How cheap web hosting can be expensive
January 6, 2023 | 
Connor
Nowadays, finding cheap web hosting is a google away, but are their offerings too good to be true? This article covers the ways that your cheap web host could be costing you money in the long run!
Site speed
One of the ways cheap web hosts save money is by allocating many hosting accounts/websites to one (usually with older hardware) server, this helps the host keep their cost down and in theory pass the savings onto you.
The issue with this approach is that overfilling a server is a fast way to slow websites, as the server will be congested and if one site gets a surge of traffic, every other site on the server will feel it!
Users lose engagement and start to leave the page if it takes longer than 3 seconds to load, so every second counts!
So how does Mosaic compare? Our hosting is built for speed, utilising the latest enterprise-grade hardware and tools, alongside our unique autoscaling platform, to make sure that your site loads fast, and has all the resources it needs to load fast, even if you get that surge of Christmas traffic!
Downtime
There are many reasons a website could have downtime, it could be an overfilled server, a configuration error, or even a power cut at the data centre! There are ways to eliminate these sorts of downtime issues, but they usually come at a cost to the web host, so the cheaper the web host, the more likely you are to face unexpected downtime.
So how does Mosaic compare? Our hosting platform is built with multiple forms of redundancy (autoscaling platform stopping overfilled servers, with redundant and uninterruptible power supplies) in place to ensure this sort of downtime doesn’t happen, period.
Security
Having a hacked site can be terrifying and with hacks getting more and more sophisticated over time, you need to ensure that your hosting is secure.
Cheap web hosting providers can often cut corners when it comes to security, and this can be felt by you as the end user.
Fixing hacked sites can be difficult and expensive, but regaining any lost reputation from the incident can be even harder!
So how does Mosaic compare? Our platform is built with the latest technologies and is constantly kept up to date, with server-side malware scanning and site hardening to make sure our platform is as secure as possible.
Sites hosting with Mosaic aren’t just secure virtually, but physically too! Our data centres are ISO27001:2013 certified. Their security features include:
- 24-7 security on site
- Photo ID and swipe card entry
- CCTV inside and out
- Gated access and secure perimeter fencing
- Redundant and uninterruptible power supplies
Support
One of the biggest costs for any business is staff, and this applies to hosting support staff too! This means that the biggest cost a cheap web host can cut is their support staff, and while this might work for some, not having the support you need, when you need can be an extremely stressful position to be in.
What’s worse is when you finally get that support reply and it’s clear the message is a template, they haven’t read your issue and they really are too overworked to care.
So how does Mosaic compare? We offer a wide knowledge base you can refer to at any time that covers most of the main support queries we get, but we also offer dedicated support to help you with any issues you have.
If you have used Mosaic for any of your web or marketing services, you already know about the high quality and personal support we offer to our clients!
Resource allocation caps
As mentioned before, most servers are massively overallocated, but even with this, on cheap web hosts you are likely to have caps placed on your account, like storage, a number of email accounts or bandwidth, which might be fine for some people, but it only takes a surge of traffic to suddenly have the site offline for using too many resources!
So how does Mosaic compare? It’s simple, we don’t add any hard limits like this to your account, so if you get that surge of traffic, have a lot of images to upload, or a few more email accounts to create, then no problem!
Environmental impact
Did you know, the average website produces 1.76g of CO2 for every page viewed? This means that hosting is helping to kill the planet!
While in no way exclusive to cheap web hosts, using the cheapest source of electricity (coal) to power their data centres can really help with keeping costs down, and while this might seem fine for now, the long-term damage potential on the planet is astronomical.
So how does Mosaic compare? As a Conscience marketing pledged business, our entire hosting platform is green, meaning it’s not just the best hosting solution for you as an end user, but also for the planet!
Cheap web hosting: a bare-bones experience
Cheap web hosting is all about cutting corners to pass those savings onward, but that doesn’t mean you can buy back some of the more important features as add-ons!
- Want to feel safe with backups? That’s an addon
- Want better support? That’s an addon
- Want the website to have an SSL? Another addon!
- When you have all these addons, your monthly fees are no longer cheap and you are still overall left with a subpar service.
So how does Mosaic compare? Our hosting has everything you need, with many features that other agencies charge as addons included as part of the price.
Host with Mosaic
If you’re looking for high-quality managed web hosting that doesn’t fall into the common pitfalls other hosting providers fall into, then our hosting is for you!
At just £120/year why not give our hosting platform a spin and see the benefits for yourself?