The Cost of Magento Hosting: What to expect and how to budget for it

If you have decided to start an e-commerce business based and then to materialize your idea. You need a website supported by a platform (such as Magento or Shopify) that provides resources to conduct your e-commerce business online without hassle. 

There are multiple options available in the market for building e-commerce websites and buying tools and other services, however today’s discussion will primarily be about Magento hosting. 

This article will assist you to get to know each aspect of Magento hosting in order to help you make a quick decision regarding affordability.

What is Magento hosting? 

Magento hosting refers to the services specifically designed to support the Magento e-commerce platform. Imagine you purchased lots of furniture. You need a place/warehouse to keep that furniture, correct? In this scenario, the furniture is Magento and your customer data. While the place/warehouse is your hosting provider. Magento hosting provides the necessary infrastructure and resources to run a Magento store, such as server space, processing power, storage, and bandwidth. 

There are several different types of hosting options for Magento. This includes shared hosting, vps hosting, dedicated hosting, and cloud hosting, each with its own advantages and disadvantages. Shared hosting is highly affordable, albeit can be high-risk for security. VPS hosting is great for those starting out. It still may share resources with others however it offers isolation and much less security risk than shared hosting. 

Dedicated hosting is more suitable for medium to larger stores however it misses out on scalability. Cloud hosting provides the best of all worlds and offers scalability, flexibility and is ideal for stores that require the ability to easily adjust their resources as needed.

Steps to budget your Magento hosting.

Budgeting is an important task in any light, even more so with Magento hosting. There are several factors to consider, and costs can vary depending on your store’s specific needs. 

Determine Your Store’s Needs: The first step in budgeting is determining your store’s specific needs and requirements. This includes the number of products and customers, the level of traffic you expect, and the resources you will need, such as disk space, processing power (CPU), and bandwidth. It is recommended for stores that are starting out to have at minimum 4 CPU cores with 4GB RAM.

Research Hosting Providers: Choose a hosting provider that specializes in Magento. Magento requires the knowledge and support of a provider who truly understands the software. When comparing providers, check their offerings, including costs, features, and the various levels of support. Do they offer phone support? What are their hours?

The Cost of Addons and Features: Addons such as backup, disaster recovery, licensing for caching, security enhancements, CDN, etc are all features that can impact the cost of hosting a Magento e-commerce store. Add up these costs and be sure to factor them into your budget. 

Sum up Total Costs: Once you have determined your store’s needs and the cost of the hosting and any add-ons or features, calculate the total costs for hosting. Keep in mind, hosting is separate from development. Depending upon the nature of your site, you may want to set aside a budget for development.

Consider Future Needs: Finally, consider your store’s future needs and budget for future upgrades and add-ons that you may need as your store grows. 

Adjust Your Budget as Needed: Keep tabs on your store’s performance with APM monitoring tools such as NewRelic and adjust your budget to ensure that you are not overspending on hosting or underinvesting in the help your store needs to perform optimally. 

By following these steps and considering your store’s specific needs, you can budget for Magento hosting effectively and ensure that your store has the resources and tools it requires to succeed.