When it comes to running an online business, a site is only as good as your web host lets it be. If you’ve got a slow web host or one that is constantly down, even a great site can appear to be poor as a result. To make matters worse, finding a great web host is not an easy task.

The real question is, when is it time to switch to better hosting and is the hosting really better?

There are literally hundreds of different options out there ranging from 5 dollar shared hosting to 1000 dollar dedicated hosting. Obviously a dedicated plan is a big step forward, but generally for new sites, the cost of this type of account is a little prohibitive, at least until you start producing a steady revenue stream. So, that leaves shared hosting for most small businesses.

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The old adage, you get what you pay for, hasn’t always been true for us when it comes to paying for shared hosting. We’ve paid for cheap plans that worked beautifully and more expensive ones that were completely unreliable. As a result, upgrading to a $30 or $40 a month hosting package may not solve any of the problems you are having.

Let me pose this question, at what point do you bite the bullet and switch to a better more dedicated hosting solution? Do you wait until your sites would pay for the hosting themselves, or do you make the switch early and ultimately improve your income by avoiding downtime?

If you really think about it, the answer has to be, when your customers start to notice an issue. If you have a cheap hosting plan, but your site has 99% uptime and it’s always available to your customers, why upgrade to something more expensive? Not all sites are complicated enough to require complex hosting, so if your site is more than happy on a $5 – $10 a month plan, by all means keep that going. However, if your site experiences regular downtime due to an influx of new visitors, it might be time to consider upgrading to a better option. Whatever your situation, a great site for figuring out which host is right for you is Host-Finder.net. Host-Finder breaks down the features and costs of many web hosts and provides a list of preferences you might be interested in.

At the end of the day, the real issue is deciding when the right time to make the jump is, without sacrificing your user experience in the process. Only you can decide when that time is right, but make sure you always do what’s best for your customers, first and foremost.