Do I Need Hosting for Shopify? Ultimate Guide

How does Shopify Hosting work?

Shopify a fully-hosted eCommerce solution. This means that every brand is hosted on Shopify’s servers. Shopify users will reap the benefits in many ways.

Setups that are pain-free

For non-hosted platforms, you will need to have some programming and web development skills in order to get your store up and running. This is something that many brands don’t want to deal with. Shopify will show you how to get started.

Sorting your domain name

You can easily transfer a domain you already own to another domain. This requires only a minor configuration change in your DNS settings.

If you’d prefer, Shopify can help you purchase a new domain. This domain name comes with unlimited forwarding emails addresses. They direct all mail to your existing email account, ensuring that your contact information is consistent, professional, and on-brand. Take this example:

Your domain name: yourbrandname.com Related email addresses you might want to present: hello@yourbrandname.com, careers@yourbrandname.com Emails directed to: [specific existing account]

There are no additional charges

We call many competing platforms “self-hosted”. Brands using them will need to pay separate server costs. Although these costs may seem low at first, they quickly add up to thousands of pounds per month for managed services. Shopify does not charge any external hosting fees.

No overage fees for unlimited bandwidth

You’ll have to pay additional costs for traffic and products if you use alternative platforms. Each new visitor to your online store and every new product consumes bandwidth. Most e-commerce platforms restrict your bandwidth and charge for any excess.

Shopify on the other hand offers bandwidth unlimited. You are not penalized for high traffic periods. They’re actually encouraged! Shopify plans come with unlimited bandwidth.

You and your customers are protected

Shopify’s hosting has another great feature: all shops are PCI DSS Level 1 compliant out-of-the box. You can be confident that your customers’ information and business data will always be secure. It will also make it easy to accept payments through your preferred payment gateway.

Software updates instantly

Shopify will allow you to receive software updates at no extra cost. They’ll also be automatically handled. You’ll be able to access every feature immediately, without you having to even think about it. Recent examples include Apply Paymulticurrency and Augmented Reality.

All over the world, quick and reliable loading

Shopify hosts merchants’ online shops on a vast network of servers all over the globe. These are called Content Delivery Networks (CDNs). Fastly is the CDN administrator for Shopify. They have a strong reputation. Shopify uses a CDN to ensure that all stores are loaded quickly, regardless of where customers may be located.

High-volume use

Hosting worries can be alleviated by handling capacity, as well as speed. There are few things more frustrating than seeing thousands of people visit your store and then for it to crash. Shopify is able to handle high traffic volumes. Your store will handle approximately 4,000 checkouts per hour before throttle kicks in. This figure is more than 99.999% of all stores that will ever see it.

What’s the catch?

Shopify is a hosted platform. It doesn’t have access to all the code bases. This can make it difficult to customize certain features for your online shop. But is this worth it? We don’t think so.

Shopify’s cloud service makes all the benefits we have listed possible. It’s not a huge trade-off. Shopify’s App Marketplace and the theme layer give us enough flexibility to meet all your business needs while keeping your store future-proof.

Which Shopify Hosting to choose?

There are many options available to you if you’re looking to start an ecommerce company. Shopify is the best option because it offers its custhostingomers lots of options to create their own online store, and then enhance it with various apps and plugins.

Before you can get your Shopify website up and running, it is important to know what hosting options you have. Let’s take a deeper look at hosting options for Shopify.

Shopify Hosting Solutions

You will receive an SSL certificate just like you choose one of Shopify’s pricing plans. This is vital for all ecommerce business owners as it allows your Shopify store to access users’ private information. It must be secured on your Shopify website.

Shopify’s point of sale gateway will be required. Depending on the plan selected, you will have a credit card rate between 2.9 to 2.4% with $0.30 per purchase fee. This option allows you to accept credit cards online and also accept payments in person if you have a physical store where you sell your products.

Shopify hosting also offers many benefits.

  • No limit on file storage
  • Support from a dedicated team
  • You can add unlimited products to your shop.
  • Fraud analysis
  • Discount possibilities.

There are many other options available for hosting your Shopify store. Let’s discuss them below.

What is DNS Hosting?

DNS hosting on Shopify is a web-based service that runs Domain Name System servers. Domain name registrars often offer DNS utility along with registration. However, there are also charge-free DNS services available – these are often sponsored by popular providers and telecommunications services. Dynamic DNS is also available from a variety of third-party DNS hosts.

This category of web hosting utility provides the best choice if the provider has multiple servers located in different regions around the globe. It also offers endurance and a shorter latency period. DNS queries can be answered quickly by establishing DNS hosts near end customers.

What is VPS Web Hosting?

A virtual private server is called a VPS. It can also be called a virtual OS. This allows you to reside on a parent server, and use virtualization technology to ensure that other virtual servers have access to your dedicated resources.

VPS hosting is a unique, replicated environment. It is built on a machine – host (PC/any tool that is united and creating some kind of network), parent or as many as a cluster.

VPS replicates many of the characteristics of “real” servers, but it is still software that acts with similar practices. These are the typical VPS benefits.

  • Access to your VPS environment from anywhere.
  • Allocate bandwidth to each instance. This will ensure that your server’s performance is not affected by any third-party companies.
  • Increase productivity and storage

VPS typically uses a parent server to host many virtual servers that are not connected. A hypervisor software allows a provider to create a virtual layer that can be added to the operating system in order to separate the servers. This allows users to create their own private server by using their own operating system and software.

VPS is suitable for:

  • Hosting servers
  • Host 1-10 sites – Shopify or any other
  • Cloud-based maintenance can be built and granted
  • Remote workers can create and provide virtual work spots
  • To be able to access files from anywhere around the globe, you can store them
  • Databases

You now have a better understanding of VPS and its functions so you can decide if it is the right type of web hosting for you Shopify website.

What is shared hosting?

This type of hosting allows you to host your Shopify website on a single server, but also hosts other sites. You can also access additional tools and options on the host server to make it easier to access your Shopify site.

You can also host hundreds to thousands of users on the same server. They can also benefit as they will share the payment. This form of web hosting is affordable and convenient for Shopify website owners. This type of hosting is popular with bloggers, small businesses and other site owners.

The shared servers can be compared to computers by having a hard drive, central processing unit (also known as CPU) and RAM. These resources can also be shared with other users who are also hosted on this server. This allows for secure storage of all data, files, or information.

The host sends the user the data stored on the server every time a user attempts access your site from their computer. Web hosting can be used together to reap the benefits of the best server services, as each Shopify site generates a different amount and at a different distance.

This is a list listing the profits that a user of shared web hosting makes:

  • Get the best prices. This type of service is usually affordable because other users contribute to its costs, as we have already mentioned.
  • Adaptability. You have many options. They all cater to large numbers of websites hosted on one server.
  • Preservation. These sites, which also apply your shreable servers, cannot access your website’s information. Some hosting companies also offer additional security options.
  • Seamless set up. It is very easy to create a Shopify site on a shared server.
  • Simple to manage support. The shared server is usually managed by a hosting provider and doesn’t require any movement from you. This allows you to focus on your Shopify site development and your business growth, rather than worrying about hosting issues.

If you don’t know much about web hosting and want to save money while still able to develop your Shopify website, shared web hosting might be the right choice.

What is cloud hosting?

Cloud hosting is the outsourcing of a company’s storage and computing capabilities to a service provider that grants its infrastructure services as an utility model. Host, also known as cloud provider, manages cloud infrastructure setup, security, maintenance, and other services. Sometimes, clients can be granted permission by the host to create tools and apps as well as scale up servers online. There are hundreds of storage and calculation opportunities spread across virtual machines (VMs), which require I/O load balancers within a cloud infrastructure structure.

This model is much more affordable than a dedicated host server. This last one means that companies must create and manage their own data centers. These data centers can be a major expense for organizations.

Here are some benefits of cloud hosting for Shopify:

  • Cloud hosting allows Shopify site owners the opportunity to save money by managing their data centers.
  • Shopify website owners have the opportunity to scale more efficiently, paying only for the services and capabilities that they require.
  • Cloud hosting is a great option for businesses that want to protect their data.
  • Cloud hosting offers flexibility and benefits in the development of apps, Shopify websites and other services.

Cloud hosting is a great option for Shopify customers who need to ensure high uptime and can grow their servers at will.

What is dedicated hosting?

Another type of hosting that you should be aware of is dedicated hosting. This type of hosting assumes that only one customer can have access to a physical server. Clients have full control of the machine so that they can make changes to meet their requirements.

Hosting providers provide the server and environment as well as technical support. Here are some reasons why Shopify site owners might consider a dedicated hosting model:

  • This gives a stronger control . The IT staff of the host company is responsible for controlling the environment.
  • More flexibility. Companies have the ability to modify server configurations, use new software and adjust all options to meet their needs.
  • Performance improvements Shopify sites can be optimized by the team responsible for them to improve their most important services.
  • High security. The host server can be modified if there are security concerns that a company must meet.

If your Shopify site is able to perform more custom tasks than usual, dedicated hosting may be a good option.

Shopify Hosting Solutions

Shopify was founded in 2004 and quickly became one of the most popular ecommerce platforms. Shopify offers hosting plans directly from their website, which allows you to host your site on the same platform that your ecommerce features are pulled. This is convenient and offers many additional benefits.

Shopify offers a free SSL certificate when you sign up for one of its plans. These certificates are essential for ecommerce websites as they protect your website’s information and the credit card numbers of your customers.

Shopify’s point of sale gateway will be available. However, there are other options. You can choose from a variety of credit card rates, including $0.30 per purchase fee. This will allow you to take credit card payments online and in person. This could be beneficial for both brick-and-mortar stores and ecommerce shops.

Shopify hosting offers many other benefits. You have a multitude of other resources and tools that you can use. Below are some of the most well-known.

  • Unlimited file storage
  • Support available 24/7
  • Unlimitted number of products
  • Fraud analysis
  • Use discount code options

You will get more resources and tools with higher-level packages and plans. If you need to build reports or recover abandoned carts, these packages might be the best for you.

Shopify Hosting Providers

Shopify can host your ecommerce shop, but you can also use another web hosting provider and connect your Shopify store with that provider. Shopify integration is a feature offered by many of the top web hosting companies. We have listed some of the most popular below.

1&1

1&1 is a well-known web hosting company that offers affordable pricing plans. Shopify integration is easy with 1&1. You can then start selling your products online using this platform. 1&1 offers a free SSL certificate. This makes 1&1 an attractive alternative to Shopify hosting.

BlueHost

BlueHost is another popular hosting company that offers seamless Shopify integration. Shopify offers easy DNS configuration guides that will help you integrate Shopify’s ecommerce platform with your hosting provider. BlueHost is no exception. BlueHost is a great choice for Shopify hosting. It offers affordable plans and efficient services.

GoDaddy

Another web hosting company that makes Shopify integration easy is GoDaddy. GoDaddy offers a number of pricing plans that include a free SSL certificate. This makes it an attractive alternative to Shopify hosting. GoDaddy also offers access to the website builder that may be of use for Shopify’s customers.

Other hosting providers

These aren’t the only hosting companies that offer Shopify integration. HostGator and Domain.com are some of the other hosting companies that allow easy Shopify integration. To find the best hosting provider for you, do your research thoroughly.