A useful hosting comparison starts with the full cost of running your website and email, rather than the lowest monthly price. Ask what the package includes, which limits apply to your account, how recovery works and what you will pay at renewal.
This guide brings together our hosting costs, hosting terminology and South African hosting advice. For the packages arranged by SDDS through Rhino Hosting, see our website and email hosting service. Use the checklist below to prepare your requirements before requesting a quote.
Separate the three services in your budget
- Domain registration: the address of your business online. Check the registration and annual renewal price, the extension and who controls the registration account.
- Website and email hosting: the resources that run your website and mailboxes. Confirm whether email uses the same storage allowance as the website.
- Website maintenance: software updates, content work and ongoing checks. Do not assume these are included in a hosting package.
SDDS arranges hosting through Rhino Hosting, another brand of the same company. Domain registration is billed annually and separately from monthly hosting. Our domain registration page explains the available starting options. Website maintenance has its own scope.
Measure storage before selecting a package
Request the current size of your website files, databases and each mailbox. Include archives and backup files if they count towards the account quota. Leave room for the way your business actually grows, such as product photographs, new mailboxes or attachments that must be retained.
The number of email accounts and the amount of email storage are different limits. Ten small mailboxes can consume less space than one large mailbox. Ask what happens when either a mailbox or the overall hosting account reaches its limit.
Compare resources allocated to your account
A server’s total processor cores and RAM do not tell you how much a shared hosting account may use. Ask about the account’s CPU, physical memory, disk I/O, concurrent processes and database limits. A PHP memory limit is a limit for a PHP process, rather than a promise of that amount of dedicated server RAM.
There is no single memory or CPU specification that suits every WordPress website. A brochure site, a busy shop and a site running large imports have different workloads. Ask how the provider identifies resource limits, what evidence is available when a limit is reached and which upgrade would address it.
Understand shared hosting, VPS and dedicated servers
Shared hosting places several customers on a server, with account controls and limits. A VPS provides an isolated virtual server environment, while a dedicated server gives one customer use of the physical machine. Management, backups and software administration can still be separate responsibilities.
Do not choose a server type solely because it sounds more powerful. Establish who applies updates, monitors availability and responds to incidents. Ask what account isolation is used, without treating isolation as a guarantee that compromise is impossible.
Email: decide how staff need to work
List the people, shared addresses and devices that need access. Decide whether you need mail only or also shared calendars and contacts. Website hosting and email can use different providers; moving a website does not automatically require moving its mail.
Our professional email address guide covers naming, ownership and migration planning. The email protocols guide explains the differences between IMAP, POP3 and an Exchange service. Moving a message into an ordinary IMAP folder does not by itself remove it from server storage.
Check backups and recovery before you need them
- Which website files, databases and mailboxes are backed up?
- How often are copies taken, and how long are they retained?
- Are copies stored separately from the live account?
- Who can request a restore, and does restoration cost extra?
- Can you obtain an independent export when leaving?
A backup is useful only if the required data can be recovered. Ask how a restore is checked and what information could be lost between the last usable copy and an incident. Hosting backups and a website maintenance service may cover different things, so establish the boundary in writing.
Security and HTTPS: ask for specific controls
Check certificate provision and renewal, supported software, account access controls and the escalation process for suspicious activity. An HTTPS certificate encrypts the connection; it does not establish that all content is trustworthy or that the website cannot be hacked. Google recommends HTTPS, but an HTTPS certificate is not a blanket guarantee of indexing. See Google’s technical requirements.
Likewise, neither an inexpensive package nor an expensive one proves the quality of its security. Ask which protections are included and which incidents require additional work. Our DoS and DDoS guide explains why website protection and upstream network protection have different roles.
South African hosting: assess location and support
Ask where the server and backups are located, which audience the site serves and how performance is measured. A nearby server may reduce network travel time, but distance alone does not determine page speed. Caching, routing, application work and the visitor’s connection also matter. Do not accept a promise of better Google rankings merely because a server is local.
Check support hours, contact channels and the procedure for an urgent outage. Confirm whether a quoted response time means acknowledgement or resolution. If an uptime commitment is offered, read its measurement method, exclusions and remedy.
Calculate the complete recurring cost
Compare the same scope over a year, including VAT where applicable. Record the first-term price and the renewal price separately. Check domain renewals, mailbox licences, additional storage, migrations, restoration charges and any paid certificates or support options. “Unlimited” bandwidth still needs its applicable usage terms explained.
As an illustrative calculation, a package quoted at R100 per month excluding VAT costs R1,200 per year excluding VAT before the domain and other services. This is an arithmetic example, not an SDDS or Rhino Hosting package quotation. Use the current hosting page for the published package details and request confirmation of your total.
A checklist to send with your hosting enquiry
- Website type, current disk usage and expected changes.
- Mailbox count, total mail storage and the devices staff use.
- Domain name, renewal date and access to the current registration.
- Any shop, booking system or other business-critical feature.
- Required support, backups and recovery arrangements.
- Whether website maintenance and migration should be quoted separately.
Before a move, agree who handles the files, databases, DNS and mail, how the result will be tested and when the old service can be cancelled. Keep access to the original service until the agreed checks have passed.
Discuss your hosting requirements with SDDS, or compare the published website and email packages.