Hosting is an internet-connected computer where your site's files and database live. When a visitor types your address, their browser connects to that computer and fetches the page. The options look endless, but there are basically three models, and three questions decide which suits you: what kind of site is it, how many visitors does it get, and is there someone to manage the server?
Since prices vary considerably by exchange rate, provider and package, we don't give figures in this post; check current prices on the providers' own websites.
Shared hosting
Picture a flat in an apartment block. Dozens, sometimes hundreds, of sites in the same building share one server's processor, memory and disk. Building management (updates, security, backups for the server) is the hosting company's job. You manage your own flat from a panel such as cPanel or Plesk.
The advantages are price and ease. It's usually the most affordable option, and no technical knowledge is needed. Email accounts and SSL are often included.
The drawback is the neighbours. If another site on the same server gets heavy traffic or a badly written plugin eats resources, your site can slow down too. There are resource limits as well: above a certain traffic or processing load, the host may throttle your site.
Who it's for: company brochure sites, small blogs, business sites with a few thousand visitors a month. For many small businesses it's enough, and a sensible place to start.
VPS
A VPS (virtual private server) is a virtually partitioned slice of a physical server, reserved for you. More like a detached house than a flat: processor and memory are set aside for you, and the neighbours' load generally doesn't affect you. You have full access to the server and can install whatever software you want.
The price is management. On an unmanaged VPS, operating system updates, firewall, backups and monitoring are your responsibility. If you don't have a technical person to do that, you need either a managed VPS service or an agency to handle it. Managed services generally cost noticeably more than an unmanaged VPS.
Who it's for: online stores whose traffic has grown, sites built with custom software, technologies like Node.js that shared hosting mostly doesn't support. The Nuxt-based sites we build generally run on VPS for this reason.
Cloud and managed platforms
This heading covers a broad family. At one end are the big cloud providers such as AWS, Google Cloud and Azure: you scale resources up and down as needed and pay for what you use. At the other end are managed platforms optimised for a specific job: managed WordPress hosting, platforms for modern websites like Vercel or Netlify, and e-commerce platforms such as Shopify or ikas that include hosting.
The advantages are scalability and, on managed platforms, the provider carrying a large part of the maintenance load. When traffic multiplies on a campaign day, the system can adapt.
The drawback is that costs become harder to predict. Pay-as-you-go can turn into a surprise bill after a traffic spike or a misconfiguration. Bills are often in foreign currency. Setting up the big cloud providers properly is also a skill of its own.
Who it's for: projects with fluctuating or fast-growing traffic, startups with an app side. For businesses that don't want to deal with their own server in e-commerce, the off-the-shelf platforms effectively fall into this category too.
Decision tree
Answer these in order:
- Is your site built on WordPress or similar, mainly promotional, with no more than a few thousand visitors a month? Shared hosting is usually enough. Choose a quality provider rather than chasing the cheapest.
- Do you sell online but don't want to manage a server? An off-the-shelf e-commerce platform, or managed WordPress/WooCommerce hosting.
- Is your site slowing down or hitting resource limits on shared hosting, or running custom software? VPS. Without a technical team, a managed VPS or an agency that handles maintenance.
- Does your traffic spike with campaigns, or do you have an app? Cloud, but with someone who knows how to set it up and track costs.
A mistake we see often is starting far above what's needed. Setting up cloud infrastructure for a company site with 500 visitors a month is both unnecessary cost and unnecessary complexity. The opposite mistake exists too: keeping a growing online store on the cheapest shared plan for years. If you suspect your site is slow, check whether hosting really is the problem before switching; we explained the order of priorities in our post on speeding up a website.
Should the server be in Türkiye?
If most of your visitors are in Türkiye, a server in Türkiye or a nearby European location can shorten the first response time a little. On sites using a CDN (content delivery network), the difference shrinks further, since images and static files come from a point close to the visitor.
Location has a legal side too. A server abroad can mean that personal data collected on your site is transferred abroad, which needs separate assessment under KVKK, the Turkish data protection law. The rules on this have changed in recent years. If you're building an online store or membership site that processes customer data, review server location with a lawyer.
If you'd like to see where hosting fits in your total yearly costs, our post on annual website costs includes a worksheet with the domain, maintenance and licences.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is it hard to switch hosting later?
For many sites it's a manageable job: files and database move to the new server, get tested, then the domain's DNS records point to the new server. Email is where problems often come up; if email is on the same hosting, it must be part of the migration plan.
Can I use free hosting?
For tests or personal projects, perhaps. We don't recommend it for a business site: resources are usually very limited, support is minimal or absent, some free services may add their own ads to your site, and there's no telling how long the service will last.
Do I need to pay separately for an SSL certificate?
Usually not. Many hosting companies install and renew free certificates such as Let's Encrypt automatically. Paid certificates make sense for specific needs such as organisation validation.
Blog posts are for general information only and are not a substitute for legal, financial or technical advice.