Should Your Web Designer Also Be a Hosting Provider?

Updated: February 17, 2023

So, experienced web designers will usually say “Thank you, but no” if you ask them to host your website.

You have certainly wondered if it will cost you less to keep your web designer as your hosting provider than to hire a hosting company. Is there even a possibility that your web designer hosts a website? Yes, there is. However, the more important question is should your web designer also be a hosting provider?

Basically, a hosting provider places your website’s files on the server and reliably connects them to the Internet so your visitors can see the content. Good hosting providers that specialize in web hosting with dozens or hundreds of servers, all of which are protected by cleverly designed security, power systems, and backup systems, will certainly host your website securely.

While it’s possible to host a website on any computer that’s constantly connected to the Internet, it’s not a good idea. Power outages, server crashes, hackers or not properly trained server owners are just some of the reasons that put your website at risk not to be visible for hours or days.

A Web Designer Might Offer You to Host a Website But...

Whoever designed your personal or business website might offer you to host it as well. No matter how this sounds nice, don’t jump to conclusions. For starters, ask your web designer exactly where your server will be. Any experienced web designer will hire a serious hosting company and be their reseller, which means to rent some space, make contact with the provider, and send you invoices.

Make sure to find out all the specifications of the potential hosting package: Will you get the same amount of disk space, monthly bandwidth, mail services and the ability to check statistics as you would if you rented hosting regularly from a hosting provider. Because there are unscrupulous resellers that can charge you much higher prices than the real ones, it’s best to skip them and do business directly with the hosting provider.

Sometimes, it’s not so bad to have a person who will communicate on your behalf with a hosting provider regarding the strictly technical things your website may require. These are the basic differences when it comes to hosting service between a web designer and hosting provider:

1. Costs

Web designer won’t host your website by himself, he’ll do it by reselling for an actual hosting company. You’d have to pay your web designer for renting a hosting a lot more money than to a hosting company. That’s because hosting companies have tens of thousands of clients which means they have good profit and can afford to pay people to be available 24/7 and not charge you a lot for their service. Web designers don’t have that many clients and would have to charge you a lot more to be at your disposal all the time.

2. Specialization

The distinction between web designers and system administrators has been made for a reason. For instance, web designers will hardly likely suggest a hosting service that accepts any content, which might be very important for your website. They are specialists in their area and don’t want to spoil their good work by letting your website crash in case of not hosting it properly. Reputation means a lot in the IT industry.

3. Efficiency

In case you stick to your web designer as a hosting provider, you’ll face the inefficiency. If your website is down, you’ll call your web designer and then he’ll call the system administrator. It’s definitely faster that you contact a hosting provider directly, not through a web designer.

4. Response

Web designers tend to make short-term arrangements with clients. It means that they will focus on the new client when the job is done with the current. If web designers are busy or on vacation, chances they will respond to the server related problems with your website in real-time are from zero to none.

5. Equipment

Hosting companies have high-speed access to connect servers, on which your website lies, in large data centers. Web designers aren’t even remotely equipped that well.

So, experienced web designers will usually say “Thank you, but no” if you ask them to host your website. You better leave hosting to professionals who can offer you various security options such as high-quality backup Internet connections, additional power generators, reliable backup infrastructure, strong firewalls, the ability to withstand a large amount of traffic that comes to your website, and who will know how to fix the problem if it occurs.