Today’s leading cloud hosting platforms offer customers a unique and affordable way to scale up their websites, apps or whatever else they need to host. The best systems on the market offer features like fast-loading solid-state drive (SSD) storage, top-shelf processors and the ability to scale your hosting plan as you grow.
Forbes Advisor looked at the best systems on the market for Australian businesses and compared them based on pricing, features and usability.
We researched 54 hosting services and analysed factors such as reliability, pricing, customer support, storage and ease of use. These are the top 5 providers we recommend.
In order to choose the best cloud hosting options for this ranking, Forbes Advisor compared each service based on important factors that include ease of use, value for the money, popularity and features. We ranked each hosting service based on a 5-star rating system, with the highest score being 5 stars.
Here’s what we looked at in order to compile the rankings in each category.
When you first launch a website, you will more than likely start with a shared host. This type of hosting means that a single server has multiple users, and each user gets a certain amount of bandwidth.
For those just starting out or who have a small website, this is generally the default choice, as it is the easiest and most cost-effective solution.
The downside of shared hosting is that it’s, well, shared. There is only so much room on a server, which means you may experience slower performance depending on what the other hosted sites are doing. There is also an increased security risk, since one hacker would be able to access multiple sites.
Eventually you will probably start to feel the constraints of shared hosting, which will prevent high-traffic sites from optimal performance.
Cloud hosting takes care of these problems, because users are supported by several different servers. Switching to a cloud host means that sites with heavy traffic will always perform with consistent reliability.
Since you are no longer confined to one server, there is no limit to how much users can scale and expand.
Cloud hosting allows websites and apps with heavy traffic to avoid downtime, errors or slow page loading. If one server goes offline, another one will instantly pick up your site and keep it running seamlessly.
Cloud hosting also offers increased security, since your files will also be spread out over a variety of servers, and not stored in only one location.
Additional Australian research by Anna Rey
Featured Partners
1
Bluehost
Starting price
$2.95 per month
Standout Features
Free domain name & SSL for a year
Money Back Guarantee
30 Day
2
HostGator
Starting price
$US3.75 ($5.62 AUD) per month
Storage and Bandwidth
Unmetered
Extras and inclusions
Free domain registration for a year, free website and domain transfer, free SSL certificate, free email
3
IONOS
Starting price
$US2 ($2.95 AUD) per month
Drag-and-drop interface
Yes
SSL certificate included
Yes
There are three main types: IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service), PaaS (Platform as a Service), and SaaS (Software as a Service). IaaS provides a pay-as-you-go, on-demand infrastructure. PaaS allows organisations to rent the needed infrastructure, saving on costs. SaaS permits users to lease applications and host software on their own servers.
A backup organisation copies cloud data and stores it in another system, allowing for quick access in recovery cases.
You should upgrade when it is imperative that your website or app runs reliably, no matter when or where it is being accessed. If you are looking for fast performance, scalability, and better security, it’s probably time to make the switch.
While most sites will start out with a traditional shared host, making the switch to cloud hosting allows users to truly scale their sites and take them to the next level.
