Three types of web hosting that are ideal for small businesses

There are so many things to consider when you launch a new business.

Some things are exciting, like deciding what you want your logo to look like and fine-tuning your product/service offering.

Others are arduous, like getting your accounting in order and finding the right hosting for your needs.

There’s a lot of jargon in the web hosting world. If you’ve never launched a website or set up an online business presence before, you might feel a little overwhelmed by it all.

So we’ve put together this blog, to put the spotlight on the sort of web hosting plans that are a good fit for small businesses.

Jargon buster

Web hosting: Websites have files. These files contain every element of a website from images to code. Web hosting provides space on a server for a website to store these files and also makes it possible for internet users to access these files in order to view a website.

Content management system (CMS): This is the software that allows you to design and modify a website without needing to know code. There are different options out there, but they all make it easier to design a home page and add pages, then populate those pages with text, graphics and more.

Domain name: A domain name is essentially a web address. Techies will tell you that it actually refers to the part of the web address that comes after the www. but for the everyday person, thinking of a domain name as a web address is good enough.

Three types of web hosting that are ideal for small businesses

1. WordPress Hosting

WordPress is one of the world’s most popular content management systems. It gives users access to thousands of ‘themes’, which are best understood as pre-designed website templates.

Users can then adapt these templates by adding content, images, galleries, videos, tables, call-to-action buttons and ‘plugins’.

Plugins are add-ons that help you improve the functionality of your site. There are more than 55,000 available that let you add things like live chat and blog comments to your site.

The beauty of WordPress is that it’s intuitive and suitable for use by those without any technical knowledge. It lets you add elements to a site through simple clicks and drag-and-drops.

WordPress Hosting, meanwhile, is web hosting that comes with WordPress preinstalled. This means you can get straight to designing your site.

Some WordPress plans come with extras, too. tsoHost’s WordPress Hosting plans, for example, come with a free domain name, a free SSL certificate, daily security scans, free daily backups and a selection of exclusively designed themes.

Find out more on our WordPress Hosting pages

2. Ecommerce hosting

Ecommerce hosting usually comes with a CMS that’s specifically designed to help you build an online store.

At tsoHost, our ecommerce hosting comes with the WordPress CMS and the WooCommerce add-on preinstalled.

WooCommerce allows you to modify your WordPress site to allow for online sales. At its most basic, it lets you add product listings and a shopping cart to your site. Beyond this, it helps you add all sorts of merchandising, marketing, shipping, checkout experience, payment and store management functions to your site.

tsoHost’s WordPress Ecommerce plan comes with £4,000 of premium WooCommerce plugins included for free.

These plugins, which can cost up to £100 each to buy individually, can be used to do everything from selling subscriptions on your website to offering loyalty schemes.

Find out more on our WordPress Ecommerce pages

3. Domain only

When you start out with your new business, you might not have the time to set up a website from scratch.

This is where having a domain can come in. When you buy a domain only, you secure your ideal website address for future use.

You can also link a professional email address to your domain, which will allow you to email customers from an email address that mirrors your brand.

At tsoHost, you get a free Professional Email Starter for the first year with every co.uk, .com, .org.uk, .org, .net, .club, .xyz, .info and .me domain.

Find out more on our domain name pages