What you are actually buying
- Server response time — how fast the first byte arrives
- Backups taken automatically and restorable easily
- A staging environment, so updates can be tested
- Support that understands WordPress
- Isolation from other sites' problems
Storage and bandwidth are what hosts advertise and almost never what limits a small business site. Response time is what you feel.
The tiers
| Type | Typical cost | Suits |
|---|---|---|
| Budget shared | £3–£8/mo | Personal sites, low stakes |
| Quality shared | £10–£25/mo | Small business brochure sites |
| Managed WordPress | £25–£90/mo | Business sites that matter |
| Cloud/VPS managed | £80–£300/mo | Stores and high traffic |
Managed hosting earns its price
- Updates handled, or at least staged and monitored
- Backups automatic, retained and tested
- Caching configured at server level, which beats a plugin
- Staging available in a click
- Support who know WordPress rather than reading a script
Where your visitors are matters
Host near your audience. A UK business on a US server adds latency to every request for no benefit, and a CDN only partly compensates.
For international audiences, host near your largest market and use a CDN for the rest.
Keep the ownership
The hosting account should be in your business's name with your billing details, whoever manages it. Agencies holding client hosting accounts is common and it is a trap.
You should be able to change agency without changing anything technical.