Website builder vs. content management system

Website builders and content management systems are different types of tools for creating your website.

A website builder is a visual design tool that typically uses front-end editing, letting you see how your changes will appear to visitors as you make them. These tools are easy to use, with no need to install extensions or update the software yourself. Website builders often have limited design flexibility. Most website builders are also proprietary, making it difficult to switch hosts later on.

A content management system or CMS is a tool for building, maintaining and organizing blog posts and other website pages. They typically don’t require code, but you will need to install themes (site templates) and extensions. The most popular CMS is WordPress -- powering 43.4% of all websites -- an open-source tool you can install on any third-party web host for free.

Ease of use

Buying cloud hosting can be a highly involved process because most web hosts use complex pricing structures, but once you’re in, you should have an easy time finding server management and site creation tools. Most web hosting companies use cPanel to make this possible.

Managed vs. unmanaged

Managed hosting is where the host handles all of the details of server maintenance and management, often including auto-updates to your CMS.

Unmanaged hosting requires you to update your CMS yourself and may also require you to configure things like your server’s operating system and security software. Unmanaged hosting may be less expensive up front, but you’ll need to invest either time or money to make sure everything is kept up-to-date.

Using a proprietary website builder means your hosting will be managed by default, as the hosting company does all software maintenance and updates to the website builder.

Security

Your cloud hosting service should provide at least three layers of security:

• Secure Socket Layer -- SSL -- certification: A security protocol that encrypts data sent to and from your site, protecting key information like email addresses submitted through your contact form. SSL certification also tells browsers and VPNs your site is safe -- some won’t even let users open a site without it. Google may also penalize sites without SSL certification.
• Firewall: Software that scans all data submitted to your website/web server and filters out malware and spyware. Firewalls can’t promise 100% protection -- new malware is created every day -- but a good one will filter out the majority of malware to keep your site safe.
• Domain privacy: If you’re registering your domain through your chosen hosting service, make sure the company offers domain privacy. This ensures that your contact information won’t be publicly available in the WHOIS database.

Many cloud hosting services offer additional layers of protection as well, like distributed denial of service -- DDoS -- and brute force protection.

Uptime

Uptime measures how much time your website spends online. This is essential because visitors who can’t access your website will go elsewhere, resulting in lost traffic, lost trust and potentially lost income.

The industry standard for regular web hosting is 99.9% uptime, which means server issues and maintenance shouldn’t shut your site down for more than 10 minutes per week. Some cloud hosting services go beyond this, promising 99.99% or 100% uptime -- a promise made possible by using multiple servers.

Site speed

Site speed is how long it takes your website to load. The faster your site loads, the better -- bounce rate decreases by 32% when loading times go from three seconds to one second.

Most cloud hosting services offer the following tools to improve server/site speed:

• Caching: A system that stores website data in a specialized storage layer called a cache that operates at the speed of the server’s CPU (or sometimes the visitor’s CPU), which is typically faster than the RAM traditionally used to access data.
• Content delivery network: An interconnected group of servers that store website data in locations around the globe, allowing users’ browsers to pull from the data center closest to their location.

Storage

Storage determines how many files -- like blog posts and landing pages -- your site can host. Generally, 1GB can store either 10 large pages or up to 100 smaller pages. 5GB is plenty of storage for most static websites, but long-running blogs and e-commerce sites often need more storage.

You’ll also want to consider the storage type. Most hosts use solid state drive -- SSD storage -- for fast and reliable performance. Some offer NVMe -- nonvolatile memory express -- storage, which provides slightly faster and more reliable performance than regular SSD storage. If the host’s storage type isn’t specified on this list, assume it uses SSD; we’ve pointed out NVMe storage where applicable.

Bandwidth

Bandwidth, sometimes expressed as data transfer, dictates the amount of data your server can send to users per month. Cloud hosting plans typically express bandwidth as GB or TB. This makes it tricky to figure out how much bandwidth you’ll need because every visitor accesses a different amount of data. If 100 people visit your site each day and view five pages with an average size of 5MB, you’ll need 7.5GB of bandwidth. If those same 100 people view 10 pages, you’ll need 15GB of bandwidth.

The good news about cloud hosting is that many plans come with 1TB or more of bandwidth (or 1,000GB), meaning that you won’t need to worry about this math until you’re getting more than one million monthly visitors.

Customer support

You should be able to contact customer support quickly -- and get helpful solutions -- if your site breaks. Most high-quality web hosting companies offer 24/7 customer support via live chat, phone and email. Many companies offer both generic customer support and specialized WordPress experts.

Technically, being able to access 24/7 support doesn’t always mean you’ll get the help you need, though. Some hosting companies’ customer service is quite slow and/or relies on poorly trained customer service agents, making it difficult to get help with advanced issues. This is where sites like Trustpilot come in: you can read reviews there -- or the web hosting reviews here on CNET -- to find out how effective a company’s customer support is.

Pricing

There are a few things to watch out for when considering web hosting prices:

• Introductory pricing: Many web hosting companies offer steep discounts -- often 50% or more -- for the first term. When your contract renews, you’ll pay what’s typically listed as the “regular price.” Always factor this price increase into your long-term budget.
• Contract length: You may be required to sign up for a two- or three-year contract to get the best discount. This means you’ll have to multiply the monthly price listed on the site by 24 or 36 to understand what you’ll actually be paying.
• Additional fees: These include things like your domain and maybe email hosting and security tools. Some companies provide domain registration for free in the first year of hosting, but you’ll be required to pay annual domain registration fees in future years.

There are also two types of pricing for cloud hosting specifically:

• Package pricing: Cloud hosting packages with resources -- like bandwidth and processing power -- and cost predetermined by the hosting company. These packages typically allow for a significant amount of website growth before you need to upgrade.
• Modular pricing: A package you create by choosing the exact amount of bandwidth, storage and processing power you need, with a price based on the resources you require. You can then add resources incrementally -- for example, adding 100GB of storage at a time -- as your site grows. Adding resources incrementally may be more affordable than upgrading from one pre-set package to another.

Package pricing is easier to understand, especially if you’re new to web hosting, but modular pricing can be more cost-effective.