5 Signs that Your Site Needs a New Hosting Plan ASAP
A single hosting plan does not last forever for a single site. Occasionally, you will need to upgrade or review the plan you have bought. It’s not always easy to say if your site needs a new hosting plan or not. Here is a list of glaring signs that you need to either upgrade your hosting plan, or switch to a new provider:
1. Your Site is Gradually Becoming Slow
One of the biggest signs that your site will need a new hosting plan is slow speed during peak hours of the day. Site speed can be affected by many factors. First, the site design should not be causing speed issues. You can tell it’s an issue with website hosting if your site loads slowly only during certain times of the day, namely the busy times. This is a common problem with shared servers. As your site grows, the shared server may not have enough RAM to handle the increased number of requests. When this occurs, you should immediately upgrade your plan. Ideally, you should switch plans from shared hosting to dedicated hosting, a virtual private server or a cloud hosting plan. The latter three are better suited for websites with high traffic demands.
2. Overall Traffic Uptick
If your site’s monthly traffic number is gradually increasing with no signs of slowing down, that’s the biggest sign that you need to upgrade the plan or switch over to a new one. The gradual increase does not account for uncommon upticks in traffic. It’s recommended that if your daily visitor number is 2,000 or above to switch to a plan that is not shared hosting.
3. Cybersecurity Concerns
If another site on the shared hosting server gets infected with malware, ransomware or ends up a victim of a phishing scam, then your site could be at risk as well. If cyber-attacks are common with your hosting provider, then you should start to seriously worry about the safety of your site. Hacking and malware is an ever rising threat. So you should always be on the lookout for security concerns. If your current hosting plan is lacking to provide adequate security for your site, switch without waiting any longer.
4. New Software Needs
Web hosting plans come with limitations on software. Do not expect the hosting provider to accommodate each software program that you need to run on the server. Web hosts sometimes offer minimal software support. For example, some offer Apache instead of the more advanced LiteSpeed. If you have new and more sophisticated software needs coming up, either upgrade the plan so that the provider supports the programs, or switch over to a new plan that already offers the software you need.
5. Bad Customer Support
If your experience with hosting provider is largely negative with regards to customer support, then don’t think twice before switching. The provider must be willing to offer the best customer support at all times. This could not be more evident than during a serious situation, like a crash report or a potential hacking threat. Don’t bother sticking with a provider that cares little about its customers. Find a good provider that is willing to provide practical solutions to hosting problems.
Also, if you generally want to upgrade from a shared hosting plan, don’t hesitate to do so. There are new types of plans like cloud hosting that are much better suited for certain websites, especially e-commerce websites.
