As a web designer, anticipating your client’s needs is crucial. The client may need a brand logo designed, or they might want a customized website. It is important for you to offer more than the customer even knows that they want. This includes offering web hosting as a service. Having different web hosting options in mind will make this step easier for you.
Why Should Web Hosting Be Offered?
Many designers will create the website, collect the payment, and then move onto the next job without further contact with the client. Sticking with your client and organizing the hosting provider for their site will ensure that you maintain a strong relationship for the future. This will enable you to stand out from the competitors, as web design is now a very popular field to work in.
Another reason to provide web hosting to your client is to increase the revenue you are making. Instead of just completing one job, you are establishing a reoccurring form of profit. You will need to evaluate how much time and effort that providing the hosting is costing you and then charge your client based on that.
Offer Shared Hosting
Shared hosting is an option for clients who are looking for the cheapest plan. Shared hosting typically involves a single website being hosted on a shared server among hundreds of unrelated sites. The client’s website will have a portion of the server’s resources, including the disk space, RAM memory, and bandwidth. Shared hosting can result in much longer load times because of all the other sites using the same resources, which can overburden the server.
Shared hosting is great if your clients have recently started out. It can be easy on the budget, and the client will have options if they want to upgrade in the future. If the website starts to get more popular, and you notice more than 100 visits per day, it may be time to think about an upgrade.
Offer VPS Hosting
Offering VPS (virtual private server) hosting to your client is the next logical upgrade when they are looking for a switch. VPS involves multiple sites sharing the same server, but it is much less than with shared hosting. This means that the client’s website will receive more resources and, therefore, perform better.
VPS should be used if your client requires a great deal of customization for their website. With an unmanaged VPS plan, you, as the designer, will have almost free rein to customize and operate. VPS hosting also offers greater virtual security than shared hosting, so it should be considered if your client is worried or deals with a lot of confidential data.
Offer Dedicated Server Hosting
When your client’s website grows more, it might be time to upgrade them to a dedicated server hosting plan. This can happen when the website’s performance has been slow or lackluster, traffic has significantly increased, or if the client has decided to run multiple sites. Dedicated hosting provides clients with a very high level of privacy, control, and resource allocation. This scenario involves the client’s website having its own server with no sharing whatsoever. Websites on dedicated servers will get more access to RAM, desk space, and bandwidth, which will improve their overall function.
Using a dedicated hosting plan for your client can be pricy, as it is the most expensive option of the three. However, it may be beneficial if your client is running a rapidly growing eCommerce business.
Reseller Hosting
Reseller hosting involves a hosting provider renting server space to another company, who will then in turn rent the space to a smaller client. This is typically sold as a package to the third-party client, with a pre-determined amount of resources. Reseller hosting has between 10-250 unique cPanel accounts, each with its own domain name.
There are different reseller hosting packages available to choose from. These packages have features such as account configuration, disk space, domain hosting, bandwidth, and monitoring tools. As a web designer offering a reseller package can be beneficial to you, as you can receive discounted rates to pass onto your clients. Be sure to thoroughly research web hosting providers so that you know you are providing your client with a quality service.
Which Web Hosting Service Should You Use?
Overall, the web hosting option that you should choose will depend entirely on your client’s needs. It is your responsibility to gain a comprehensive understanding of your client and what would work best for them. For instance, if they have recently started out in the world of eCommerce, you could arrange for their website to be hosted on a shared server. As the company grows, you can upgrade their hosting package.
