Next to managed WordPress hosting, cheap hosting looks like a sensible saving. A few dollars a month, a big brand name, and your website is online. For a while, everything is fine.
Then something breaks. The site shows an error, a form stops sending, or a plugin update leaves your homepage blank. That’s when you find out what you’re actually paying for.
What cheap hosting usually covers (and what it doesn’t)
Budget hosting plans are built to serve a huge number of customers at a low price. That’s not a criticism, it’s just the model. You get server space, a control panel and access to a help centre.
What you often don’t get is someone looking after your actual website. The host keeps the server running. Everything on top of it, like WordPress, your theme, your plugins and your content, is usually your job.
That means the regular jobs fall back on you:
- Running WordPress and plugin updates, and fixing anything they break
- Checking that backups exist and actually work
- Spotting a security problem before your customers do
- Working out why the site has slowed down
- Moving the site if you ever change providers
If you’re comfortable with all of that, cheap hosting can be fine. Plenty of hobby sites and early side projects run happily on it. For a business that relies on its website to bring in work, it’s worth thinking through the bad day before it arrives.
The support queue problem
When something goes wrong on a budget plan, the usual path is a ticket or a live chat. You explain the problem, get a reference number, and wait.
The person who replies may be helpful, but they’re often working from a script. They’ll confirm the server is up, then point out that the error is coming from your WordPress site, which isn’t covered. You’re back where you started, just later in the day.
With managed WordPress hosting, the people who look after the server also look after the site. There’s no handball between “the hosting” and “the website”, because it’s the same team.
Backups and security updates: the jobs nobody sees
Most hosts say they take backups. The questions that matter are a little different:
- Who checks that the backups are actually running?
- If your site breaks, who restores it?
- Do you need to pay extra, or work it out yourself from a help article?
A backup you can’t easily use isn’t much comfort when your site is down. With managed hosting, backups are part of the service, and if something goes wrong you have a local team to call rather than a set of instructions to follow.
Security updates work the same way. WordPress, themes and plugins all release updates, and many of them fix security holes. Leave them too long and your site becomes an easier target. Run them carelessly and something might stop working. The Australian Cyber Security Centre recommends keeping software up to date as a basic way to protect your business.
On cheap hosting, updates are usually left to you. Some people turn on auto-updates and hope for the best. Others stop updating altogether, because the last time they did, the site broke. Managed hosting takes that job off your plate, and the people applying the updates are the same people who can sort out a conflict if one turns up.
Speed and where your site lives
A slow site is frustrating for visitors, especially on a phone with patchy reception. Speed comes from a mix of things: the server, how the site is built, image sizes and how many plugins are running.
Cheap hosting can work, but you’re often sharing resources with a lot of other sites, and you’re on your own when it comes to working out what’s slowing things down.
Where the server sits matters too. If your customers are in the Northern Rivers or on the Gold Coast, Australian hosting keeps your site close to the people visiting it. It also means your website data is stored in Australia, which many business owners prefer.
Speed is something we’ve worked on with local businesses before. JS Henderson, a North Coast builder, came to us for a faster website, and that kind of work is simpler when the build and the hosting are looked after by the same people.
Who fixes it at 4pm on a Friday?
This is the real question. Picture it: it’s late Friday afternoon, a customer calls to say your contact form isn’t working, and you’ve got a weekend of enquiries coming.
On a budget plan, you’re logging a ticket and hoping someone picks it up. You might end up reading forum threads at 9pm, trying to work out what an error message means.
With managed hosting through Inversit, you call 02 6610 9202 (we’re here Monday to Friday, 9:30am to 4:30pm) and talk to a small team in Lismore who already know your site. No offshore call centre, and no handballing between departments. Carrie looks after the websites and Luke handles the IT side, so the person you speak to can get straight into the problem.
What managed WordPress hosting with Inversit includes
Our managed Australian WordPress hosting is $49.95 + GST per month. It includes:
- Backups
- Security updates
- Free migration from your current host, with no downtime during the move
- A local team to call when something isn’t right
We can also look after your business email, domain names and DNS, and give practical IT advice, so you’re not juggling a separate supplier for each piece. There’s more detail on our managed hosting, email and domains page.
If moving sounds like a hassle, it doesn’t need to be. Migration is free, we handle it for you, and your site stays online throughout.
So which one is right for you?
Cheap hosting is fine if your site is a hobby, you’re happy to handle updates yourself, and a day or two of downtime wouldn’t cost you anything.
Managed hosting makes more sense if:
- Your website brings in enquiries, bookings or sales
- You don’t have the time or interest to manage updates and backups
- You’d rather call a local person than log a ticket
- You want your website, hosting and email looked after by one team
If you’re planning a new site as well, our custom WordPress web design is built to sit on the same hosting, so everything is looked after in one place.
Not sure how your current hosting stacks up?
Book a free website health check and we’ll review your site’s performance, design and SEO, then explain what we find in plain English. It takes about 30 minutes and there’s no obligation. Get in touch online or call us on 02 6610 9202.
