What we look for
| Requirement | Target | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Server response | Time to first byte of 0.8 seconds or less | Everything else waits for the first byte |
| Content delivery network | Copies of the site close to visitors | Faster pages in every city |
| HTTPS | On every page, renewed automatically | Trust, security and a page experience signal |
| Backups | Daily, kept off the server, easy to restore | A bad update or hack costs hours, not weeks |
| Updates and security | Handled for you, with monitoring | Old software is the most common way in for attackers |
| Uptime | Monitored, with alerts | Downtime means missed calls |
The 0.8-second figure comes from Google's web.dev guidance, which treats that time to first byte as good for most sites.
Static hosting changes the picture
Most of our sites are static. We build pages ahead of time and serve them from a global network, with no database query on each visit. That makes them fast, cheap to host and hard to hack. Forms and other live features run as small separate functions.
WordPress sites need a server that runs PHP and a database. They benefit most from managed hosting with caching, updates and backups included.
Red flags in cheap hosting
- Hundreds of sites sharing one small server
- No backups, or backups stored on the same server
- Slow support that takes days to answer
- Renewal prices far above the first-year deal
Good example. A dental group's site sits on a global edge network. It loads fast in every office's city and has never gone down during a busy Monday morning.
Bad example. The same group's old host put it on a crowded shared server. Pages took four seconds to start loading at peak times.
Read why websites load slowly. Our web design team sets up hosting in your name to these standards.