How to pick a CS-Cart managed hosting solution for better sales

There are different hosting services out there – not all of them are suitable for hosting a CS-Cart-based online store or marketplace. Here’s how you choose the best CS-Cart web hosting that will take care of the technical stuff and help you grow your shop.

What is a managed hosting service provider?

When it comes to managing an online store there are options businesses can choose from. The first one is finding a hosting platform, installing all the necessary plugins, and getting the SSL certificates themselves. This will require hiring an IT specialist who’ll take care of all that or dedicating someone from the existing team.

The second option is much more convenient and cheap. A company can find a managed hosting agency and hand over all the administrative work to it. The managed hosting provider will set up the website, take care of all the security certifications, ensure the necessary speed, store all the media, and much more. All that comes at a relatively low cost which is not to compare with a full-time salary of an employee that would have to be hired otherwise. With a managed hosting provider, the only difficult decision a business will have to make is to pick a trustable agency that understands its needs and goals.

How to pick a managed hosting provider for a CS-Cart-based project

When picking a hosting provider for a CS-Cart business there are a few important things to check.

First and foremost, make sure the provider works exclusively with eCommerce projects. Managed hosting providers dedicated to online shopping platforms know all the pitfalls of setting up and operating websites similar to yours. They have a lot of experience in that niche and can save you a lot of time and money on trial and error.

By choosing a provider that specializes in eCommerce projects you ensure that all the IT infrastructure will be tailored for your online store’s needs.

Scalesta provides custom solutions to eCommerce businesses of any size – our professionals know everything about setting up and managing infrastructure for online shops and marketplaces. Moreover, Scalesta is a recommended hosting solution by CS-Cart software itself, so you can be sure that this will work for your business perfectly. Our servers are pre-installed for eCommerce projects that run on CS-Cart, which will save you a ton of time on the trial-and-error process when setting up your hardware for optimal speed and maximum performance.

Load speed is arguably the most important thing to check before opting for a CS-Cart hosting provider. Customers don’t like slow websites and abandon them before making a purchase. This means that having a slow website potentially loses you money.

A smoothly operated website, on the other hand, adds to your chances to attract more customers who are willing to pay for your products and, as a result, increase your sales. So make sure to pick agencies that provide fast hosting.

Another crucial factor for an online store is being online most of the time. Check if your potential provider is able to guarantee sustainable work of your website without interruptions. The period of time when your website is up and working is called uptime. Ask your provider what are their uptime guarantees.

Note that it’s physically impossible to guarantee 100% uptime because no one is fully protected from hacker attacks, random errorsand natural disasters. What a provider can do is guarantee up to 99% of uptime, continuous monitoring, and fast response to any arising problems.

The uptime guarantee in Scalesta is 99%. Moreover, we guarantee that your projects are monitored 24/7 and in case of any issues our team will start resolving them within 15 minutes by SLA.

Security is another vital thing to check. Customers trust their personal and payment information to your website, and it’s very important to keep that information as safe as possible. Your managed hosting provider should use all the latest versions of software that don’t have the vulnerabilities of their predecessors.

Ask about security monitoring – secure hosting providers keep their projects under control 24/7!

Tech support is also super important to check. You want to make sure that any issues with your CS-Cart project will be resolved as soon as possible. Uninterrupted technical support that is always available for you to call and/or text is necessary.

One last thing to check is the backup system your managed hosting provides. Generally, online stores and marketplaces update their website very frequently as their assortment changes. In case of any crashes and errors, you want to always have the latest version of your website saved to be able to restore it easily. This will save you tons of time and resources. For instance, Scalesta offers daily backups to keep the clients’ data safe.

Types of server and hosting location for CS-Cart projects

After the reliable hosting provider is chosen there are still a couple of important decisions to make. For instance, you will have to pick your hosting plan. Reasoning your choice only on the price is not the wisest decision. The more important things here are the type of web hosting you’re going to get and the hosting location.

Shared web hosting means that the CPU, disk space, and network of one server are shared between several companies. It’s kind of like living in a dorm with shared kitchens and bathrooms – you’re always dependent on your neighbors and their activities. If someone’s having a party, you won’t be able to enjoy your evening routines in peace. When a website that shares a server with you is having a heavy load the performance of your website will be affected.

Shared options are the cheapest but they are also the least reliable ones. We don’t recommend our clients using this kind of hosting and don’t include it in any of our plans.

VPS (Virtual private server) is a more reliable form of multi-tenant hosting option for businesses. Websites using the same VPS share the hardware they hosted on, but each of them has its own operating system, dedicated storage, CPU, scalable RAM, and bandwidth. So it’s more like living in a townhouse where everything is of your own, but some things, like sewer pipes and electricity cables you share with your neighbors.

VPS is a good fit for small and mid-sized businesses, it allows enough power and flexibility and is easily scalable.

Dedicated servers are the most reliable and, naturally, also the most expensive ones. As the name applies, a dedicated server is used only by one company. This means that you don’t have any neighbors to worry about at all. All the resources are yours. But it is quite a costly option and therefore it’s used mostly by large companies.

Finally, pay attention to where your server will be located. Your data center should be in the same area where most of your orders come. This will ensure faster loading and fewer latencies because the smaller the distance between your server and the user the more reliable and fast the connection is. That’s why we work with the 15 most trustable data centers from all over the world.

Scalesta is a high-end managed hosting provider for multi-vendor and single-vendor eCommerce projects. We guarantee top performance, security, and expert support to a business of any size. Our team consists of developers, SysOps, and DevOps engineers who work with eCommerce platforms on a daily basis and make projects better, faster, and more effective. Scalesta engineers comply with strict CS-Cart requirements.

At Scalesta, we make sure that our clients don’t have to worry about any technical issues and can focus on their business. We take care of your servers, and you take care of your growth.