With a diversity of hosting providers available, it can be challenging for merchants to find the optimal solution. This guide will give you all the needed information about cost-effective and reliable Magento platforms, including the answers to the questions:
Keep reading to stay informed about the best Magento hosting solutions for your specific needs in 2024.
Magento is a widely embraced CMS with pre-built functionalities for e-commerce sites. It plays a fundamental role in ensuring a website can handle increased traffic and maintain optimal performance.
Magento offers flexibility and scalability for businesses of all sizes. Its open-source nature allows for customization to meet specific needs. Thus, its default features cater to both small and large enterprises.
The choice of hosting type largely depends on the unique needs and scale of your Magento store. Shared hosting works well for smaller stores with low traffic, while dedicated or Magento 2 cloud hosting is better suited for high-performance e-commerce operations. Managed hosting is ideal for those who want the hosting provider to handle technical maintenance, whereas unmanaged hosting offers more control but requires greater technical knowledge.
Among the many options available, you can select the one that best aligns with your Magento 2 Cloud requirements and preferences. As long as the hosting environment supports Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP, it will be capable of effectively hosting your Magento store.
Magento’s reputation for speed and flexibility has made it a preferred platform for scaling businesses. Its robust framework and developer-friendly environment enable extensive customization.
Magento’s core features include:
Additionally, exceptional Magento hosting features provide:
A fully managed Magento hosting provider delivers a comprehensive suite of services, from initial site migration to ongoing management. Key features of effective managed hosting for Magento include:
Overall, Magento managed hosting services offer a hassle-free solution for eCommerce owners, allowing them to focus on their business while trusting specialized experts to handle hosting complexities.
When choosing a Magento hosting provider, it’s important to consider whether to go with cloud hosting or an on-premises data center. The key difference between these options lies in the location of data storage. An on-premises data center requires purchasing and maintaining servers on-site, which some may see as a drawback due to the significant investment in hardware and the need for periodic updates or replacements. However, not every setup demands constant attention—there have been cases where servers required minimal maintenance after the initial setup.
One advantage of an on-premises data center is having full control over your data and equipment. This allows for greater customization without needing vendor approval and lets you create an environment tailored to various solutions. It also provides the flexibility to migrate to new systems on your own schedule.
On the other hand, a cloud-based solution involves storing data on external infrastructure. While cloud hosting is a popular choice, it comes with drawbacks, such as a generally higher cost. Additionally, even though data is stored by a third-party vendor, the client remains responsible for its security. In case of a data breach, the consequences fall on the client. Moreover, data accessibility depends on a stable internet connection, and an outage could disrupt access to remote data.
While platforms like WordPress can run smoothly on almost any hosting service, Magento demands more in terms of speed, hardware, and precise configuration. To ensure high conversion rates, your server must be optimized to deliver the fastest performance possible.
Having a robust and dependable Magento hosting solution is essential for your online store growth. Magento 2 provides the necessary infrastructure and resources to support the demands of your e-commerce. To help you find the appropriate option, we collected eight most reliable and effective Magento hosting solutions.
DigitalOcean is mostly used by small merchants but is also suitable for medium-sized businesses. It has an extensive list of services and allows you to manage the hosting environment yourself. DigitalOcean helps with solving some issues with the server, but if you need support with minor things, they will not assist you with that. Only you are responsible for everything related to your online store and its settings.
At the early stages of your website development, you may not need DevOps or SysOps. Yet, once you have to fix something and solve a problem with your e-commerce, you would need to hire an engineer to help you. DigitalOcean hosting is cheap, but a good DevOps Engineer can cost you $25-50/hour and higher, depending on the complexity of the project. Besides, the server is not very fast.
At some point, your business can start requiring something better than DigitalOcean’s services. This is when you should consider options like Cloudways or Hetzner.
Cloudways stands out as a more exclusive option for a Magento hosting provider. Released a few years ago by DigitalOcean, Cloudways is particularly the same hosting but with more advanced features. They provide their own DevOps team and cater to a range of users.
Cloudways free trial allows hosting on DigitalOcean, GCP, and AWS. Their clients are medium-sized businesses or higher, including merchants, startups, and agencies. The service itself is better and provides 24/7 support, yet it is also more expensive.
Be aware that Cloudways hosting for Magento provides limited features. There are many additional settings, but they are locked along with a standard set. Considering there is no free access to the settings, your hands are tied when it comes to configuring something. Your website can work stable with Cloudways, but you won’t be able to achieve greater results with this service. Also, when turning to technical support, get ready to hear: “I’m sorry, but our regulations do not provide this, there is only this and that…”
In most cases, this is suitable for 90% of medium-sized businesses. However, you should also consider their technical support works on a ticketing system. After you leave a request, they can look at it within an hour or more, even if it is critical. Moreover, you cannot be sure their developers will quickly resolve this issue. Yet, the price is affordable, as for the service sharpened by Magento.
Overall, Cloudways is a good alternative for a cheaper hosting and well-suited for migration from DigitalOcean Basic Droplets.
When your store grows and its productivity decreases, you can switch to a bare-metal server. Various companies offer real servers to rent in their data centers, and Hetzner is one of them. Unlike other cheap Magento hosting providers, Hetzner displays reliable services for great prices. You can choose a separate server that will be allocated specifically for you.
Hetzner offers you to buy a server three times cheaper than their competitors from the Netherlands or Germany. Moreover, you can get a desired machine at an auction or rent a used server for a super low price. It may be a year old, but it will be a great solution for certain businesses as the generation of the processor is always quite fresh. Some clients even buy two servers because it is still cheaper than renting a cloud, and it saves you from downtime.
There is only one critical disadvantage of Hetzner – no technical support. Of course, they provide support for your hardware, but your ecommerce is your concern. Hetzner supplies a responsive service, yet you need a DevOps or SysOps team to configure everything from scratch down to tuning the server. For some, this is a benefit, as many clients come with their own developers and engineers. Yet, if you don’t have such a person in your team, you should spend some time hiring a specialist or two.
We have transferred many clients from cheap hosting providers to Hetzner. Some of them had a DevOps or tech specialist in the team, but we recommended using our integrated set of services suitable for any Hetzner configuration. Thus, they didn’t have to look for anyone because they had our Magento 2 development and support. There is also 24/7 support available, but it comes with an SLA, and an additional contract for technical support. An SLA has four levels of response, depending on the severity of the situation. The higher its level, the quicker our response will be.
Magento AWS hosting is a world-renowned provider that allows you to build the fastest possible system. It is a really stable product with a range of services provided.
AWS follows trends in Magento and always comes up with advanced services. Amazon provides an excellent infrastructure that allows clients to scale in architecture from a small project to a cosmic giant in a matter of seconds. Scalability is its huge benefit, but, at the same time, it is the most expensive provider. They can charge you $3000 per month for the average project.
Additionally, Amazon web hosting should be managed by DevOps, specializing specifically in Magento. Amazon services consist of separate products united into a single ecosystem, but each has its own nuances. For this reason, your developers should have many years of experience working with AWS.
If you are migrating your Magento marketplace to AWS, you won’t be able to cover its significant functionality immediately. Therefore, the entry threshold for DevOps in Amazon is much higher than in any other service. AWS DevOps engineers have their own certification, so it can be challenging to find the right specialists.
There was a case when the client couldn’t afford to pay for Amazon anymore, and we dragged him to a dedicated server. He overpaid a huge amount to AWS, but we provided him with exactly the same set of services but ten times cheaper. The client had no need to use Amazon for his business, so we found a much cheaper solution from Hetzner so that he would not overpay for hosting.
Akoova is a company that is ready to provide support for Amazon customers at an adequate price. Akoova’s developers specialize in Magento 2 AWS architecture and know the specifics of Magento. If you need to fix some issue in your store, they immediately solve it online.
Akoova has responsive chat support where you can report your problem. Yet, most likely, your problem will be fixed by the time you report it, as their specialists know about all issues even before you find out about them. Once they see a problem, they contact your team and do the job together. When you start working with Akoova, they get to know each of your specialists and their responsibilities, so they always know who to address. It’s like a team within a team.
While the rest Magento providers work on a ticketing system, Akoova’s process of solving problems is reduced to a minimum, as they are working 24/7. Also they’re offering zero downtime deployment based on AWS Services.
Our client, Gardening Express, uses AWS with the support of Akoova and our team. We resolve all issues in a joint chat with our developers and their tech support. Meantime, their manager focuses on interaction with the clients and increase of sales.
Nexcess is widely regarded as a leading choice for managed Magento Cloud hosting. The platform has a range of beneficial features and a dedicated team of Magento experts. Besides, Nexcess Magento hosting differs in low pricing. Yet, it is not suitable for large businesses with high performance.
Our Australian client was experiencing a critical issue with their Nexcess server, resulting in an unacceptable 600 ms delay. Despite our detailed communication with Nexcess support suggesting specific server configuration changes, their response was unhelpful. This necessitated a hosting provider switch. We migrated the client’s server to Hetzner in the USA, specifically to a western data center. Although the ping to the server was initially longer, this move significantly improved performance, halving the time to first byte, demonstrating a marked improvement over the previous setup.
GoDaddy has established itself as one of the prominent Magento hosting providers in the USA. Yet, it can’t compete with other mentioned providers due to it being outdated. For quite an expensive price, you get a low-quality Dedicated Server or VPS.
If you are looking for good performance and maximum conversions, then this is not your option. It is suitable for a small blog, microsite, or online store with minimal traffic. GoDaddy Magento hosting will not allow you to stand out among competitors and gain more clients.
Additionally, there are also VPS/VDS hosting solutions you may consider. Magento VPS hosting is a service provided by DigitalOcean, GoDaddy, Nexus, and many other popular providers, but not all. With a VPS, you share one machine with someone else. Therefore, if there are some issues with your neighbor’s traffic, the overall load on the server will increase. Better take a physical server or a cloud solution that will be clearly virtualized for you.
As for Magento VDS hosting, it provides you with a clear amount of resources you can use. A dedicated virtual machine is isolated from others, and loading on a neighboring server does not affect yours.
Summing up, all the above providers are not competitors, as they are suitable for companies with different needs and budgets. The final choice depends on the financials of each specific client and whether he can afford to rent services or hire a team.
Here, you may check the approximate pricing for the best managed Magento hosting providers’ services:
| Provider | Solution | Min Completion | Max Completion | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $/month | Cores /vCPU | RAM | SSD | $/month | Cores /vCPU | RAM | SSD | ||
| DigitalOcean | DigitalOcean | $4 | 1 vCPU | 512 MB | 10 GB | $2096 | 32 vCPUs | 256 GB | 4690 GB |
| Cloudways | $14 | 1 Core | 1 GB | 25 GB | $487 | 16 Core | 64 GB | 1280 GB | |
| Hetzner | Shared | €4.59 | 2 vCPU | 4 GB | 40 GB | €29.63 | 16 vCPUs | 32 GB | 320 GB |
| Dedicated | €15.11 | 2 vCPU | 8 GB | 80 GB | €349.07 | 48 vCPU | 192 GB | 960 GB | |
| AWS | Hosting only | $38.56 | 2 Core | 2 GB | 20 GB | $3569.9 | 96 Core | 384 GB | 20 GB |
| with Akoova support | Contact Akoova team to get a quote | ||||||||
| Nexcess | $21 | Shared vCPU | Shared RAM | 30 GB | $542 | 32 vCPU | 32 GB | 800 GB | |
| GoDaddy | VPS | $15.95 | 1 vCPU | 2 GB | 40 GB | $269.95 | 16 vCPU | 64 GB | 800 GB |
| VDS | $249.95 | 4 vCPU | 32 GB | 2×500 GB | $740.25 | 16 vCPU | 256 GB | 2 x 1 TB | |
How to Choose the Right Magento Cloud Hosting
Finding the perfect hosting solution for your eCommerce business isn’t one-size-fits-all. The best option depends on the specific needs and stage of your business. Consider the following key factors when evaluating your choices:
System Requirements Compatibility
Start by ensuring that the hosting environment is compatible with your Magento version’s system requirements. Verify support for the correct versions of PHP, MySQL, and other necessary extensions. Proper compatibility optimizes store performance, increases sales, and enhances customer loyalty.
Scalability
Your hosting provider must be able to handle traffic surges, especially during sales or promotions. Look for hosting options that offer scalable resources, like cloud hosting, which allows you to adjust resources as needed without causing website downtime.
High Uptime Guarantee
Downtime can lead to lost revenue and damage your store’s reputation. Choose a hosting service that guarantees at least 99.9% uptime. Reliable uptime is crucial for ensuring that your store remains accessible to customers at all times.
Adequate Server Resources
Make sure your hosting provider offers sufficient RAM and CPU power to manage peak traffic loads. For small to medium-sized stores, 2-4 Cores and 8-16 GB of RAM with SSD storage are generally adequate. For larger stores, opt for 8-32 Cores, 32-64 GB of RAM, and NVMe SSDs to maintain smooth performance.
Advanced Security Measures
Security is vital. Your hosting service should include features like firewalls, SSL certificates, regular malware scans, and secure FTP and SSH access. These measures are crucial to protecting your site from cyber threats and attacks.
Server Location and Regionality
Consider the regional placement of servers. While it’s not always necessary for servers to be located in your business’s country, check for any legal restrictions, such as those in the UK, that may apply to data storage. If regulations are a concern, a skilled DevOps professional can configure the server to comply while using cost-effective options, like cheaper servers in other countries, and minimize latency with a Content Delivery Network (CDN).
Developer Team Efficiency
The hosting service should provide tools that support and enhance your developers’ efficiency, especially in integrating Magento 2 with CRM systems. Discuss specific needs with your team to ensure a smooth and efficient workflow for your eCommerce project.
Consistent Backup Services
Regular backups are essential for protecting your eCommerce business. Ensure your hosting provider offers reliable backup and recovery options to safeguard your data.
Developer-Friendly Features
Choose a hosting provider that offers developer-friendly tools to simplify customization and site management. Tools like Git, staging environments, and a Command Line Interface (CLI) help deploy site changes safely and efficiently.
Conclusion
These hosting providers cater to businesses of various sizes and offer a range of services at different price points. While starting with affordable options like DigitalOcean or Nexcess may be appealing, remember that budget solutions aren’t always the most reliable. For complex projects requiring constant support and stability, a combination of Amazon Web Services and Akoova support is often the best choice.
Our DevOps team is well-versed in the specifics of all these providers. We offer a flexible hourly rate, tailored to the unique needs and resources of each client. At Perspective, we deliver high-quality, responsive service at a partnership level.
With our extensive experience working with each Magento hosting provider on this list, we can guide you to the ideal hosting solution for your business. We’ll recommend the most suitable option to address your current requirements while preparing for future growth.
Remember, your hosting infrastructure is crucial for your site’s performance, reliability, and security. Investing in top-quality hosting is an investment in the long-term success of your e-commerce business.