The four tiers in plain English
Hosting choices look bewildering until you realise almost everything on sale fits one of four tiers. The right one depends on how your site is built, how much traffic it gets, and what an hour of downtime actually costs your business.
- Shared hosting: your site lives on a server alongside hundreds of others, with the provider managing everything below your files.
- VPS (virtual private server): a guaranteed slice of a server that behaves like your own machine, which you administer yourself.
- Managed hosting: usually managed WordPress, where the provider runs, patches, backs up and speeds up the platform for you.
- Edge and static platforms: your site's files are copied to data centres worldwide and served from whichever is closest to the visitor.
Shared hosting: the sensible default
Shared hosting remains the workhorse of UK small-business websites, and in 2026 the quality at the bottom of the market is better than its reputation. Providers such as Hostinger, IONOS, 20i and Krystal offer plans from roughly £2 to £12 a month with SSL, email and one-click WordPress installs included. For a brochure site or a modestly trafficked WordPress site, it is genuinely all you need.
Two cautions. First, headline prices are introductory: renewal rates are often double or more, so compare the renewal figure, not the promotion. Second, you share resources with neighbours, so a busy server can slow your site during peak hours. A host that publishes resource limits clearly, as 20i and Krystal do, is usually a host that manages them properly.
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VPS hosting: power with responsibility
A VPS gives you root access to your own virtual machine, typically £5 to £40 a month depending on memory and cores. DigitalOcean, Linode (now part of Akamai), OVHcloud and Hostinger all sell capable entry-level instances, and several offer UK or nearby EU data centres.
The catch is the word unmanaged. You, or someone you pay, must patch the operating system, configure the firewall, renew certificates, monitor uptime and restore backups when something goes wrong. A neglected VPS is a liability: unpatched servers are found and exploited by automated scanners, not unlucky coincidence. If nobody in the business does servers, either buy a managed VPS tier or stay off this rung entirely. Choose a VPS when you run custom software, a Node.js application or several sites that have outgrown shared limits.
Managed hosting: paying for sleep
Managed hosting mostly means managed WordPress. Providers such as Kinsta, WP Engine, SiteGround's upper tiers and Manchester-based 34SP.com take over updates, daily backups, malware scanning, staging environments and performance tuning, with support staff who actually know WordPress. Expect £20 to £70 a month for a single business site.
That premium buys two things: speed, because the stack is tuned for exactly one platform, and recoverability, because when something breaks it is their job at 3am rather than yours. It makes sense when the website takes bookings or generates leads worth real money, and there is no technical person in-house. It makes little sense for a five-page brochure site that would be cheaper and faster rebuilt as static files.
Edge and static platforms: the new free tier
Cloudflare Pages, Netlify, Vercel and GitHub Pages host static sites by copying your files to a global network of data centres, so a visitor in Glasgow and a visitor in Sydney both get served from nearby. For sites built with a static generator such as Astro or Hugo, the free tiers cover most small-business traffic comfortably, including SSL and instant rollbacks.
The limits are architectural rather than financial: these platforms serve pre-built files and small serverless functions, so they do not run WordPress or a traditional database-backed application. Forms, search and dynamic features are handled with bundled add-ons or third-party services. If your site fits the model, this tier is close to unbeatable on cost, speed and security.
Key Takeaway
Match hosting to how your site is built and what downtime costs you. Static brochure sites belong on edge platforms such as Cloudflare Pages, often free. WordPress sites with modest traffic are fine on quality shared hosting at £3 to £12 a month. Pay for managed hosting when the site earns real money and nobody in-house does servers, and only take on a VPS if someone will actually patch and monitor it. Always check renewal prices, not introductory ones.
Matching your business to a tier
- Trades, salons, consultants with a brochure site: edge platform if static (often free), otherwise shared hosting at £3 to £12 a month.
- Content-led business with a WordPress blog and steady enquiries: quality shared hosting, moving to managed WordPress as traffic and stakes grow.
- Ecommerce on WooCommerce: managed WordPress hosting; downtime and slow checkouts cost more than the hosting saves.
- Custom web application or SaaS: VPS or cloud platform, with someone contracted to maintain it.
- Agencies and multi-site owners: a reseller plan or a managed VPS to consolidate costs.
Whatever tier you pick, check four things before paying: where the data centres are (UK or EU keeps GDPR conversations simple), support hours in UK time, whether backups are included and tested, and the renewal price in year two. If you would like help choosing or migrating without downtime, our team does this regularly.