Web Hosting

What Hosting Plan Level Do I Need?

It can be a bit tricky to know what size webhosting account you need. Each use case is a little bit different and can depend on many factors, but generally we ask a simple question: what will you be doing on your website (e.g. eCommerce, or a simple static site?) or app and how much traffic do you currently get, or expect to get?

While there is no "industry standard" like many webhosts, we typically categorise hosting plans on how much server resource you need.  Most website owners don't really know how much resource they need.  Therefore, it's a bit of trial and error.  Popularity = demand and demand = resources.  If you can estimate your popularity and number of visitors, then it will help you to know which plan might be appropriate to start with.  Of course, you can always upgrade, plus we do allow for some level of traffic bursts.

For illustration, here is a rough guide: (the first three tiers typically makes up around 45% of most websites)

• Very low traffic website < 500 visitors per month
• Low traffic website 500 ~ 2,000 visitors per month
• Low / medium traffic website: 2k - 15k visitors per month (approx 45% of sites)
• Medium traffic website: 15k - 100,000 visitors per month (approx 20% of sites)
• Medium / high traffic website: 100k - 500,000 visitors per month (approx 15% of sites)
• High traffic website: 500k ~ 3 million visitors per month
• High / very high traffic website: 3m ~ 15m visitors per month (approx 10% of sites)
• Very high traffic website: 15m + visitors per month (approx 4.5% of sites)
• Super charged, top 1000 websites: 100M+ visitors per month (approx 0.5%)

Looking at your monthly visitor stats can help you to estimate what you need.  We indicate the amount of power and size available on the server for our Web Hosting Plans. Lower Server Levels have access to fewer features and have more users sharing a set number of available resources. Conversely as you would expect: Higher Server Levels have access to greater number of features and have fewer users and higher resources available on that machine, meaning more access to more resources, more of the time.

For example: If you have a static or simple 'brochure' website and you have low traffic , you may be fine with lower level plans. On the other hand, if you have a website using WordPress with multiple plugins, or an eCommerce or other 'dynamic' site - or if you get a lot of visitor traffic and need to serve multiple users quickly & frequently, you will likely need a higher server level.

• Level 1 has smaller shared system resources and a larger number of shared customers - suits small static websites.
• Level 2 has medium shared system resources and a medium number of shared customers - suits small-medium 'standard' websites.
• Level 3 has medium - bursting shared system resources and a small-medium number of shared customers - suitable for smaller ecommerce websites.
• Level 4 has a larger amount of shared system resources and smaller number of shared clients - suits medium - large 'standard' websites or small to medium eCommerce.
• Level 5 ~ 10 indicates a dedicated machine with dedicated resources suitable for dedicated sites, or large / hungry apps - you chose the amount of resource you need.

Often, we find users begin on the Standard or Advanced level plans and progress accordingly.  Feel free to get in touch or call us for a chat to find out what would suit your needs.