Web Hosting

What is web hosting?

Web hosting is the service that makes your site available on the internet. In practice, your site's files (code, images, videos, database) are stored on a server: a powerful computer permanently connected to the internet. When a visitor types your URL, their browser contacts that server, which sends back your site's files. Without hosting, your site does not exist on the internet.

Your choice of hosting has a direct effect on loading speed, availability (uptime), security and the scalability of your site. Bad hosting can ruin a perfectly designed site.

Types of hosting

Shared hosting is the cheapest option (3-15€/month). Your site shares a server with hundreds of others. Advantages: low price, maintenance handled by the host. Drawbacks: limited performance, and a risk of slowdowns if another site on the same server uses too many resources. Suitable for small brochure sites with fewer than 5,000 visits a month.

VPS hosting (Virtual Private Server) gives you dedicated resources on a shared server (15-100€/month). Better performance and more control than shared hosting. Suitable for sites with 5,000 to 50,000 visits a month.

Dedicated hosting puts a whole server at your disposal (100-500€/month). Maximum performance and full control. Suitable for large e-commerce sites and high traffic applications.

Cloud hosting (Vercel, Netlify, AWS, Google Cloud) is the modern option and the dominant one in 2026. Your site is distributed across a global network of servers (a CDN). The advantages are significant: automatic scalability (the site copes with 100 or 100,000 visitors), continuous deployment (every Git push updates the site), free HTTPS, and edge computing (content is served from the server closest to the visitor).

Vercel: the reference host for Next.js

At ConvertiLab, we use Vercel to host our clients' sites. Vercel is the platform built by the developers of Next.js, so the integration is seamless. Every git push triggers an automatic deployment in under 60 seconds. Vercel's global CDN serves your site from more than 100 points of presence worldwide. The free tier is enough for many brochure sites, and the Pro tier (20$/month) covers business needs.

How to choose a host

Uptime (availability) should be 99.9% as a minimum. Uptime of 99% means your site is unavailable for 3.6 days a year, which is unacceptable for a professional site. Uptime of 99.9% brings that down to 8.7 hours a year.

Speed depends on where the servers are (pick a server close to your audience), the type of disk (SSD is essential), and the technology (HTTP/2, Brotli compression). TTFB (Time to First Byte) should be under 200ms.

Security covers the free SSL certificate, automatic backups, DDoS protection and security updates. Scalability matters if your traffic can spike (sales periods, media coverage).

How hosting affects SEO

Google takes loading speed into account as a ranking factor through the Core Web Vitals. Slow hosting degrades LCP (Largest Contentful Paint), pushes your bounce rate up and penalises your rankings. Fast hosting with a CDN improves your SEO performance directly.

Availability matters just as much: if Googlebot visits your site during an outage, it can temporarily downgrade your indexing. Uptime of 99.9% or better is essential for stable SEO.

Understanding what makes up a hosting price

A hosting price is never just the headline figure. Several things come into it. Bandwidth (the volume of data served to visitors) can trigger extra charges when traffic spikes. Storage space counts for sites rich in images and video. The number of databases and the CPU power allocated determine how many simultaneous visitors you can absorb. Finally, technical support (response time, availability in French) makes a real difference the day your site goes down.

Be wary of very low introductory offers (under 2€/month for the first year): the renewal price is often three or four times higher, and resources are deliberately limited to push you towards paid add-ons.

Common hosting mistakes

Sole traders and small firms regularly make the same costly mistakes:

- Picking the cheapest option without checking uptime or where the servers are, at the expense of speed. - Not setting up backups and being left with no options after a hack or a slip of the hand. - Letting your provider manage the hosting without keeping your own credentials, which creates dependence. - Ignoring security alerts and updates, the classic way in for attackers. - Under-sizing your plan before a sales push, so the site goes down at the worst possible moment.

Checklist for choosing your hosting

To make the right choice, check these points before committing:

- Guaranteed uptime of 99.9% minimum, stated in the contract. - SSD servers and a TTFB under 200ms. - A free SSL certificate included (Let's Encrypt). - Daily automatic backups and simple restores. - DDoS protection and a web application firewall. - Server locations close to your audience. - Responsive support, ideally in French. - A transparent renewal price, not just the introductory one.

Best practice in 2026

In 2026, cloud hosting with a CDN has become the standard, even for small sites. Jamstack architectures (static sites distributed at the network edge) deliver performance and security that classic shared hosting struggles to match. Continuous deployment through Git reduces the risk of human error and speeds up updates. Finally, digital sustainability is becoming a criterion: choosing a host powered by renewable energy is both a responsible decision and a selling point with environmentally minded customers.

Hosting is the invisible foundation of your online presence. An informed choice saves you months of performance, security and ranking problems.

At ConvertiLab, hosting on Vercel is included in our work. Our clients get an extremely fast, secure site available 24 hours a day, without having to think about the technical side or worry about billing surprises.