Website hosting explained: what your monthly bill should actually cover

Hosting is the part of a website nobody wants to think about until the site goes down. Then it’s the only thing anyone thinks about.

Here’s a plain-language guide to what hosting is, what you should expect it to include, and why the cheapest plan is rarely the cheapest option.

What hosting actually is

Your website is a set of files, and often a database, that has to live on a computer connected to the internet around the clock. Hosting is renting space on that computer, plus whatever services come with it.

The “whatever comes with it” is where plans differ. A bare plan gives you the space and little else. A managed plan includes the work of keeping the site fast, secure, backed up and up to date.

What a good plan should include

• SSL. The padlock in the browser. It should be included and renew automatically.
• A CDN. A content delivery network stores copies of your site around the world so it loads quickly wherever visitors are.
• Daily backups, kept off the server, with restores you can request easily.
• Security. A firewall, malware scanning and quick patching of known vulnerabilities.
• Updates. On WordPress especially, plugins and themes need regular updates, and sometimes an update breaks something. Someone has to test and fix it.
• Monitoring. Alerts when the site goes down, ideally before your customers notice.
• A person to call. Support from someone who knows your site, not a generic ticket queue.

The costs cheap hosting leaves out

A low-cost plan can be a good deal for a hobby site. For a business site, add up what you’ll pay for separately:

• Backup and security plugins or services
• Premium plugin and theme licences, which usually renew yearly
• Your time, or a developer’s, applying updates and fixing what breaks
• Lost enquiries while the site is down or hacked

Compare what’s included, not the sticker price.

Match hosting to the platform

Different websites need different homes.

• Modern front-end sites, like our custom-coded AI websites, run well on platforms like Vercel, with global delivery, instant rollbacks and nothing to patch.
• WordPress and other CMS sites need managed servers with the database, caching and security tools those platforms rely on.
• Ecommerce and high-traffic sites need more dedicated resources so busy days don’t slow everything down.

Webflow and Framer include their own hosting, so for those platforms the question becomes which plan and which add-ons you need.

Why premium plugins matter

A lot of what makes a WordPress site fast, secure and easy to edit comes from premium plugins: page builders, caching, forms, SEO and security tools. Bought one site at a time, the yearly licences add up fast.

This is one place where working with a studio helps. We license premium tools across all our client sites and include them in hosting, so clients get pro features without tracking renewals or paying retail for each one. The exact tools depend on your platform and plan.

What Aully hosting costs

• AI Site Hosting, $29/month. For Aully AI websites on Vercel: global delivery, SSL, deployment monitoring, rollbacks and domain support.
• CMS Hosting, $49/month. For WordPress and standard CMS sites: NVMe hosting, CDN, SSL, daily and on-demand backups, premium plugins and a dedicated IP.
• CMS Cloud Hosting, $99/month. For custom CMS, ecommerce and higher-traffic sites that need more resources.

If you also want ongoing changes, our service packages include managed hosting plus a request queue. See hosting plans for the details.

Questions to ask any host

• How often are backups taken, where are they stored, and how do I restore one?
• Who applies updates, and who fixes it if an update breaks the site?
• What happens if the site gets hacked?
• Which licences are included, and which will I pay for separately?
• Can I move my site elsewhere if I want to?

If the answers are clear, you’re in good hands. If they’re vague, keep looking.