Last updated on February 22nd, 2022 at 07:57 pm
Web hosting plans aren’t one size fits all. When you initially launch your website, an inexpensive plan with shared resources will likely suffice. It will keep your website up and running at a nominal cost. Eventually, though, your website will outgrow its current web hosting plan. If you notice any of the seven following signs, you should consider upgrading your web hosting plan.
1) Frequent Downtime
Servers often go down for maintenance and repairs, but frequent downtime signifies the need for a new web hosting plan. All web hosting plans will provide you with a server on which to host your website’s files. The older the server, the more downtime it will have.
According to research by Statista, seven-year-old servers experience over six hours of downtime on average per year. In comparison, one-year-old servers experience just two hours and 30 minutes of downtime per year. By upgrading your web hosting plan, your website won’t succumb to frequent server downtime.
2) High Bandwidth Usage
Monitoring how much data goes in and out of your website can help you determine whether you need a new web hosting plan. Your website will both receive data and send data, which is collectively measured as bandwidth usage. As your website attracts more visitors and encompasses more files, it will use more bandwidth.
Many web hosting plans have bandwidth limits. They only allow their customers to send and receive a specific amount of data in a given period, typically per month. If you exceed this bandwidth limit, your website could be taken offline to conserve resources for the server’s other customers. Rather than trying to limit your website’s bandwidth usage, however, you can upgrade to a web hosting plan with a higher bandwidth limit or even no bandwidth limit.
3) Unresponsive Customer Support
Another sign you should upgrade your web hosting plan is unresponsive customer support. Some web hosting companies respond more quickly to customer support inquiries than others. However, many web hosting companies prioritize support based on the customer’s web hosting plan. If you have an inexpensive bottom-tiered web hosting plan, the company may not respond to your inquiries until it has responded to the inquiries of customers with a premium web hosting plan.
When you send a customer support inquiry to your web hosting company, it should respond with a helpful answer in less than one business day. If you don’t get a response within this timeframe you may need a new hosting plan, potentially from a different company. Credible web hosting companies often respond to customer support inquiries in just hours, but their shady counterparts can take days to respond if they respond at all.
4) Outdated Server Software
If your web hosting plan uses outdated server software, it’s probably time for an upgrade. While servers are technically desktop computers, they don’t run the same software. To provide an effective digital environment for hosting websites servers need specific software, some of which may include Apache, Linux Cent OS, cURL, Ruby on Rails, phpMyAdmin, cPanel and MySQL
Developers regularly update their server software to improve performance and reliability. Unfortunately, not all web hosting companies perform software updates in a timely manner. Some of them may neglect to update the software on their servers. If your web hosting plan is powered by outdated server software, you should explore alternative plans that offer faster updates.
5) Slow Loading Times
Pay attention to your website’s loading times. If your website loads slowly, visitors won’t enjoy using it. Visitors don’t want to stare at their computer or device’s display while waiting for your website to load. When they click a link to your website, they expect it to load almost instantly. You can speed up your website’s loading times by upgrading your web hosting plan.
While your web hosting plan isn’t the only factor that affects loading times, it’s arguably the most influential. A bottom-tiered web hosting plan will force your website to share resources with other customers. Some of them, in fact, place hundreds of customers on the same server. Since the resources are distributed, your website won’t have the random access memory (RAM) and central processing unit (CPU) power it needs to quickly load.
6) Data Loss
You should consider upgrading your web hosting plan in the event of data loss. Data loss can prove disastrous for your website. Your website and all its content consists of data. Your web hosting plan’s server will typically store this data on a hard disk drive (HDD) or solid-state drive (SSD). If any of the data is deleted or becomes corrupt, you’ll have to rebuild some or all of your website.
The right web hosting plan can prevent data loss. If the server is maintained and runs up-to-date software, it will provide a more reliable storage environment for your website’s data. Additionally, many web hosting plans come with automatic backups. They will compress all of your website’s data into a single file once every one or two weeks. If you discover that your website has lost some of its data, you can restore it using this compressed file.
7) Increased Cyber Threats
If your website is facing a greater number of cyber threats than it did in the past, you may want to upgrade your web hosting plan. From distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks to SQL injections and malware, cyber threats are a widespread problem for webmasters. Aside from taking down your website, they can harm its credibility and reputation.
Upgrading your web hosting plan will protect your website from common cyber threats. Bottom-tiered web hosting plans offer limited control over security software and settings. You won’t be able to configure firewalls, nor will you be able to install custom antivirus software. Premium web hosting plans, on the other hand, offer complete control over security software and settings. You’ll have the freedom to configure your server so that it offers iron-clad protection against cyber threats.
Your website will eventually outgrow its current web hosting plan. While shared web hosting plans are inexpensive, they don’t offer many resources. Regardless, you should consider upgrading your web hosting plan if you notice any of these signs.