The quality of the Drupal-based website functioning depends vastly on the factors that you have under control. One of them is the appropriate Drupal hosting choice. In this article, you will find out five useful hints that will make your website efficient thanks to well-suited server.
1. Drupal website hosting – define your needs
First of all, let’s analyze all of the available hosting types for a Drupal-based website.
Shared hosting
Shared hosting can be compared with Wifi. Many people can use it at one time, and thanks to that, the costs can be reduced. However, the connection quality may diminish. The same is in case of shared hosting – many websites use the server simultaneously, and as a result, you can’t be sure of the server efficiency. For this reason, shared hosting is the right solution when your needs aren’t excessive, or you have a limited budget.
Drupal VPS
Virtual private server (VPS) is much better for a Drupal website. Fewer websites use the server than in case of shared hosting. It is connected with increased costs, but also with the quality improvements. VPS guarantees the pre-defined amount of resources that a particular website can use – you don’t have to share it with other sites when using that server. Drupal VPS would be an adequate solution for small or medium-sized platforms.
Cloud hosting
It is a quite new solution which joins multiple servers in one, efficient and powerful tool. The non-disputable advantage of cloud hosting is when one server is overloaded, e.g. due to sudden traffic increase on the website, another server is ready to handle the load. It diminishes any possibility of downtime or malfunction of the server. Drupal cloud hosting will be satisfactory for medium and large websites which can’t afford any efficiency-related issues.
Dedicated server hosting
All of the three described solutions, more or less, depend on sharing resources with other platforms. Dedicated hosting works differently – in this case, you have the whole server for you. Referring to the previous Wifi comparison – here you are the owner of the entire net. It demands a bigger budget, but as a result, it offers nearly unlimited possibilities. Moreover, dedicated Drupal hosting guarantees access to all of the server’s resources. Thus, the platform can boost its speed and efficiency. This kind of hosting will be adequate for the vastly extended Drupal platforms that need premium quality hosting services.
2. Take Drupal hosting speed and reliability into account
Let’s move to other issues connected with choosing appropriate Drupal hosting services. Reliability refers to the time that the hosting can function without any serious problems. In brief – the downtime would be a rarity. It is crucial because even a few minutes of inactivity may cause a drop in your business profits. Keep in mind that no Drupal hosting provider will guarantee 100% server uptime. 99,5% is acceptable. You should be suspicious when the uptime guarantee is below 99%. Except for the server uptime, the second vital issue is its speed. It is one of the prime factors that affect page speed. You can undertake many steps to optimize it, but when the server is slow, your efforts are useless.
3. Pay attention to Drupal website hosting security
Although the platform’s security depends mostly on your actions, Drupal hosting improper infrastructure may case the security gaps. How can you protect from this? First of all, consider only the providers which offer monitoring systems, firewalls and additional pro-safety functionalities, e.g. automatically generated backups. This will strengthen your platform security and make it less vulnerable for any leakages or attacks.
4. Drupal web hosting support also matters
Drupal hosting providers usually offer 24/7 technical support. In practice, it often doesn’t work like this. The reaction time set on the agreement may vary depending on what communication channel you use, the scale of the issue, or even the day in which the support is needed (sometimes hosting providers exclude weekends and holidays from the 24/7 support). To avoid this kind of situation, take enough time for reading the server reviews to find out whether the provider is reliable or not.
5. Consider the Drupal hosting upgrade plans
In the beginning, we were discussing different Drupal web hosting models. In many cases, the shared server or VPS will be satisfactory for the present needs. However, the problems occur, when the platform expectations rise. Not all the hostings will provide you with the upgrade possibilities. Thus, before signing the agreement with Drupal hosting provider, get to know what are the further upgrade options in terms of resources, efficiency, capacity etc. Moreover, you should check if you have other possibilities for new hosting type changes, e.g. for the dedicated one.
Drupal hosting – summary
Don’t hurry up – that is the prime principle while choosing Drupal web hosting. Take your time, consider all the available options, their pros and cons and consult it with Drupal experts. The research time is a crucial step – you should do it carefully to avoid further problems or misunderstandings. Keep in mind that the server should be developmental; it can’t be an obstacle for your platform’s growth. Follow our tips and then, the hosting choice should be a piece of cake for you.
