Where To Host Your Website?
Websites can be hosted anywhere in the world. Typically for Australians, the choice is between Australia or the USA.
While there are no hard-and-fast rules, here are a few things to consider.
Ignore the fact that I have used the "USA" first in the points below......... I am not advocating one in preference over the other, simply providing something to think about.
At the bottom of this article, I will give a few rough recommendations, but even these are guidelines only.
Speeds and Other Technical Considerations
- There are no technical differences - the site can be hosted anywhere
- USA hosting will be cheaper, typically $100 less than the equivalent in Australia
- USA hosting will probably give you more storage and bandwidth allowances
- USA hosting speeds can sometimes be an issue, since the transmission time from USA to Australia is typically about 5 times slower (180 miliseconds vs 30 miliseconds approx).
- It should be said though, that we are talking in tems of milli-seconds (1,000s of a second), so while it is techically slower, it may not really make a significant perceived difference
- also, DO NOT take this speed difference as gospel... there are a very many factors affecting this, and an Australian server can actually be slower in some circumstances
- All else being equal though, Australian sites can be assumed to be faster
- If you have a lot of BIG data files on your website, this speed difference will assume greater importance.
- although there is a way to overcome this by hosting your data on a "CDN". This is a Content Delivery Network, where the data is hosted on many servers all over the world. The data will be retrieved from the server closest to the user requesting it
- this CDN is worthy of a separate discussion... too much to go in to in this article. Here is a link to a brief overview on CDN. It should be noted though, that while this is an excellent facility, there is an additional cost associated with it
- Maintenance windows in the USA are at their local night time -- this might mean that your site may be down during the Australia day time (though this does not occur often, or for a long period
Google Searches
In terms of your business there may be a difference between Australian hosting and USA hosting from Google and other search engines.
If you are primarily doing business in Australia then Australian hosted sites will generally be ranked higher than US hosted sites, although again, there are a lot of considerations here other than the simple location of the host server
If a browser is searching from Australia it sometimes does matter where the site is hosted.
Payment Processors
There are NO issues with PayPal, or any other payment method. PayPal, and all other payment facilities, will work anywhere but if your business grows and you need a local payment provider you may have issues.
Where Is The MobusMBL Website Hosted?
In Australia.
Why?
Why not?
My Thoughts
- If you need a lot of storage space, consider USA
- If you have a lot of big data files (images / videos etc, consder Australia
- If you have a budget issue, consider USA
- If you have a mission-critical site which requires uptime in the Australia business hours, consider Australia
And Finally
If you want to talk this through, drop me a note or give me a call...... you know where I am :-) :-)