting Provider: What to Look for?

Picking a web hosting provider can be tough because you must consider costs, how often the site is up, how fast pages load, and the features they offer.

Here are some key points to consider for the best fit for your online store.

Performance

A good hosting provider should be fast and trustworthy. Websites should load in three seconds or less because many people leave if they’re slow. Shared hosting can make your site slower and sometimes not work. Some hosts aren’t reliable, which can cause crashes and slow downloads. Not all companies keep their promises about being fast, so check if your host checks how well the website works and tells you about any problems.

File Storage and Bandwidth

Ecommerce websites need plenty of space for files and lots of visitors. It would help to choose a hosting provider that gives you enough room so you don’t have to pay extra. Good-quality pictures are important for ecommerce sites, and they need a lot of space. As your store gets bigger, you’ll need even more space for all these extra files.

Auto-Scaling

Ecommerce websites can get busy, especially when many buy things for sales or other reasons. That’s why it’s important to consider two scaling types when choosing a web host for your online store. One is called auto-scaling, which means your website can handle sudden bursts of many people visiting simultaneously. The other type is scalable resources that can grow as your store grows.

Auto-scaling is super important for online stores because it helps your website deal with lots of visitors simultaneously. Your regular plan should be okay, except during busy times like holidays. Auto-scaling automatically adds extra resources to your website, so it doesn’t slow down or crash when you have many visitors.

Multiple Data Centers

To make your online store rank higher for your target audience, choose a web hosting provider with physical servers in the countries where your audience is located. The location of the server’s data center affects your website’s speed. Your website might load slowly if users are far from the data center. Online customers are often impatient; a slow website can make them leave and never return. Also, search engines care about site speed. To help your website rank higher, pick a web host with data centers close to your customers.

Customer Support

When choosing a hosting company, look for special teams ready to help fix problems and answer questions about your website.

Also, check how easy it is to get in touch with them through:

• Phone
• Email
• Live chat
• Sending a ticket

A good ecommerce website takes care of customers well, which makes them happy and more likely to buy things, tell others good things about your store, and write nice reviews online.

Built-in Security Features

Security is really important for online stores. Your personal information, like credit card details, must be kept safe when you shop online. That’s why ecommerce websites should have strong security features. When picking a web hosting service for your online store, ensure it offers SSL certificates and PCI compliance.

SSL certificates ensure that every information exchanged between your website and your customers’ web browsers is kept safe by encrypting. This means it’s scrambled up so no one else can read it. PCI compliance is also crucial. This implies the hosting service follows strict rules to protect customers’ payment information. These features help ensure your online store is safe for your customers.

PCI Compliance

PCI compliance is very important for ecommerce hosting. This means that the hosting company follows strict security rules set by credit card companies to protect customer information. This includes using advanced security measures for networks and data.

Free SSL Certificate

A free SSL certificate ensures that all the information exchanged between your website and your customers’ browsers is safe and encrypted. When choosing ecommerce web hosting, it’s great to find one that gives you a free SSL certificate so you don’t have to spend more money on getting it from another company.

Firewalls and Security Plugins

Firewalls and security plugins or extensions are tools that protect your online store from hackers. They check all the requests to your website and stop any attempts to hack into it. These tools are important for keeping your ecommerce website safe and secure.

Backups

Backups are like safety nets for your website. They make sure you can quickly fix your website and get it working again if something goes wrong. When picking a hosting provider for your ecommerce site, make sure they offer at least a week of free daily backups. This means they’ll save copies of your website daily, so if there’s a problem, like an update that doesn’t work or a virus, you can return to a version that works fine.

Having one-click restores is also helpful because it lets you quickly return your site online without much hassle. It’s smart to use multiple backup solutions just to be safe. You can save backups manually or use a backup tool that does it automatically. This way, even if something happens to your main backups, you have another copy ready.

Developer-Friendly Setup

As a developer, you should consider advanced options for your website’s server processes. Finding a host that allows these features can be hard because web hosts don’t want beginners messing with important files and accidentally crashing the site. That’s why finding a host who understands your developer skills and can work with you easily is important.

CDN Setup

Using a content delivery network (CDN) for e-commerce is essential nowadays, and it is not just an option. A CDN makes your ecommerce website faster by storing content closer to the people who visit it, even if they are all over the world. Many servers across different locations store static content, so when someone asks for it, it’s loaded from the nearest place to them.

A CDN can greatly boost your ecommerce website’s speed and cut down on how much data you use. Plus, since each visitor gets a lot of different content, having images and videos from the CDN is extra helpful. When you pick a web hosting plan for ecommerce, ensure it includes a CDN. While you could always use a different company for a CDN, that could cost you more and take a long time to set up for your business. Web hosting for ecommerce usually already has a CDN set up for your type of website.

Bottom Line

Choosing the best ecommerce hosting is important for your online store. It makes your website go fast, keeps it safe, and handles more people visiting as your business grows. Find fast and secure hosting that can grow as your store grows. 

Make sure it has good help if you need it, strong safety features, and tools to help you control your site easily. When you pick the right hosting, your online store will work well, and your customers will be happy. This helps them trust your store and buy more things, which is great for your business.

FAQs

Q1: Can I improve my hosting as my online store gets bigger? 

Most hosting providers have plans that can get bigger as your online store grows. This means you can handle more people visiting your store, buying, and needing more computer space and internet power. Ask your provider how to do this, how much it will cost, and if your store will be down for a while. Checking and making your hosting bigger as your store gets bigger helps your online store work well as it grows.

Q2: What is ecommerce web hosting?

Ecommerce web hosting is a special internet space for online stores. It helps your online store work well and stay smooth. Ecommerce hosting gives you special things for online stores, like shopping carts, security with SSL certificates, tools to help more people find your store online (SEO), and extra space growing as your store grows.

Q3: Should I pick a special online store hosting provider or a general one?

Pick a special hosting provider if your online store is big and complicated. They give you special help and make sure your store’s internet space works great. However, a good regular hosting provider can be cheaper and still work well if your online store is small or not too hard. Pick the one that matches what you need for your store, how much money you have, and what you want your store to do.