# How to choose hosting for an online store

> The price of a hosting plan says little about its real ability to run an online store under load. What actually matters lies elsewhere: control over the PHP configuration, how responsive support is, and the backup policy.

- Source canonique : [https://allaux.fr/en/guides/choisir-hebergement-ecommerce](https://allaux.fr/en/guides/choisir-hebergement-ecommerce)
- Langue : EN
- Dernière mise à jour : 2026-09-30

## Short answer

> Shared hosting suits a small store with light traffic. Beyond that, a VPS or managed hosting specialising in PrestaShop or WooCommerce gives finer control over resources, caching and the PHP version, which becomes decisive as the catalogue and traffic grow.

## The three main categories

Shared hosting splits the resources of a single server across several sites, which keeps the cost down but also limits control: the PHP version is sometimes fixed, memory_limit is capped, and performance can vary depending on the activity of other sites hosted on the same machine.

A virtual private server (VPS) or a dedicated server gives full control over the configuration, at the cost of more demanding technical management: server security updates, cache configuration, monitoring, all of it becomes the responsibility of the site owner or their technical provider.

Managed e-commerce hosting sits between the two: it offers an infrastructure optimised for PrestaShop or WooCommerce (often with OPcache and an in-memory cache preconfigured), while taking the server's technical management off your hands, at a higher price than standard shared hosting.

## What actually matters when choosing

1. **Control over the PHP version** — Being able to choose and update the PHP version independently of the host avoids getting stuck during a major CMS upgrade that requires a newer version.
2. **An in-memory cache** — A Redis or Memcached-based cache, where available, is a clear upgrade over the default file cache on a large catalogue or under sustained traffic.
3. **The backup policy** — Frequency, retention period and how easy restoring actually is should be known before choosing, not discovered the day a restore becomes necessary.
4. **How responsive technical support is** — When a blocking outage hits during a peak sales period, support you can reach quickly makes a difference that shows up directly in revenue.
5. **SSH or command-line access** — Some operations (installing via a dependency manager, running commands, server diagnostics) require SSH access that not every shared hosting plan offers.

## Signs that your hosting has become a limiting factor

- A PHP version imposed by the host, older than the one recommended by the CMS
- A memory_limit too low, causing errors on certain heavy operations (catalogue import, accounting export)
- Technical support that takes several days to respond while the store generates sales every day
- Backups that exist but have never been tested with an actual restore

## The real cost of choosing the wrong host

The cost of unsuitable hosting isn't limited to the slowness visitors perceive. Technical support you can't reach during an outage in a peak sales period, a backup that turns out unusable exactly when you need it, or a locked PHP version blocking a CMS security update, are risks far more costly than a difference of a few euros a month between two plans.

This is why changing hosting deserves to be assessed with the same criteria as changing a technical provider, not just as a line item to minimise.

## FAQ

### At what traffic level should you move off shared hosting?

There's no universal threshold, but recurring slowdowns during busy periods, or a catalogue exceeding several thousand products, are signs that more suitable hosting could bring a real gain.

### Does more expensive hosting guarantee a faster store?

Not automatically: powerful hosting that's badly configured, or a store whose slowdown comes from the code rather than the server, won't fully benefit from extra resources.

### Does changing hosts mean rebuilding the whole site?

No, a hosting migration generally keeps the code and database unchanged. The work involves transferring the files and database, configuring DNS, and checking that everything works in the new environment.