The small business hosting checklist: 12 questions to ask before you pay
Most small business owners pick a host by price and find out what they bought on the worst day of the year. These twelve questions take ten minutes and save that day.
Hosting is the part of a website nobody wants to think about, and that is exactly why it causes so much damage when it goes wrong. A cheap plan looks identical to a good one until a plugin breaks, a certificate expires or a disk fills up on a Saturday. The difference only shows up in the answers to a few boring questions.
Backups and recovery
- How often are backups taken, and do they include the database as well as the files?
- How many days of history are kept? One copy from last night is not enough if a problem started a week ago.
- Who restores a backup, and how long does it take? A backup you must restore yourself at midnight is only half a backup.
- Are backups stored on a different machine from the site itself?
Ask for a test restore before you move. A host that is confident in its backups will happily show you one. A host that hesitates has told you everything you need to know.
Security basics
- Is SSL included, and does it renew automatically on every subdomain?
- Who applies operating system and software updates, and how quickly after a security release?
- Is there a firewall or rate limiting in front of the login page?
- Can you limit admin access to named people, each with their own password?
People and money
- Who answers when something breaks outside office hours, and how do you reach them?
- What happens if you leave? You should get a full copy of your site, database and email, plus your DNS settings, without a fee.
- What is the renewal price, not the first year price? Many plans double in year two.
- Is email included, and if not, what will it cost on top?
The last two questions matter more than they look. A low first year price that doubles on renewal, plus email billed separately, often ends up costing more than a managed plan that included everything from the start.
How to use the answers
Write the answers down for two or three hosts side by side. You are not looking for the most features. You are looking for clear, specific answers. "Nightly, kept 30 days, restored by us within an hour" is a good answer. "We take backups regularly" is not.
If you would rather not do this at all, that is what managed hosting is for. Someone else asks these questions every day, so you can get back to running the business.
The people who design, host and maintain small business websites at Silicon Data Corp in San Jose. About us
