Is Your Site Ready to Graduate from Shared Hosting But Not Ready for VPS Yet?

Web hosting has an important role to play in the performance of a website. Choose the right plan and you won’t have to worry much about things like speed, security, and uptime for your clients’ websites. Choose the wrong plan and, well … You get it.  

The only catch is that the hosting plan your client uses on Day 1 probably isn’t the same hosting plan they’ll need a year or two down the road. As their business scales, their hosting technologies and resources need to scale, too.   

If your client’s site is currently on shared hosting and you know that it’s time to upgrade, where do you go from here?  

They might not be ready for VPS hosting just yet. And that’s okay. But rather than stay on a shared hosting server that’s potentially costing them opportunities and earnings, there’s a new option to consider:  Shared Hosting Plus.

Let’s look at what this type of hosting entails and which of your clients are the best candidates for it right now.  

What Types of Sites Belong on a Shared Hosting Plus Plan? 

When shared hosting just isn’t cutting it anymore, the next step up used to be VPS hosting. Now, though, Shared Hosting Plus bridges the gap between the two.  

You’ll get all the security from shared hosting and the power that comes from hosting your website on a virtual private server. But the complexity of managing it is gone. Instead, you’ll have the same easy-to-use interface as our standard Shared Hosting plans, but with guaranteed resources. 

As a bonus, Shared Hosting Plus plans are cheaper than standard VPS hosting.  

So, which of your clients are the best candidates for this hybrid hosting? Here are some examples of websites that would greatly benefit from it:  

Growing Ecommerce Websites 

Any site that sells products or digital software and subscriptions to a growing list of customers will need to move to a virtual private server sooner rather than later. There are a number of reasons why: 

For starters, consumers expect ecommerce experiences to be lightning fast. We’re talking no more than three seconds for each page to load.  

Plus, downtime is a profit killer. Unless the company can be forgiven for unexpected downtime the way one like Amazon can, they can’t afford to go offline. 

There’s also the security aspect to think about. As more credit card transactions take place on the site, customers’ privacy and security has to be a priority.  

Shared hosting can’t always guarantee the level of performance, uptime, and security that ecommerce websites need. VPS hosting can. However, smaller ecommerce companies might not be able to handle the cost and complexity of it just yet.  

That’s where Shared Hosting Plus comes into play. With greater control over resources as well as security features like automated (and free) SSL certificates, ecommerce companies can be assured that their sites live up to their customers’ expectations. 

Local Businesses Moving Online 

This past year has changed the way so many companies have had to do business. And while the transition to online might’ve helped them stay open amidst the pandemic-related restrictions, I suspect many will maintain the digital arms of their businesses.  

For example, I saw a lot of restaurants add new features to their sites like online ordering. Others repurposed their existing offerings and started selling packaged items, like cocktails-to-go or meal kits, to the DIY crowd.  

A lot of consumers grew accustomed to this new way of buying from local vendors, so it would be in local businesses’ best interest to maintain their digital offerings.  

But processing payments quickly and reliably has to be factored in (if it hasn’t already), which means an upgrade to the cost-effective Shared Hosting Plus.  

Blogs and News Sites with Increasing Volumes of Traffic 

News sites and blogs produce a lot of content and upload a lot of media to accompany it. Their ever-growing storage needs are a major reason why a virtual server is critical. 

There’s also the matter of HTTP requests associated with sites like these and the toll they take on processing speeds.  

It’s not just the content and media files that can put a strain on resources either. Content-based sites with avid readers and followers are going to get more comments, too. And these comments as well as the users’ avatars require additional processing.  

Plus, in order to generate revenue from this increased readership, news sites and blogs need to fill the remaining space with links to related content on the site as well as banner ads pulled in from external sources.  

Without the scalable storage and resources of a virtual private server, you’ll be looking at very slow loading times for visitors. So, Shared Hosting Plus is the next stage for a growing blog or news site. 

SMB Websites That Are Recruiting 

Most enterprises will have the budget and team needed to manage a robust hiring portal and the VPS or dedicated hosting needed to support it. But for smaller companies that want to advertise job openings and accept applications through their sites, Shared Hosting Plus is going to be a very attractive option.  

The private hosting will enable them to run just as secure and fast of a recruitment portal as the bigger companies. What’s more, they can scale up their server resources as their organization grows.  

Educational Websites with Backend Portals 

Here’s another example of how Shared Hosting Plus can level the playing field.  

In this case, it would be beneficial for smaller local or community colleges to upgrade to Shared Hosting Plus. They might not have the technical teams or budget to move to VPS hosting, but they can go for the cost-effective alternative.  

This would allow smaller educational institutions to power their websites and backend portals for students and faculty with the resources of VPS, but without the technical complexities and cost that often come with it. What’s more, they can scale up their server resources as their organization grows.  

As a bonus, if these educational institutions decide to keep using the virtual 3D tours that became so popular during the pandemic, the extra server power will come in handy. 

Wrap-Up 

These obviously aren’t the only kinds of sites that can benefit from moving to a Shared Hosting Plus plan. Really, anyone that’s budget-conscious but needs more control over server resources, speedier and safer transactions, and better uptime could do well on one of these plans.  

And, obviously, you’d benefit too since you wouldn’t have to master the complexities of managing a VPS server (or outsource it to a managed hosting provider if that isn’t in your client’s budget).  

If you think that Shared Hosting Plus would be a good fit for your client’s website, you can read more about it here.