The Hosting Decision Most Businesses Get Wrong
For most Indian business owners, website hosting is an afterthought — something chosen by the developer, forgotten once the site goes live, and blamed when the site goes down or loads slowly. This is a mistake. Your hosting infrastructure directly affects your website speed, your SEO performance, your uptime, and — ultimately — your conversion rate.
This guide explains every major hosting option in plain language, with specific recommendations by business type and budget.
The Four Hosting Categories
1. Shared Hosting
Your website shares server resources with hundreds or thousands of other websites. The cheapest option (₹99–499/month from providers like Hostinger, Bluehost India, GoDaddy India), but performance is unpredictable — when another site on your server gets a traffic spike, your site slows down.
Right for: Personal blogs, early-stage side projects, landing pages with minimal traffic.
Not right for: Any business website where performance affects revenue.
2. VPS (Virtual Private Server)
You get a partitioned portion of a physical server — dedicated resources that other sites cannot touch. Better performance, more control, more technical management required. ₹500–2,500/month.
Right for: Growing businesses with technical resources or a developer on retainer.
Not right for: Business owners who want zero server management responsibility.
3. Cloud Hosting
Your site runs across a network of servers. Traffic spikes are handled automatically. Pay for what you use. Major providers: AWS, Google Cloud, DigitalOcean. More complex to configure; significant cost if not managed carefully.
Right for: High-traffic websites, e-commerce at scale, applications with variable demand.
Not right for: Simple business websites without developer oversight.
4. Managed Platforms (Vercel, Netlify, Cloudflare Pages)
Your site is deployed on a global edge network with zero server management. Fast, reliable, and increasingly the default for modern websites. Vercel and Netlify have generous free tiers. Cloudflare Pages is free at most traffic levels.
Right for: Modern websites built with Next.js, React, or static generators. Draftly-published sites use Cloudflare's edge network.
Not right for: WordPress sites requiring PHP server execution.
Specific Recommendations by Business Type
| Business | Recommended hosting | Monthly cost |
|---|---|---|
| Local service business (salon, clinic, restaurant) | Managed platform (Draftly/Vercel) | ₹0–999 |
| D2C brand website | Vercel or Netlify | Free–₹1,500 |
| WordPress blog | Managed WordPress (Kinsta India or WP Engine) | ₹2,000–5,000 |
| E-commerce (Shopify) | Shopify's hosting included | ₹1,994+/month |
| High-traffic media site | AWS or Google Cloud with CDN | Variable |
The Draftly Hosting Advantage
Draftly-published websites are served via Cloudflare's global edge network — meaning your site loads from the server closest to your visitor, anywhere in the world. There is no hosting configuration, no server management, and no infrastructure cost beyond your Draftly plan. For the technical explanation of how this works, read our 3D Website Performance Guide.
