How to Choose the Best Host for Magento 2?
Magento hosting requires an optimized & maintained server. There is a wide range of solutions to host your Magento 2 store.
Many hosting providers will only meet the minimum Magento hosting requirements. However, it is essential to find a specialized hosting provider for Magento. That’s how you will get maximum performance & security.
An unoptimized store will lead to downtime & revenue losses. You may end up fixing server issues instead of growing your business.
A suitable Magento host helps eliminate the server issues.
Effective Magento hosting combines the following components:
- Ecommerce project requirements
- Magento hosting service provider
- Performance
- Security
- Global flexible infrastructure
We will focus on the main components to help you choose the best host for Magento 2.
1. eCommerce Business Requirements
Know your site’s hosting requirements before choosing a Magento 2 host. Analyze the following components of your online store:
a) Average Monthly Traffic
Magento hosting includes bandwidth to handle traffic peaks. You have to know your monthly traffic patterns & the site’s growth rate.
Analyze the peak traffic seasons or marketing campaigns of your store. The server is then set up to handle traffic spikes.
b) Number of SKUs
An SKU is a stock-keeping unit of the products. It assigns identifiers to your inventory. You can manage the inventory and ensure that products are available for customers.
Analyze your SKU numbers & inventory size. An extensive inventory will require more storage & server capacity. It will help specify the computing power required to host your website.
c) Target Regions
The website’s response times depend on data center locations. The closer the target location is, the faster the data is transmitted.
Learn where your primary target audience is based. You should host your site in proximity to the audience.
Let’s say your target region is the United States. Then the data centers should be in the same region. It helps reduce site latency and improve user experience.
Choose a hosting provider that offers a global infrastructure. That way, you get multiple data centers spanned globally. You can pick the data center closest to your target region.
d) Third-Party Integrations
You may add any third-party extensions and tools to your store. Many elements make up a functional ecommerce website.
You may have to add the following integrations:
- Themes and templates
- ERP and CRM software
- Marketing extensions
- Secure payment gateways
- Accounting System
- Shipping software
- Customer support
These third-party integrations come with specific requirements. Ensure that the hosting provider offers support for such integrations.
e) Magento Backend
Magento is an open-source platform that allows a lot of customizing. The Magento backend will involve a site development team.
Analyze the technical aspects as it correlates with hosting. Downtime or slow response times may occur during site development.
Collaborate with the hosting provider & the developers. It ensures minimum downtime during the website builder phase.
f) Budget for Hosting
Outline the budget required to host your site. A massive website will require multi-server hosting plans.
You have to see which web hosting plans work best for your budget.
2. Fully Managed Magento Hosting
a) Specialized Hosting at Magento Application Level
The Magento system requires technical expertise. The hosting partner should have the experience working on many Magento websites over the years.
You can check if the Magento 2 host offers application level support. The hosting provider should offer:
- A server that meets the Magento 2 system requirements
- Install Magento with one click installation
- Server configuration and updates
- An optimized Magento tech stack
- Magento application knowledge
You require Magento level experts that have deep knowledge of the application. That way, your system is optimized for high performance.
b) Managed Migration
Migration is moving your website to a new server setup. The Magento Migration process has to be seamless & secure.
The process requires high technical expertise. It is because you have to handle large databases & DNS during migration.
You also require infrastructure knowledge from the host. For example, you may be migrating to the AWS cloud. You should check if the hosting provider has certified AWS experts.
You may have VPS hosting or a dedicated server. The hosting provider should offer minimum downtime during migration.
Opt for fully managed Magento migration for your site.
That way, you don’t have to worry about the migration issues such as data loss or security.
You also get expert support on the new server configurations.
A suitable hosting provider may offer Free Magento Migration services.
c) Managed Backups
Backups help reduce the risk of data loss and restore data. Data loss may happen due to malicious attacks or accidental deletion.
Managed backups reduce the complexity of restoring data manually. It prevents business disruption & keeps your website available to customers.
You get backups of different system parts such as the file system, database, and media files to roll back automatically. A suitable Magento host should offer regular automated backups.
d) Magento Specific Hosting
Magento specific hosting is where the hosting provider works exclusively with Magento.
The server configurations are also specific to the Magento application. You get Magento code-level knowledge & expertise.
There are hosting providers that work with many ecommerce platforms. It includes WordPress, Shopify, and WooCommerce platforms. In such hosting services, you don’t get Magento specific services.
Ensure that your hosting provider has Magento experts. Years of experience in Magento hosting is also a good indicator for reliable service providers.
e) Expert Customer Support
Magento hosting support resolves any server related issues quickly.
Getting full-time system admins can get expensive. Outsourcing technical support also has costly hourly charges. In case of any issues, you may have to wait longer until you get a resolution.
A managed hosting provider will offer Magento experts ready to solve any issues. It will be part of the hosting plan for your website.
To get quality Magento hosting support, check these features:
- 24/7 support from the technical team
- Quick response times
- Efficient ticketing system
- Fast issue resolution by experts
f) Pricing
The hosting price depends on your budget & business demands. You may have a small business or a large ecommerce project.
Going for inexpensive Magento hosting is not recommended. It can damage your website & cause more issues in speed & security.
Opt for a suitable managed Magento hosting plan. It covers all server-side workloads in one hosting plan.
To get proper pricing for Magento hosting, know your store requirements. You can match them with the Magento hosting services.
3. Performance
a) Latest Hosting Technology
The Magento host should use the latest hosting technology. You should get lightweight components for high speed.
The Magento latest tech stack includes:
- NGINX
- Varnish Cache
- MySQL
- Debian
- Multiple PHP versions
- Elasticsearch
b) High Performance & Uptime
Magento hosting offers performance optimizing services. It ensures that your site is loaded quickly to users.
The hosting provider will offer a server uptime guarantee in the SLA’s. Any downtime can cause you to lose customers. That’s why it is essential to check the server’s reliability.
You also get a money back guarantee from some hosting providers.
c) Fast Response Time
Google report states that the site page should not take more than 3 seconds to load.
Around 53% of the site visitors abandon the page after the first 3 seconds.
You should get a fast page loading speed for a smooth user experience & high conversion rates.
A suitable Magento host can provide under 0.3 seconds of page load time.
d) Redis and Varnish Cache
Caching helps store the data in local servers. It helps serve future requests quickly. As a result, your primary server is not overwhelmed with requests.
Check if the hosting provider has the latest caching systems. The caching should help enhance web performance. You can serve up requests more quickly.
e) Global CDN
A content delivery network is a network of distributed proxy servers. The CDN helps provide high site availability. You can offer consistent speed to all target regions.
Check if the host offers a global CDN service for your site. A CDN setup also helps reduce the site latency.
4. Security
a) Secure Infrastructure
The hosting company should have a secure infrastructure. The underlying server depends on the cloud hosting provider.
A secure infrastructure includes the following:
- Layered security controls
- Continuous validation & testing
- Latest hardware technology
- Monitoring of underlying infrastructure
- PCI certified
Opt for a hosting provider that offers secure infrastructure. The host is also responsible for server-side security updates & firewalls.
b) Web Application Firewall
A web application firewall protects the application layer. It filters and blocks unwanted HTTP traffic from a web service.
A WAF is essential to protect your store from web exploits. Unwanted bot traffic consumes excessive server resources. As a result, the website is not available to genuine customers.
The hosting provider should offer a Web Application Firewall for Magento 2.
c) DDoS Protection
A DDoS attack attempts to disrupt regular traffic on a server. It overwhelms your server with unexpected traffic.
Check if the hosting provider offers DDoS protection. The security features protect your server from bot traffic.
d) SSL Encryption
SSL or Secure Sockets Layer is an encryption security protocol. It helps secure the sensitive data sent between two systems.
An SSL certificate offers an encrypted connection. You also verify your site’s information. You also authenticate your site with the SSL certificate.
The Magento 2 host should offer SSL encryption for your website.
e) PCI Certified
PCI is an information security standard for companies. Ecommerce websites must comply with the PCI if they process cardholder data.
A fully compliant store is not subjected to hefty fines during a data breach. Ensure that your hosting provider offers PCI compliance assistance.
5. Flexible Infrastructure
a) Global Cloud Infrastructure
A global infrastructure offers a network of data centers worldwide. You can choose your target regions to host the website.
The data centers are spread on multiple geographic locations. It offers high bandwidth and data redundancy across data centers.
Choose a hosting provider that offers a leading infrastructure provider. Some of the top options include AWS and Google Cloud.
b) Latest Hardware Innovation
The server should have the latest hardware to host your site. For example, AWS has announced the AWS Graviton3 processors.
It offers up to 25% higher performance. You also get 50% more memory bandwidth than the previous processors.
You require consistent performance for ecommerce stores. Look for a Magento host that actively uses the latest technology. That way, you get the best services for your investment.
c) Data Center Location
The website’s latency depends on the location of the data center.
The farther the data center’s location from the user, the greater the latency. To minimize latency, you have to choose the right data center location.
The Magento host should offer a server location close to your target region. A global cloud provider can offer you many options.
With AWS, you can choose between 25 geographic regions.
d) Scaling
Your ecommerce store is expected to grow in the future. It is essential to have a scalable server when expanding shopping carts.
That way, you can customize the server resources based on traffic inflow. The host should upgrade or downgrade the computing resources easily.
Auto Scaling plans allow you to scale the resources quickly. It also helps to optimize cloud costs.
e) Flexible Infrastructure
A flexible infrastructure allows you to deploy any software or application. You can quickly scale the server resources based on customer demand.
It lets you reduce capacity when the demand is low. The host can modify the server to suit your specific requirements.
Conclusion
There are many components to Magento hosting. The website’s performance, uptime & security depends on the hosting provider.
Reliable hosting includes server optimizing, Magento level expertise & flexible infrastructure.
Magento hosting support ensures that you always have experts ready to resolve server issues.
Before choosing the hosting provider, look for all the insider features mentioned in this article. It is what separates the average hosting provider from an exceptional one. You can then match the checklist with your hosting requirements.
To learn more about Magento hosting, check out the MGT Commerce blog.
