Web Hosting

"Imagine your domain name is your sign board. Your website contents is what you put on your sign board. Hosting, then, is the rent you pay for the space to put your sign board up on the world wide web where your target audience can see it."

what is website hosting?

A web hosting service provider is a business that provides the technology and services needed to make your website visible on the Internet. All of your website information is stored, or hosted, on huge specialized computers called servers.

Web hosting providers are numerous, and all offer different packages and pricings. The service provider and package you choose will affect:

  • The speed of your site (how quickly the information is retrieved from the server and sent to the user’s computer when they click on a page);
  • The uptime of your website (power outages, equipment failure, scheduled maintenance and other factors can cause a provider’s servers to go down);
  • The kind of support you receive to resolve any problems you might encounter (how easily you’re able to reach them and how quickly and effectively they respond);
  • Security (how they protect their servers, and thus your website, from hackers and malicious software attacks etc);
  • Scalability (do they offer bigger packages if you need to expand, do they have the capacity to handle large amounts of traffic); and
  • Your SEO rating (all of the above factors affect how highly you are ranked on search engines).

Packages

Since the service provider has such a large impact on the success of your website performance, I choose to only work with two web hosting providers, namely WordPress and Digiserv. WordPress is huge, established, well known and trusted. Digiserv is a South African company I have personally worked with for over 10 years, and they have always provided excellent service.

Each package offers an amount of disk space – this is the amount of data you can store on the web server, just like the disk space on your computer. How much disk space you need depends on the size of your website (how many pages you have) and how media-rich it is (the number of images, videos, motion effects etc). In general, for individuals and small businesses, 4GB disk space is sufficient.

Note that you can upgrade your package at any time. So if you find that you need to go bigger, you can.

Explore & Compare Packages below:

Click on a tab to open its contents.

  1. You get one year free hosting.
  2. You only have to deal with one provider as both your hosting and backend are with WordPress.
  3. The Business Package includes lots of free plugins and themes for endless customisation and special features.
  4. Packages have a lot of disk space.
  5. No additional work or time required after payment, the whole process is automated by WordPress.

  1. No email address option included (i.e. yourname@yourbusiness.com), this has to be set up externally at an additional monthly cost.
  2. WordPress requires a full year's worth of hosting upfront (annual billing) - no pay by month option.
  3. You are limited to 4 package options.
  4. While you can upgrade at any time to a higher package, you would need to wait out your year to downgrade.
  5. Unless on the Business or E-Commerce package options, there are no plugins and limited themes, meaning very limited customisation and special features.
  6. Unless on the Business or E-Commerce package options, WordPress advertising can't be removed.

PERSONAL

Price: $4 per month (approx R60), billed annually (R720).

Includes: 3GB space.

Excludes: Removal of WordPress ads. Ability to add plugins. SEO (search engine optimisation) tools. Email.

 

PREMIUM

Price: $8 per month (approx R120), billed annually (R1,440)

Includes: 13GB space. Removal of WordPress ads. Access to lots of free premium themes.

Excludes: Ability to add plugins. SEO tools. Email.

 

BUSINESS (Best Option)

Price: $25 per month (approx R375), billed annually (R4,500).

Includes: 200GB space. Removal of WordPress Ads. Access to lots of free premium themes. Ability to add lots of free plugins. SEO tools.

Excludes: Email.

 

E-COMMERCE

Price: $45 per month (approx R675), billed annually (R8,100)

Includes: 200GB space. Removal of WordPress Ads. Access to lots of free premium themes. Ability to add lots of free plugins. SEO tools. Built in ability to accept payment in 60+ countries. Built in ability to integrate with shipping carriers.

Excludes: Email.

 

Add G Suite for email $6 per month (approx R90).

  1. They are based in South Africa (local is lekker).
  2. All packages include domain name email, SEO tools and use of plugins.
  3. You can pay monthly and cancel at any time.
  4. If you choose annual payment, you get a discount.
  5. You can both upgrade and downgrade at any time.
  6. Many more package options to explore.

  1. Extra time cost to get WordPress and your Digiserv hosted domain holding hands (it's not an automated process).
  2. Less disk space offered in comparison to WordPress.
  3. Your web hosting account is separate from your website backend.
  4. No free premium themes.

ENTRY LEVEL - HOME

Price: R42 per month.

Includes: 5GB space, use of plugins, SEO tools, email.

Excludes: N/A

ENTRY LEVEL - HOME PRO (Best Option)

Price: R62 per month.

Includes: 10GB space, use of plugins, SEO tools, email.

Excludes: N/A

PROFESSIONAL - ECO BIZ

Price: R105.

Includes: 15GB space, use of plugins, SEO tools, email.

Excludes: N/A

PROFESSIONAL - PRO BIZ

Price: R155.

Includes: 25GB space, use of plugins, SEO tools, email.

Excludes: N/A

PROFESSIONAL - MEGA BIZ

Price: R260.

Includes: 50GB space, use of plugins, SEO tools, email.

Excludes: N/A

OVERWHELMED OR UNSURE OF WHAT YOU NEED?

Don’t stress. I can recommend which option would be best for you once I have an idea of the type of website you want. 

Process

  • Let me know which web hosting provider you would prefer to use and the package you’d like to go with (I can assist with a recommendation based on your desired website if you need help choosing. This is taken care of in the Request a Quote process).
  • I will invoice you for the domain name and web hosting. Once payment is received, I will complete the purchases for you.
  • It takes between an hour to 24 hours for your name and hosting space to be set up by the provider, at which point I will be given access to your newly acquired domain.
  • From here, we can proceed to design.
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