E-commerce Hosting Cost Breakdown for Small Businesses

Nowadays, many small businesses are creating e-commerce websites to sell their products and services online. Having a good website is very important to start an online business, and web hosting is required to run a website. Web hosting is the service where all the files and data of the website are stored so that people can view the website at any time through the internet.

But when a small business thinks of creating an e-commerce website, the question that comes to their mind is how much it will cost. Actually, the cost of e-commerce hosting does not depend on one thing but on many different things. These include the domain, hosting plan, security, platform, and other features.

Cost of Domain Name

The first thing that is needed for any website is a domain name. A domain is actually the name or address of the website that people type in the browser to reach the website. For example, domains like .com, .net or .org are commonly used. When a business creates its website, it has to buy a domain. Usually, a domain costs around $10 to $15 per year. In Pakistani rupees, this works out to around Rs. 3000 to 4500. Some web hosting companies also provide a domain for free for the first year with their package.

Web Hosting Plan Cost

After the domain, the most important thing is web hosting. Hosting is where the website data is stored. There are different types of hosting available in the market and each one has a different price. Most small businesses initially use shared hosting because it is cheaper. It usually costs around $3 to $10 per month. If the website starts getting a lot of traffic, VPS hosting becomes a better option, which can cost around $20 to $60 per month. Apart from this, there is also cloud hosting, which is used for large and busy websites.

SSL Certificate Cost

Security is very important in e-commerce websites because users provide their personal information and payment details on the website. That is why SSL certificates are used. SSL certificates secure the website and also display a lock icon in the browser, which gives users confidence that the website is safe. Several web hosting firms include free SSL as part of their package offerings. But if a company wants to increase their level of protection, they also have the option to purchase premium SSL, which can cost anywhere from $20 to $200 each year.