Busy websites rarely fail on an average day. They fail at the peak: a Black Friday sale, a ticket release, a mention on television or a big product launch. Online shops, news sites, booking platforms and gaming sites all face the same challenge, which is that traffic can multiply within minutes.
This guide explains how to choose hosting that copes with those peaks. If you are new to the basics, start with the difference between hosting and domain registration.
Know your traffic pattern before comparing plans
Hosting is sized for the busiest hour, not the average. Before you compare plans, gather three numbers from your analytics:
- Typical daily visitors, and how many people are on the site at the same time.
- Your biggest peak so far, and what caused it.
- Planned events in the next year, such as sales, launches or campaigns.
Also consider how dynamic your pages are. A brochure site can serve the same cached page to everyone. Logged-in accounts, baskets and live data need far more server power for each visitor.
The main hosting types compared
| Type | Best for | Handles traffic spikes | Effort to manage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shared hosting | Small brochure sites and blogs | Poorly: you share resources with other sites | Very low |
| VPS (virtual private server) | Growing sites that need guaranteed resources | Moderately, within the plan’s limits | Medium to high, unless managed |
| Managed WordPress hosting | Business WordPress sites and shops | Well, with built-in caching and a CDN | Low |
| Cloud hosting with autoscaling | Sites with large, unpredictable peaks | Very well: resources scale up automatically | Medium to high |
| Dedicated server | Large, steady workloads with special needs | Well, but only up to the server’s capacity | High |
For most UK small and medium-sized businesses, managed WordPress hosting or a managed VPS is the sensible middle ground. Cloud autoscaling makes sense once peaks are large, frequent and costly to miss.
What to check in any hosting plan
- Real resource limits. Look past “unlimited” and find the CPU, memory and PHP worker limits and the fair-use policy.
- The uptime guarantee. 99.9% uptime still allows about 8.8 hours of downtime a year; 99.99% allows about 53 minutes. Check what compensation you actually get if the host misses it.
- Caching and a CDN, so images and static files are served from locations close to your visitors.
- Backups. You want daily automatic backups stored away from the main server, and a restore you have actually tested.
- Security. Look for a web application firewall, DDoS protection, malware scanning, free SSL certificates and two-factor login for the control panel.
- Staging sites, so updates can be tested safely before they go live. See our guide to what to ask your agency to test before a WordPress update.
- Data location and UK GDPR. Know where your data is stored, and make sure the host signs a data processing agreement.
- Support. Check that it is available around the clock, staffed by engineers and has published response times.
Read the acceptable use policy first
Many hosts restrict certain kinds of websites, for example gambling, adult content, cryptocurrency mining or bulk email, or apply extra checks to them. If your site is in one of these areas, read the acceptable use policy before you migrate. A breach can mean your site is suspended without warning.
Regulated businesses have extra obligations. Gambling and financial services firms, for instance, may face licence conditions about how their systems are hosted, secured and monitored. Confirm the requirements with your compliance team or regulator before you sign a contract.
Test before the peak, not during it
- Run a load test on a staging copy of the site, using a tool such as Grafana k6 or Loader.io, at two to three times your expected peak.
- Set up uptime monitoring that alerts you by email or text the moment the site goes down.
- Agree who to contact, and how, if problems start during a busy event.
- Keep a rollback plan: a recent backup and clear steps for restoring it.
Questions to ask a host before you sign
- What happens to my site if traffic suddenly triples?
- Which limits apply to my plan, and what happens when I reach them?
- Where are my site and its backups physically stored?
- How quickly can you restore my site from a backup?
- Are there any types of website or content you do not allow?
- How do I move to a bigger plan, and is there any downtime?
Hosting and design work together. A fast host cannot rescue a heavy, badly built page. Read our guide to designing websites with large catalogues for the design side.
