Choosing hosting
How to choose web hosting for a small NZ business
Key takeaway
Choose web hosting that supports your website’s features and makes the ongoing bill, security, backups and support clear. Check who will handle updates and whether your existing website can move as it is before agreeing to switch.
In this guide
Start with the website you need to run
Good web hosting fits your website and gives someone clear responsibility for keeping it running. For a small NZ company, the useful questions are straightforward: will it run our site, what will it cost after the first year, who helps when something breaks, and how do we make changes?
A trades business with six information pages has different needs from a shop taking orders, a membership service or a business with live booking software. Start with your website address and the things it must do. A host should assess those features before recommending a plan. Page count alone does not describe the work.
Check what you can bring with you
If you already have a website, ask whether it can move as it is. A WordPress transfer needs its files, database and compatible hosting. A builder such as Wix may need a rebuild instead. A React website may have a separate service behind its forms or logins. A downloadable design is not necessarily the whole working website.
You do not need to identify all of that yourself. Give the potential host your website address and ask for a clear moving route, the access required and any one-off cost. Check shops, booking tools and email before agreeing to switch.
Find your current provider’s moving guideMoving WordPress or rebuilding: how to decide
Compare the full bill
Compare the ongoing price over the same period, in the same currency, with GST treated consistently. Ask about renewal prices, required annual payments, domain registration, email, SSL, backups and the cost of making changes. An introductory monthly figure can be a poor guide to the amount you will actually pay.
Lightning Web Hosting prices are per website. Thunder is NZ$55 + GST a month. Lightning is NZ$99 + GST a month and includes Arc for everyday text, uploaded image and simple layout changes, subject to fair use. Both include domain registration, DNS, SSL, CloudFront CDN, platform security and daily AWS website backups. Hosting starts billing when your website is live with us.
Ask who looks after security and recovery
Find out who maintains the server, the website software and any plugins. Ask what is backed up, how a restore is requested and whether the provider monitors the live service. A padlock in the browser is useful, but it cannot tell you whether the software is maintained or the backups work.
If your website takes payments or stores customer information, explain that before choosing hosting. There may be extra requirements for its software, access and recovery. Do not assume that a general hosting package includes every part of an online shop or a separate business system.
What makes a secure web host?What reliable hosting should include
Find out what support actually covers
Ask a real question before signing up: “If our enquiry form stops working, what would you check, and what might cost extra?” Server support, WordPress maintenance and changing your website are different jobs. A useful answer explains who handles each one.
With Lightning, everyday changes included in the plan stay included when our team helps prepare them. Complex manual work is NZ$120 + GST an hour, with scope and an estimate agreed first. Modernisation is overseen by humans and quoted separately. Choose the service you need rather than assuming a hosting login includes a developer on call.
What managed hosting actually coversWhat hosting support should coverNeed help deciding? Tech Clarity at Lightning Developments
Try the update process and check the exit
Picture your next small change: different opening hours, a new team photo or a clearer headline. Who will do it? Can you see a preview? Can you undo it? On Lightning, you ask Arc, review a private proof and approve the revision you want to publish. Publication starts immediately after approval.
Finally, check that your business controls its domain and can obtain its website files and content. With us, your website and supplied content remain yours, and you can download the files and content we hold. You can cancel renewal at any time and keep the service through your paid period. External software and services still have their own licences and accounts.
Compare Thunder and LightningRead the service termsSee how Arc previews and publishes a change