The short answer
Hosting is the server that stores and serves your site. Shared hosting is cheapest but shares resources, VPS gives you a dedicated slice, managed hosting handles maintenance for you, and cloud spreads load across many machines. Good hosting has daily offsite backups you can restore, a current PHP version, HTTPS support and clear support.
What hosting actually does
Your hosting is a computer, connected to the internet around the clock, that stores your pages, images, plugins and database. When someone visits, the server builds the page and sends it. Its speed, location, security and reliability all shape how your site feels. It is separate from your domain, which only holds the name, and from DNS, which points the name at the server. If this is new, what is DNS shows how the pieces connect.
Most Webtec sites run on WordPress, often with Elementor and a caching plugin, so this article mentions WordPress where it matters. Some clients use Shopify, which includes its own hosting. In that case most of this does not apply, because Shopify manages the servers for you.
Hosting types in plain words
There is no single best type. A brochure site for a local business rarely needs more than good shared or managed hosting. A store with busy sales periods benefits from managed or cloud. The signal that you have outgrown your plan is repeated slowness or errors at busy times. See my site is slow for how to tell hosting from other causes.
| Type | What it means | Good for | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shared | Many sites share one server and its resources. | Small sites with modest traffic and a tight budget. | A busy neighbor can slow you down. Limited control. Support quality varies. |
| VPS (virtual private server) | A reserved slice of a server with its own resources and settings. | Growing sites that need steady performance or custom setup. | Often unmanaged: you or someone technical must maintain it. |
| Managed WordPress | Host handles updates, security, caching and backups for WordPress. | Business sites that want less to look after. | Costs more. Some plugins may be restricted. Read what is included. |
| Cloud | Your site runs across a pool of machines that can scale up or down. | Sites with spikes in traffic or high availability needs. | Pricing can be harder to predict. Setup can be complex. |
Backups: the part that saves you
A backup is a saved copy of your site you can restore if something breaks, from a bad update to a hack. The WordPress developer handbook explains that a complete WordPress backup has two parts: the database (posts, pages, settings) and the files (core, themes, plugins, uploads). You need both to fully restore a typical site, and backing up only one is a common failure.
Frequency matters. The handbook suggests roughly weekly backups for small sites with few changes and daily for high-activity sites, and always before an upgrade. It also recommends keeping several recent copies and storing them in more than one place, so a single failure cannot take everything.
- Both database and files are included, not just one.
- Backups run automatically, at least daily for any site that changes often.
- Copies are kept offsite, not only on the same server as the site. If the server fails, backups stored there fail with it.
- Several restore points are kept, so you can go back to before a problem started, not just to last night.
- You know how to restore, how long it takes, and who does it.
- Someone has tested a restore. A backup nobody has restored is an assumption.
The same handbook recommends occasionally making a manual backup to confirm automated backups really work.
Uptime, bandwidth and other numbers on the sales page
Uptime is the share of time your site is reachable. Hosts often advertise a percentage. Treat it as a target, not a promise: read what compensation, if any, applies and how downtime is measured. A site can be "up" and still painfully slow.
Bandwidth is how much data your site sends to visitors. Most small business sites never come near their limit. Heavy images and video, or a sudden spike from an ad campaign, are what push it. "Unlimited" plans usually have fair-use limits in the small print.
Storage matters less than people think for a normal brochure site, but large media libraries and old backups stored on the same server can fill it.
PHP version: the quiet security setting
WordPress is written in PHP, and your host decides which version runs. Old versions stop receiving security fixes. The official PHP site lists each branch with two dates: active support, when bugs and security issues are fixed, and security support, when only critical security issues are fixed. As shown there, 8.2 reaches end of life on 31 December 2026, 8.3 on 31 December 2027, 8.4 on 31 December 2028 and 8.5 on 31 December 2029.
WordPress.org's own requirements page recommends PHP 8.3 or newer and MariaDB 10.11 or newer, or MySQL 8.0 or newer. It says older setups, PHP 7.4 and MySQL 5.5.5, still work but are end of life and may expose your site to security vulnerabilities. It also says a host should support HTTPS.
Upgrading PHP can break old plugins or themes, so it should be tested first, not switched blindly on a live site. If your host lets you choose, ask us before changing it.
Do not change the PHP version on a live site without a backup and a plan to switch back. An incompatible plugin can turn a working site into a white screen. See my website is down if that happens.
What to ask a host
- How often are backups taken, where are they stored, and how many do you keep?
- How do I restore, and is there a fee or a limit?
- Which PHP versions can I choose, and can you update me when one nears end of life?
- Is HTTPS included, and does the certificate renew by itself?
- What does support cover: server issues only, or WordPress problems too, and through which channels?
- Where are the servers located, relative to most of my visitors?
- What happens if my site gets a traffic spike or a malware infection?
- What are the renewal prices after the first term? Introductory prices often rise.
- If I leave, can I get a full copy of my site and database?
Example: The backup on the same server
A restaurant's host advertised "daily backups". After a failed plugin update the site went blank. The owner asked to restore and learned the backups were stored in the same account, and that the update had also deleted the account's backup folder. Nothing could be restored. The site was rebuilt from older copies kept by whoever had built it. After that the restaurant moved to a plan with offsite backups, kept several restore points, and had a test restore done once. The headline "daily backups" had said nothing about where the copies lived or how many were kept.
When to ask us
Contact us if your site is slow or erroring and you suspect hosting, if your host says you must upgrade, if you are choosing a plan, or before a PHP change. Send a request through the support form with: your domain, your host's name, the plan you are on, what you are seeing and when it started, and links to screenshots or a Loom recording (Google Drive, Dropbox or Loom). Do not send your hosting password. A person on our team can review and tell you whether it is a hosting limit, a plugin or something else. Hosting that Webtec manages for you, if any, is described in your proposal.
