Web Hosting and Email Hosting

What is the difference between domain and hosting?

Hosting refers to the digital space where all of the code, text, images, video, and other content on a website is stored. This space typically is on a special type of computer called a “server,” which is connected to the internet 24-7. Quite like how your office or retail outlet provides a space where you can house your physical assets and where people can interact with your business, web hosting provides the digital space for your virtual assets.

A domain name is the address of that digital space. Just as your office or store has a physical address that helps people find it in the physical world, your website needs an address to help people find it on the internet. For more on this, check out our page on domain names.

Should I just choose the cheapest hosting option I can find?

As the wise Confucius once said, “Not all hosting is equal.” Quite aside from complex technical things, here are the top red flags to look out for when choosing web hosting:

• Many web hosts entice customers with a low upfront price for the first year, but charge 2 to 3 times higher when it comes time to renew.
• It’s also common for web hosts to try to lock you in for 2 to 3-year contracts with seemingly low prices, and then deliver poor service which results in frequent outages and downtime for your site.
• Cheap web hosts divide the server resources between far too many sites. As a result, even if your site stays well below their stated bandwidth and memory quotas, it may still suffer slow load times and search engine ranking penalties because of other sites using up server resources.
• Poor server maintenance increases the odds of completely undetected malware and hacker intrusions, which may then deface your site or steal business and customer data.

At Lime, our fully managed hosting plans come with transparent pricing. There are no bait-and-switch tactics – you won’t be surprised by a 2x markup at renewal.

While there are many providers that offer “free” hosting services, these are usually not recommended for businesses or professionals, as they come with a variety of limitations and strings attached:

• Free hosting options cannot be held to any standards of “uptime”, meaning your website can (and often will) become inaccessible to people trying to access it.
• Free hosting generally does not allow you to use your own domain name, forcing you to display some other brand name in your web address. This looks unprofessional and leaves a bad impression with customers.
• Providers offering free hosting generally cover their costs by placing ads on your website. Aside from making your site look unprofessional, there is also a risk of visitors seeing ads for your competitors on your site, as you have no control over the ads.
• Features such as online payments, shopping carts, user accounts, analytics, and SEO optimisation, to name just a few, are typically not available or severely limited on free hosting.

Lime’s website design packages all include a free .au domain name, and one year of free web hosting, as standard, with options to suit businesses of every scale, whether you’re just getting started, or looking to scale up.

Managed WordPress hosting is a type of premium hosting service that Lime offers as a standard to all our customers. With managed WordPress hosting, you don’t have to worry about server management, technical configuration, confusing cPanels and dashboards, or really, anything technical at all. We take care of all of that directly with our hosting partners, so that you can focus on what truly matters to you, without the hassles of technical admin.

What’s more, you get the benefit of a powerful, fast website that’s powered by WordPress — the world’s most popular website publishing software. Whether you’re a beginner with zero WordPress experience, or a seasoned pro who likes to customise your WordPress site, Lime’s managed hosting offers you as much flexibility as you need with application-level settings.