If you’re looking to create a UK-based website, you can benefit from local hosting. With servers located within the country, you can experience better website speed. You may also find different tools to work with specialized for the United Kingdom.
But finding a local hosting company also helps your accounting. It’s easier to register your local invoice this way. But the main benefits are found in localized tools with local support. Whenever you need to call customer service, you know they’ll be working your hours and you’ll be able to get them on the phone quickly instead of opening an online ticket.
Webhosting UK is one of the web hosts I chose for a few local websites as part of a national cycling campaign. I’m launching multiple cycling websites to cover all major metropolitan areas of the country. Visitors should be able to find local bike trails on these websites. For me, it’s also about having quick response time in case any of these websites has technical difficulties.
Webhosting Features
VPS servers
Windows and Linux VPS servers are offered by the hosting company. Some of the simplest tools to find the right host at a good price are those offered with these types of servers. Most of my websites are going to be hosted on such servers.
But even within these servers, there are different tools to use. The most basic plan starts at £12.99 plus VAT. It has unlimited bandwidth and 30GB fast SSD storage. What I like about this plan and other VPS plans at the host is the fact there are no minimum contracts. Some of my websites will attract visitors while others won’t. I don’t want to spend on hosting for the websites with no visitors.
The Starter pack starts at £19.99 per month. It features 60GB SSD storage and it’s starting to offer extra resources for a small website.
The Business plan starts at 120GB SSD and 4GB DDR memory. It is responsive to the type of website I’m looking to build. As with all the plans in this VPS category, there’s 24/7 support to count on. Some of my websites are going to merge into one for areas where I don’t get sufficient cyclists looking for local trails. I’ll need the help of those from customer support to make this happen.
The Enterprise plan is the most comprehensive VPS pack. It costs £33.99 per month and it gathers the resources of 6 vCPU cores with 240GB SSD storage. 8GB DDR memory is offered on these plans. There’s 1 free IP address you get with this plan. This is your virtual identification number, a type of address for websites. Here are all the plans with compared pricing and features.
All of these plans benefit from a 15-year experience in web hosting. Additionally, you may work with tools such as cPanel or Plesk to navigate the backend of the websites.
Cloud Servers
Cloud servers are the best option for maximum uptime. If you run online courses or if you have an e-commerce website, cloud hosting could be the right option at the web host. Since it gathers the strength of multiple servers, it also offers scalability at an unmatched level. Various plans can be chosen within the cloud servers category.
The S1 pack uses 2 vCPUs and 2GB RAM. It offers 40GB SSD storage. Cloud server management is reliable at this standard. Furthermore, you can choose between Windows or Linux hosting.
The S2 pack offers 4GB RAM and 60GB SSD storage. It’s the type of plan you would use on a website that has already started to grow.
The S3 pack is based on 5GB RAM and 100GB SSD storage. It represents a simple solution for extra website load power.
The S4 pack is the most comprehensive in the cloud hosting department. A website hosted with this plan benefits from 8GB RAM and 200GB SSD storage. Here’s what these plans cost
All of these plans benefit from free migration. If you’re coming from another host, you won’t have to pay more to upgrade.
Dedicated Servers
Dedicated servers are a blessing for demanding websites with plenty of traffic. Among my cycling websites, I estimate the one focusing and London is going to be hosted on such a dedicated server. The high traffic I’m expecting here needs the extra resources.
The E3 Standard plan is based on 4 cores and 2 X 240GB SSDs. A 10TB monthly transfer limit is applied to this affordable plan.
The E3 Professional plan offers 4CPU power with 2 X 1TB SSDs. 32GB RAM makes this hosting plan responsive.
The Enterprise plan comes with 10 cores, 32GB DDR4 and 2 X 1TB SSDs. Of course, it benefits from non-stop support in case your business encounters any type of technical difficulty.
SSL Certificates
One of the drawbacks of the hosting company is it doesn’t include SSL certificates. But it sells various SSLs starting at £24.99 per month. Free installation is offered on SSL certificates.
It also offers more complex certificates. But for my needs, I don’t need to invest more in these as the basic certificate is fine for my websites. Those dealing with online payments might want to try out the more complex SSL certificates.
Some of them are rare. I’ve only seen the most expensive SSL certificate online at my bank. Whenever I log in to online banking, I see this type of safety certificate which makes me believe it’s really made for pages that have to do with finances, payments or credit card details.
Pros
Cons
Final Verdict
If you want to register your first website, you can start with one of the more affordable plans from the hosting company. There are a few of them to consider. When you reach a point when your web traffic starts to become too much, you can always upgrade to one of the cloud or dedicated hosting plans.
My advice is to also purchase an SSL certificate. It’s more than about your visitors trusting your website. It has also become a ranking factor as these certificates help build trust.
If you’re looking to launch a UK website, having a local host can help. Telephone, e-mail and chat support is available for local customers. But you also have these tools to rely on if you’re launching a UK website from abroad. Even if you don’t work UK hours, you have the ticketing system to open up any hosting discussion to rely on.