Small Businesses Stuck with Slow Hosting
Small business owners and individual creators are experiencing frustration and wasted time due to slow website performance, often stemming from inadequate or poorly managed hosting solutions. They're seeking affordable, reliable, and easy-to-manage hosting options to ensure their online presence is effective and doesn't hinder their goals. This often involves a learning curve and significant research before launching.
SOURCES (60)
“I'm capable of digging in on the back end, but personally I usually want nice panels because I have way too much shit to do and I simply cannot be an expert in everything I would need to be to use a command line on…”
“yes, i have read that and it is really beyond what i can understand. if i do not have my own domain name, can i use the IP of my VM here?”
“Hi! So, I have a pretty good idea for a website and I already created it in the free creator (I don't know how to code) and in a few months it should be ready. The problem is, this creator doesn not offer free hosting and I am unable to pay money to get a domain. It is not that I don't want to pay. I would. It is that I really can't. I dont have a bank account, so I am unable to pay for anything online, I can only pay cash directly in the store or send a transfer physically in a post”
“Hello. I’m planning on starting a blog, primarily about fishing and related subjects. I’m looking at platforms and hosting options, and trying to figure out the best option. The main factors in my case are- I’m willing to spend a little bit of money on hosting- $10 a month is kinda my max here. I wouldn’t want to go higher unless it comes with truly exceptional benefits. I need the ability for readers to sign up for an email newsletter, a comments section, and a search bar. Not much else is nece”
“and to be fair to OP, it's uncommon that the largest company in a particular sector also happens to be horrendously untrustworthy and shifty in quite the same way as GoDaddy is”
“Outline self hosted has been working well for me. Claude code will set it up for you if you need help.”
“I'd actually find this useful as well. What features did the one you use before have?”
“The lock in part is what would bother me more than the design itself. I moved some site work over to Ploy because I wanted something easier to keep changing without feeling stuck inside one builder if the client just needs a simple site Wix is probably fine, but once you want more control it starts getting annoying fast”
“How are you running your business now, already into Microsoft 365 with a domain or just like, free outlook stuff?”
“so i have one year old domain? and i have made my website for tools talkandtool where i can improve it? i have zero views on google search console. submitted by /u/Standard_Iron6393 [link] [comments]”
“I second the advice about owning your own domain name registration so that you don't lose control over it. Also important is the advice to ask what happens if you stop paying and whether you own the website and can migrate it elsewhere. Also something else: ask what they do (or recommend) for legal disclosure pages e.g. privacy policy, terms of service, accessibility policy, cookies policy, cookies consent widget, and so forth. These days, those things matter A LOT because you can be sued by”
Common plugins are yoast, redirection, fluentsmtp, pretty sure all solid.
“Same here! I’ve tested pretty much everything and still can’t reproduce it anywhere else. What plugins are you using, and which theme? We may have something common”
“This is the thing that is bugging me, the only evidence I have of anything amiss is two instances of unexplainable domains appearing in Pagespeed Network Dependancy Tree, so far I haven't been able to recreate it in devtool and redoing pagespeed dozens of times it's absent.”
“... companies with web sites (and therefore domain names) but which use gmail addresses for email. Why? Because they don't want to pay 8$/month for a domain email. When you pay gmail, you can tie your domain with your email and email from mydomain.com.”
“In use Namecheap for setting up accounts for clients, but anyone who is buying a domain themselves should use Cloudflare. They do not add any margin to the cost of the domains, so it's guaranteed to be the lowest price possible. Additionally, it saves a step because using Cloudflare for DNS management is highly suggested. They also provide free email forwarding.”
“What app is running in your screenshot? Please don’t hate on me, I’m new to self hosting 🤦♂️”
“If you are looking for a simple way of hosting the content you can use a Cloudflare Worker, the free tier has generous limits and it can host a static file easily! I also utilize Cloudflare for the free security it provides to a domain. If you are looking for something more dynamic and dealing with family members that are not as tech savvy you could opt for a shared drive like Google Drive or Dropbox. If it is simply memorial sites you can purchase a domain, use a subdomain for each page and pub”
“> Setting up and maintaining a server is easier today than it was decades ago, A LAMP at this time meant a lot of manual setup, IaC wasn't a thing, reproducibility wasn't a goal, versioning was confidential, documentation was scarce and often outdated, out of the box security was lower, ties to the OS were higher. Managing virtual hosts was clunky, updating OS/PHP was risky. I would not go back for anything.You are speeding past my point by a mile or two. With a shared webhost you get a ready la”
“> you could fairly easily host most things on a old fashioned lamp host (I am talking decades ago) and all you had to know was basic file transferringSetting up and maintaining a server is easier today than it was decades ago, A LAMP at this time meant a lot of manual setup, IaC wasn't a thing, reproducibility wasn't a goal, versioning was confidential, documentation was scarce and often outdated, out of the box security was lower, ties to the OS were higher. Managing virtual hosts was clunky, u”
“Noobie here. Right I've got some websites hosted through IONOS. .I also have the email packages as it's so cheap. I'm having a NIGHTMARE with them. I've had to wipe one websites DNS records as iCloud messed it up, which meant re doing some of the formspree TXT records which was a pain. Question 1: is thunderbird a good client? All my emails seem to land in Gmail or outlook before hitting thunderbird inbox. Question 2: is IONOS hosting any good, seems costly to move over to Google”
“One thing I'd separate from the password issue is the inventory itself. For each client I'd keep a simple record of what they actually have: domain + registrar, hosting provider, DNS, email, SSL, renewal dates, who owns each account and who pays for it. Then keep the credentials in a proper password manager rather than in that record. I've found the messy part isn't usually one password — it's figuring out months later that a client's domain is at one registrar, hosting s”
“First figure out whether Codex made a static site or a server app. That decides the answer. Quick check: If your project has only HTML/CSS/JS files, or a dist / out folder after build, use Cloudflare Pages, Netlify, GitHub Pages, or Vercel. Cheapest, simplest, free HTTPS. If it has a package.json with scripts like dev , build , and start , and needs server-side code, Vercel is usually the easiest first deployment for a Next/React-style app. If it needs a database, file uploads, background jobs,”
“Many thanks to all of you who have chimed in with feedback and advice. I really appreciate it. I haven’t sorted everything but already managed to reduce it significantly.”
“free hosting does not exist for video calls because TURN servers cost money per gigabyte. Use LiveKit or Daily with their free tier limits to get secure WebRTC without paying until you scale”
“Good list. I'd add one thing that bit me early on: don't forget to also lock down your DNS registrar account itself with 2FA, not just Cloudflare. Had a scare a while back where someone tried to social-engineer their way into my registrar support — the Cloudflare proxy didn't matter at that point since they were going after the account, not the traffic.”
“For that budget, I’d prioritize boring reliability over fancy specs. Automated backups, and easy snapshots are the big ones. Also definitely isolate OpenClaw from the site somehow - one runaway process nuking both would be peak VPS pain”
Interested in trying it. Would it be possible to set up multi tenant SaaS custom domains (via CNAME)? Thanks!
“Cloudflare is great as long as you aren't trying to do anything outside the ordinary. If its not at huge scale a VPS is probably the best though. Extremely predictable”
“Pardon my skepticism, I guess it was your "websites die by default" comment that made me curious. I do appreciate the insight and suggestions. Not at all offended if you're against the idea, or even think it's plain a dumb idea. I think you're right that a book would work well for this purpose and definitely be a great stocking stuffer. I just am a web enthusiast, so I wanna see where I can go with the idea. It may well fizzle, but it'll be fun either way.”
“Am I misunderstanding the article (or perhaps your point? In which case apologies and I'm interested to hear more) From what I can tell the title of the article is referring to 0ms perceived latency (i.e. the speed of autocomplete is indecipherable from if it was loaded directly from memory in 99% of requests). They work out that for a 60hz display this technique of preloading buys them a 121ms e2e budget for API response latency for 99% of keys to autocomplete on the next frame. Then furthe”
“Yes. I’ve been sowing it for awhile. But usually I end up dumping everything my client has built and rebuild it. The good news is that I typically also Vibe code it but with a defined architecture beforehand, feature list that was already built, so no surprises, and I review the PRs heavily and direct it a lot more. If a client ever wants a complete manual rebuild, I can also do that but the price tag is never something they can afford. However, for the fee of these I have done, my cheapest was”
“if the site looks good and works, you're already ahead of half the people who've been "learning to code" for 3 years. code can be cleaned up later, that's what version 2 is”
“Hi everyone. Over the past two years and especially in the last few months, I’ve been diving deeper into self-hosting. However, I've encountered a problem that I can't seem to solve in the best way. Accessing services isn't an issue for me: I use a Linux desktop and launch my frequent services directly via Rofi. The real problem is my family, who almost exclusively use their phones, and expecting them to memorize IPs, domain names or URLs just isn't realistic. The two workarounds”
“Nope, we just stuck with Godaddy for now. That one single domain - which is just a redirect, is the only thing we have with Godaddy today.”
“Buy a domain on Namecheap, around $10–15/year, and host the site free on Cloudflare Pages. Pay for Codex for a month and give it a few websites you like, your business info, logo, photos, services and colors. Ask it to build the site, connect the domain, make it work well on mobile, and optimize for user intent vocabulary, SEO, GEO, CRO, speed and accessibility. Tell it to use Lucide icons where they make sense, add light animations, and do a full QA before launch. Also optimize your Google Busi”
“one thing i havent seen said here: check whether you two even have the same cost shape. their 13.5k stars are free to them because self hosting hands the bill to the user, their docker, their bandwidth, their tokens. if mirroring the desktop means youre the one eating bandwidth and keeping a session alive, then "go free" isnt a lever you own. its a lever they own and you dont i run a pay per generation platform (biased obviously, imaginode.ai) so this is the one i have actual scars fro”
“Another vote for technitium as self hosted dns. Plus you can do add blocks if you wish and it's a recursive DNS as well.”
“Yeah, it’s terrible. Huge upfront costs if you want to run your own hardware/infrastructure and nobody is gonna trust some dude running his own server; you need around the clock support. And if you’re reselling, yeah you can assure customers that “it’s ok, the servers are powered by OVHCloud or ServerBasket” and then they’ll just go right to them because they don’t need you. I charge my customers for hosting of course and yes, it’s highly profitable… but that’s because I make my money in the spr”
“Since Shopify is off the table, I'd look hard at the decoupled setup someone mentioned. For 1000+ products where SEO matters, a fast frontend beats a plugin heavy Woo build and you're not locked in if you outgrow a piece. Woo works but as a solo maintainer you're signing up for plugin updates and performance tuning forever. Also +1 to the person who said sort your domain early. Sounds minor next to the platform decision but its the one branding call that gets more expensive to change”
“Hey everyone! As the title suggests, I'm thinking about moving multiple websites to a different hosting platform due to costs, viability, and other reasons. If I have a website on hosting platform A and want to move it over to hosting platform B, basically in its entirety, would that hurt SEO? The websites are currently built using a drag-and-drop builder with a pretty messy code structure. My plan would be to completely rebuild each website outside of the builder while keeping the actual we”
“Hi, that's correct. Choosing a good web hosting company is the first and most important part though. For best performance and security, always go with any plan that comes with cloudlinux OS and imunify360 firewall on the server side. Stay away from companies offering shared cPanel servers without cloudlinux. There are some companies now offering enhance.com control panel instead of cPanel and it works in a similar way to cloudlinux but I am yet to experience any security issues. It's onl”
“Once you add cloudflare and enable the cdn, cloudflare automatically installs an SSL. This ssl creates a secure connection bridge this way. Origin <---> Cloudflare <--->Visitor With full strict, all layers above are encrypted end to end. However I would suggest you to go to the SSL/TLS settings at cloudflare and enable the auto ssl mode(recommended) option. If for some reason your origin ssl fails, cloudflare will still secure your domain partially but at least the site will be up al”
“Good reminder , I set up my app's domain a few weeks back with Certbot issuing a cert straight against my droplet's IP, no Cloudflare in front of it. Hadn't really thought about the origin IP being exposed until reading this. If I add Cloudflare's proxy now, does Full (strict) mode just layer on top of my existing origin cert, or do I need to redo the SSL setup from scratch?”
“It's not a project, I am not using AI. I sometimes do to research on how things work so I can deploy and host things”
“I simply have no clue what to do. No clue at all. I just did BSR operations. I'm not touching my general site address and url settings in WP otherwise that would lock me out. I DELIBERELTY AVOIDED WP-OPTIONS SO I WOULDN'T BE LOCKED OUT. Next comes DNS apparently. And yet how can I possibly login to ecologicalcitizen.net admin after DNS IF THE SITE URL STILL SAYS THE TEMP DOMAIN IN WORDPRESS, WHICH I NEED TO CHANGE? This is insane.”
“For a non-technical Org, use Rocket.net instead of WP Engine. I moved my entire agency over 200 sites there. Never a problem since day one. 3 years in. Saved a ton of coin, better delivery, better customer support, and sales doesn't lie to you every day saying you need to upgrade when you don't. They don't waste your time.”
“moving domains always feels scarier than it actually is, especially when you only do it once in a while. for a simple site like yours railway should be fine, just connect the repo and point the domain, but maybe check if your contact form needs any backend stuff cause that might not work out of the box”
“Whole web, no. A narrow vertical, yes, and it's less about hardware than this thread is making it sound. I run one for a single niche. About 97,000 documents pulled from ten sources, on hardware that would embarrass a gaming PC. Storage and bandwidth never became the problem. What did: Every source has its own ceiling and you find it late. GitHub's search API hard caps at 1000 results per query no matter what number it reports, so you end up slicing the same query by star ranges to walk”
“WordPress is open source software that is free for anybody to run. But you still need a server to run it on. That is what web hosting is for. WordPress and its plugins are constantly under attack and need security updates, so you need somebody to keep on top of that. Some hosting providers do this for you, and that is managed hosting, which is usually a little more expensive than normal hosting. This is what you are paying WP Engine for. You can move off WP Engine, but you will need to find a ne”