E-commerce Hotsing
What is Ecommerce Web Hosting?
E-commerce hosting is the service of a hosting provider to provide an e-commerce website to end customers.
web hosting provides a server for storing and maintaining website files for e-commerce web hosting.
You can rent or buy a server through e-commerce web hosting. Web hosting provides e-commerce hosting services to secure and optimize servers.
This is different from standard web hosting.
E-commerce hosting has features that help run a business website.
Some of the unique aspects of
eCommerce hosting include:
- Shopping cart software
- Payment processing
- Traffic management
- Shipping
- Tracking
- Database support
- Customer data and security for your store e-commerce
Ecommerce Hosting Types
1. Cloud-Based Hosting
Cloud-based hosting uses computing resources from third-party cloud providers.
Cloud providers provide cloud servers, storage and networks.
Interconnection of remote servers, high reliability. If a piece of hardware fails, another server can quickly replace it.
cloud hosting is a popular solution for e-commerce websites.
You can quickly scale resources based on website traffic. It offers a pay-as-you-go pricing model depending on your needs.
2. SaaS Hosting
Software as a service (SaaS) is cloud-based web hosting. Software to manage your site and hosting is included in a single subscription.
SaaS hosting frees you from the IT workloads of self-hosting.
For example, Shopify and Adobe Commerce Cloud are both SaaS e-commerce platforms. Manage hosting components such as
- Application
- Software license
- Data
- Server
- Storage
- Network
- Monthly subscription includes server maintenance and security.
You get cloud hosting, e-commerce software, and back-office operations.
3. VPS Hosting
A virtual private server, or VPS, is a form of multi-tenant cloud hosting. It has a physical server divided into smaller virtual servers.
Each assigned virtual machine acts as a dedicated environment. Therefore, you can host multiple websites on a single server.
A security issue on one site is unlikely to affect yours.
4. Dedicated Hosting
Dedicated hosting gives you full access to web server hardware.
You can control the system and application software like a VPS. However, your website is the only website hosted on the server.
Dedicated hosting can be expensive. It is used by large e-commerce companies with in-house maintenance staff.
Ecommerce Platform Hosting Types
1. Fully Hosted Ecommerce Solution
Fully managed e-commerce platforms keep your store files in the cloud. You don’t need to provision servers or manage server-side workloads. Popular eCommerce platforms offered by
include –
- Shopify
- BigCommerce
- Volusion.
- Fully managed solutions are often referred to as SaaS offerings. As a merchant, you benefit from a complete hosting service and an e-commerce platform.
Providers use cloud providers to host your website. For example, Shopify offers Google Cloud Platform.
Or it could be a vendor’s cloud, such as Salesforce Commerce Cloud.
Advantages and disadvantages of comprehensive e-commerce services –
| Pros of Fully hosted ecommerce platforms | Cons of Fully hosted ecommerce platforms |
|---|---|
| Subscription-based platform. You only pay for the services you require. | Limited customizations. You do not get much control over the server. |
| The platforms are easy to manage with user-friendly features and layouts. | Higher costs as your site grows. More traffic leads to high costs. |
| Customer support from the vendor for hosting and site maintenance. | There are limits on the number of products you can add and regions to scale. |
2. Self Hosted Ecommerce Solution
In self-hosting, you are responsible for hosting your e-commerce website. It does not provide local hosting from application providers.
You can choose your web hosting and the type of hosting for your store.
With self-hosting, you have the choice between applications and e-commerce infrastructure.
Popular self-hosted platforms include –
- Magento
- WooCommerce
- Prestashop.
- E-commerce software requires external hosting. For example, you need to add WooCommerce hosting to the software.
Advantages and disadvantages of self-hosted e-commerce platforms –
| Pros of self-hosted ecommerce platform | Cons of self-hosted ecommerce platform |
|---|---|
| You can choose the hosting provider and ecommerce platform. | The setup process is more complex than fully hosted platforms. |
| Extend features, including the layout of the ecommerce site. You can customize the store freely. | Lack of technical support can cause issues and extra costs. |
| More control and flexibility over the server. | You have to maintain the server on your own in case of unmanaged self-hosting. |