Breaking Down the Cost of Web Hosting

Take a look at some of the top web hosting providers and you’ll probably notice one thing: they all have very different prices for very similar packages. So why is that? Is it really because some web hosts are just greedier than others, and want to take as much as they can from their clients? Well, that might be the case in some instances. But most of the time, it’s simply because the web hosts themselves are paying different costs for the exact same thing. Here we’ll look at why that is.

The amount of support the host provides is a huge determining factor in how much they charge. In order to get highly capable and competent people to work in their support department, web hosts need to pay a higher price for that knowledge and expertise. While web hosts can hire customer support staff that aren’t as knowledgeable, the website owner won’t get the level of support they may have if they had gone with a web host that hired qualified staff.

The network the web host uses also plays a very large role in how much the website owner will end up being charged. These networks involve the datacenters that the web host uses to store their servers. Just like customer support, these data centers come with different capabilities, and with different prices. Datacenters that have redundant fast connections, reliable back up power, and top-notch security are going to cost more than those that don’t. But in turn, website owners will also be provided with a much better service.

Of course, the whole reason website owners need to hire web hosts in the first place is because it’s hosts that have the web servers needed to store the website and get it onto the Internet. These servers though, just like anything else, come in both really good quality, and poor quality; and different web hosts use different qualities of servers. While you may get a cheaper price using a web host that owns sub-quality servers, you’ll also get sub-standard service. And  if the servers are of really poor quality, your website may not be up and running as often as you would expect it to be.

Lastly, the amount of features and the type of features that a web host provides all come with different costs. Things like Windows, Linux, SSL support, security certificates, and scripting languages all come with different costs; and web hosts can find them in a multitude of price ranges. Again, some are better than others so if your web host chooses one that is more expensive, you will likely absorb the cost. However, you’ll likely also get a better website and web hosting experience.

It is true that many web hosts charge different prices for what seem like very similar packages. But dig a little deeper, and you’ll see that within that fine print lies the details. And it’s those details that will tell you why one package is more expensive than the other.