Ecommerce hosting: what to look for

If you run an online store, hosting can feel like one of those decisions you’re expected to understand, but no one ever really explains properly.

It’s usually full of jargon, confusing plan names, and “unlimited” promises that don’t actually mean much to you. As a result, you may end up paying for a plan that is either holding your online shop back or giving you more than you need and therefore costing you more.

We’ve seen over and over again. It’s frustrating, as sometimes it feels like a lack of technical experience is taken advantage of. However, we believe you don’t need to have that technical knowledge to make a good choice.

You just need to know what matters for an online store, what to prioritise, and what to avoid.

This guide will help you do exactly that.

What hosting actually is (in simple terms)

Hosting is where your website lives. When someone visits your store, your hosting provider is responsible for serving your website to them quickly and reliably.

A good hosting plan helps your store feel:

• Fast
• Stable
• Secure
• Supported (so you’re not stuck when something goes wrong)

Because your store takes payments and handles customer data, hosting isn’t something you want to leave to chance.

The 5 points worth thinking about before you choose a plan

1) How important is speed for you?

Speed isn’t just a technical thing – it impacts real sales. So really there is only one answer to this question. Speed is very important.

If your site feels slow, people:

• Lose patience
• Abandon baskets
• Don’t trust the checkout

This matters even more if you’re paying for ads or putting time into SEO. There’s no point driving traffic to a store that feels slow.

2) What sort of traffic do you get?

Most hosting plans talk about things like bandwidth, RAM, CPU. That’s not helpful for most store owners.

Instead think about:

• Do you get steady visits each day?
• Do you have big spikes (sales, launches, Christmas)?
• Are you planning to grow soon?

A store with quiet traffic can get away with less. A store with spikes needs hosting that can cope without struggling.

3) How much would downtime hurt?

If your site goes offline, even briefly, it can cause issues including:

• Lost sales
• Customers thinking you’ve closed
• Ads spending money to send people to a broken site

If your store is a key income stream, you want a hosting plan that focuses on reliability.

4) How much support do you want?

This is the one that can really affect your day-to-day stress. Some hosting companies offer support, but it’s mostly:

• Automated replies
• Slow response times
• People who can only help with very basic things

Better hosting tends to include support that actually understands ecommerce and can help when the site has a real problem.

If the thought of troubleshooting your website makes you lose sleep, choose managed hosting.

5) What platform are you using?

This can change everything. Here’s the short version:

• Shopify: hosting is included, you don’t choose it
• WooCommerce (WordPress): hosting quality makes a huge difference
• Magento: needs strong hosting, cheap plans usually won’t cope
• Custom website: needs hosting tailored to how it’s built

If you’re not sure what you’re on, your developer or agency will (if they can’t, this is a red flag) be able to tell you quickly.

What next?

Now that you know what to look for, the next step is choosing a plan that matches your store and how you sell.
For most online shop owners, managed hosting is the simplest and safest option. “Managed” essentially means you’re not just paying for space on a server, you’re paying for a team to help keep your site running properly.

Depending on the provider, this usually includes:

• Performance management: keeping your site fast through caching and server optimisation
• Security management: monitoring for threats, applying security updates, and helping if something goes wrong
• Backups and recovery: daily backups with a clear restore process if you ever need to roll back
• Maintenance support: help diagnosing errors, downtime, and store issues (not just “restart your router” support)

That means less time worrying about your website, fewer disruptions during busy periods, and a store that feels more reliable for customers.

In summary:

For any decision on your website, you should be focusing on what affects customers: speed, uptime and a checkout that works every time. Therefore, choose hosting with daily backups and proper support, not vague “unlimited” promises. For most ecommerce stores, managed hosting is the simplest way to get a faster, safer site with fewer problems.