You will often hear me ratting on about the importance of UK web hosting, but why is it so important to host your website in the UK?
Nearly 15 years ago web stated hostfind.co.uk (originally called hostratings.co.uk) to help website owners find UK web hosting services. The reason for starting the site was due to the industry being awash with web hosting review sites, all promoting the same big USA based web hosting providers.
If you wanted to find genuine UK web hosting reviews, it was incredibly difficult without putting in a great deal of research. Therefore we created this website to help webmasters find a UK based web hosting provider.
Why is Hosting Your Website In the UK Important?
If your site visitors are predominantly from in the UK or you are catering for a UK audience, then you should be hosting your website on UK servers.
A few things that any UK site owner should keep in mind:
Site Speed: Internet speeds have immensely over the past decade so. However, the further away your server is to your audience, the longer it takes to request and receive that data.
While a quality CDN will improve page load times, they will only take you so far. A CDN is great if you have a diverse audience around the world. However, if your audience is mainly from the UK, then a UK based web hosting provider will always be your best option.
UK Pricing: Most of our audience is from the UK; therefore, I feel it is safe to assume that you want to be billed in GBP rather than USD.
Paying for hosting in a foreign currency is not the end of the world for most people, however its something that should be taken into consideration.
While we are on the subject of pricing, its often touted that you can get your web hosting much cheaper in the USA vs the UK. We conducted some analysis of the cost of UK web hosting, which showed that UK hosting proved to be more affordable.
UK Rules and Laws: It is also worth noting that for UK business and individuals is always better to be dealing with UK data protection, billing and privacy rules, laws and regulations.
Support in your Timezone: Often overlooked until you need it, being able to get full technical support at times you are running your business can be crucial.
While this doesn’t affect most of us directly, choosing a UK based web hosting provider, you are supporting and creating jobs in the UK.
Don’t get caught out
Something I find particularly frustrating is the UK web hosting review sites that in my opinion ‘mislead’ their readers with recommendations of UK web hosting only to recommend companies that don’t even have UK data centres or servers.
I’m not going to point fingers at particular websites, any site that recommends BlueHost as a Best UK Web Hosting Provider are the type of websites I’m talking about: Read our article – Does BlueHost Offer UK Hosting?
As I discuss in the article, I have nothing against BlueHost as a web hosting provider, the service itself is excellent. It is more to do with the types of websites that promote them and often mislead their readers.
Who Provides the Best UK Web Hosting Then?
Everyone will have different needs and requirements when it comes to web hosting. So we have written some helpful guides to help you find the best UK web hosting provider for your needs. If you are on a tight budget, then we have also written a handy guide on choosing cheap UK web hosting. There are also links explaining the different types of web hosting available.