Which options for your PrestaShop hosting? How should you choose? In this article, you'll discover all the issues involved in hosting your online store, so you can make the right decisions when choosing your hosting provider.
A reminder of what web hosting is
When you're surfing the web, consulting websites, blogs or online stores, you're using an essential but often overlooked service: web hosting. Simply put, web hosting is the service that makes your site accessible online. It's like the land on which your digital home is built. With web hosting, the files, images, videos and other content of your PrestaShop site are stored on servers, making them accessible to anyone with an Internet connection. But web hosting isn't just about that. It's also a set of technologies and services that guarantee the security, speed and availability of your site. In this article, we'll explore in detail the different PrestaShop hosting options, what criteria you should take into account when making your choice, and the advantages of Soledis' PrestaShop hosting offer.
PrestaShop hosting selection criteria
Performance and speed : To deliver the best possible user experience, opt for hosting with high performance and fast loading speeds to reduce page load times, which are essential for your SEO ranking and conversion rate.
Safety : Security is paramount for an online sales site. Make sure the PrestaShop hosting you choose offers robust security measures, such as SSL certificates, firewalls and regular backups to protect your customers' sensitive data.
Scalability : Your PrestaShop site can grow rapidly and/or experience seasonal or exceptional peaks in activity. Choose web hosting that can adapt to your changing needs, whether in terms of bandwidth, storage space or processing capacity.
Availability and reliability 24/7 availability of your site is crucial to avoid missing out on sales. So pay close attention to the responsiveness, skill level and turnover of your web host's support team: these are good guarantees of reliable service to minimize downtime.
Backup options Regular backups are essential to protect your data in the event of a problem. Choose PrestaShop hosting with automatic backup options and the ability to easily restore data if necessary.
Server localization The location of your servers determines which law governs the use of the data stored on them! If your servers are in the United States, American law applies, including the Patriot Act and the Cloud Act. On the other hand, by being hosted in Europe, your data is protected by the RGPD, a guarantee to which your end customers may be sensitive.
Pricing : Compare the different pricing options, making sure you're comparing what's comparable: service levels can vary widely from one hosting provider to another.
Hosting options for Prestashop online stores
For your PrestaShop hosting, there are several options: stand-alone hosting, hosting proposed by Prestashop or hosting by an independent host like Soledis, for example.
Self-contained accommodation
If you like to be independent, you can always take out a contract directly with OVH, but beware: there are virtually no associated services! OVH has even developed a dedicated offer for PrestaShop sites that may seem tempting. However, bear in mind that OVH only provides a technical base, without any configuration or support services... So you'll need to be pretty well armed technically to be autonomous.
In the same spirit, some people host their online store on their own server, giving 100% full control over their IT infrastructure. In this case, be sure to anticipate the size of your online store and its service quality requirements (CPU, RAM, disk space, specific configuration), as well as the workload associated with this hosting: backup management, monitoring, cybersecurity, peak activity management... These are all hidden costs that you need to anticipate!
PrestaShop hosting
As a second option, PrestaShop has been offering its own hosting service since the beginning of 2024, with 3 tariffs: S, M and L. The promise is tempting: an average reduction in TTFB and site loading time of - 50% (but we don't know against what standard), 6-day-a-week support, daily backup, Git integration, 3 instances (test, pre-prod and prod) and a capacity for simultaneous visitors of 20 to 200 users, depending on the tariff chosen. On the other hand, PrestaShop gives no information on where data is hosted, what security measures are in place, or how scalable their offer is to your e-commerce growth... and this offer is very recent. So at Soledis, we're cautious about recommending this hosting solution until we've had more time to assess its merits...
... Especially since we offer hosting services ourselves! It's an expertise we've been mastering since 2002, and our team of 20 developers, including 3 IT infrastructure experts, manages the hosting and support of some 400 online stores on a daily basis.
PrestaShop hosting solutions from Soledis
If there's one thing to remember about Soledis' PrestaShop hosting offer, it's that it's tailor-made! We adapt to your needs in terms of CPU, RAM and disk space, and offer a wide range of options:
- Domain names, mailboxes, dedicated IP addresses
- CDN
- Database access
- Pre-production environment
- Shared or dedicated server
- Specific configuration (multi-boutiques, ETL, Docker, Git...)
- Configuring a complete IT system beyond simple web hosting
- Setting up a DRP
- APM probes
- Automatic restart of 24/7 services
Our offer also includes common components that we believe are essential for PrestaShop hosting that meets the challenges of your e-business: SSL certificate (https) and secure firewall, monitoring of your consumption, servers hosted in Europe only (to comply with the RGPD), backup on 4 distinct geographical points to avoid any loss of data, qualified support service with a ticketing system for greater responsiveness...
Our service offering associated with this infinite hosting is also particularly extensive, since we have web project managers and front and back-end developers at your disposal. That's the advantage of working with a 360° web agency like Soledis rather than just a hosting provider. So you can also entrust us with the transfer of your site or even its redesign, a security audit or even a complete strategic audit, as well as functional, technical or webmarketing upgrades throughout the life of your PrestaShop site.
