Choosing a web host is one of the first and largest decisions in launching a website, akin to choosing a home for organisations online presence. However, as your website evolves and times move on, there may come a time when your current hosting solution no longer meets your needs or expectations. Recognizing the right moment to transition to a new web host is critical in ensuring uninterrupted service and optimal performance for your site. Here are key indicators that it might be time to make a move.
1. Frequent Downtime
Consistency and reliability are essential for a brands online presence. If your website experiences frequent downtimes or reliability issues, it’s not just an inconvenience; it can harm your reputation, SEO rankings, and user experience. A reliable web host should offer at least 99.9% uptime. If yours falls short regularly, consider it a clear signal to start looking elsewhere.
2. Slow Loading Speeds
Speed impacts everything from user satisfaction to search engine rankings. For every second longer your site takes to load, you are potentially losing customers. If you’ve already optimized images, streamlined code, and still face sluggish load times, your hosting environment might be the bottleneck. Overcrowded servers or outdated infrastructure can cripple site speed. A new host with better resources and technology could give your site the boost it needs.
3. Insufficient Customer Support
Good customer support you can count on is crucial when things go south or if you need advice on complex issues. If support responses are slow or unhelpful—if they come at all—it’s worth exploring other providers who value customer service and are readily available through multiple channels such as live chat, phone support, or tickets.
In recent years many existing providers have been acquired or been forced to cut costs, quality support is often one of the first things chopped.
4. High Pricing & Annoying Upsells
Evaluate whether you’re getting what you pay for—both overpaying for a large plan you do not need or finding out the hard way you’re provider secretly has very high renewal costs.
Another annoying tactic are hosting providers charging for basic like backups, antimalware and SSL certificates which most good hosting providers offer for free.
While hosting prices have increased in recent years due to a number of factors ranging from climbing energy costs, increased support costs and more expensive licencing. You should absolutely still be shopping around and seeing if a more cost-effective solutions better align better with your needs every few years.
5. Scalability Concerns
A growing business often means increased traffic and resource demands for your website, particularly for busy e-commerce which can quickly become too much for traditional shared hosting leading to slow loading and ‘503 Service Unavailable’ errors during peak times.
If your current host cannot accommodate this growth without substantial cost increases or technical hurdles, look for a provider offering scalable and higher-performance hosting solutions that can keep up with your business.
6. Outdated Technology
Web hosting has evolved over the past several years; Ensuring your web host is committed to staying current is imperative for security and performance.
Almost all leading hosting providers have now transitioned all their hosting clients onto servers with SSD drives and modern servers with the latest cpu’s such as AMD Epyc’s and Intel Platinums.
Should you find you’re host not keeping up to date, it may be time to consider other options.
Making The Switch: Migration Tips
Before jumping ship:
- Backup Everything: Before migrating, perform a full cPanel backup of you’re website and ensure everything is backed up (website files, databases, emails, DNS records)
- Gather Your Server Credentials: When preparing to migrate, record the 1) Server Name, 2) cPanel Username, 3) cPanel Password of the hosting service
- Research New Host Thoroughly: When considering a new web-host, be sure to compare both the sale price for new customers and the renewal price which may be significantly higher. It is important to read genuine customer reviews as many web hosts incentivise positive reviews and pay for articles that rate them higher than they actually are! Trustpilot and Google Business Review are often a good reliable source of feedback
- Migrate your domain name separately: If possible, you should migrate your domain name to the new host either before or after the hosting service is moved. This is as domain name transfers can take several days during which time you may be unable to update the domains Name Servers and DNS records.
- Consider Timing: Where possible, try to aim to migrate the site during off-peak hours outside of business hours to minimise downtime.
- Seek assistance from your new web host: Where possible, ask you’re new web host to migrate the site as they have tools to often copy the entire hosting account on their hosting server reducing downtime and potential issues.
Conclusion
Migrating to a new web host may seem daunting and something to just put off to next year, however if approached with a plan can save you thousands of dollars over the life of the website and overcome long term issues.
NETCAT offers professional website migration services for complex websites or where a personal touch is required.
Have you ever migrated to a new hosting provider? What were your reasons why? Let Us Know In The Comments Below