You shouldn’t need to be a server engineer to understand your own hosting plan. But when terms like bandwidth, RAM, CPU, SSD and uptime are being thrown around without explanation - or worse, used to upsell you things you don’t need - it’s easy to feel a bit confused.
At Krystal, we believe in clarity, value and transparency. We want you to have the plan that’s right for you, not just the most profitable for us.
So, here’s a no-jargon guide to the most important hosting specs. Because whether you're moving your business online, growing fast or just hunting for better value, it helps to know what you're really paying for.
What is business hosting?
Let’s start with a term that may cause confusion if you’re new to all of this: business hosting.
What is it, and how is it different from plain ‘web hosting’?
Put simply, business hosting is a more powerful, professional type of web hosting. It’s designed for organisations that need more than the basics.
If web hosting is a well-made DIY shed perfect for weekend hobbies, business hosting is a properly built and fully equipped workshop.
The best business hosting includes:
Maximum reliability – your website needs to stay online even when traffic spikes. Krystal’s cloud-based hosting is crafted for resilience.
Faster performance – customers expect speed. Business hosting prioritises fast load times to keep visitors engaged.
Scalability – when your traffic grows or your site evolves, your hosting grows and evolves with you, making sure nothing holds you back.
Added security – from firewalls and malware scanning to more regular backups, good business hosting includes extra security features to help keep threats out and protect from data loss.
Responsive support – your website powers your business, so you shouldn’t have to wait hours for a support reply. With Krystal, real people are here to help via live chat, phone and ticket.
Business hosting isn’t just for “big” businesses either. It’s for any business that treats its website as mission-critical.
Bandwidth: how much can your site handle?
Bandwidth is how much data is being transferred between two connections at any given time. You might have seen this in regard to your home broadband, but it also applies to the connection between your customer and your website.. Every page, image, download, video or click-through counts, and it can add up. Small static sites barely use any. But a busy shop, an image-heavy portfolio or an online learning platform? That’s a different story.
Not enough bandwidth can mean:
Sluggish site performance - your site might take longer to load, or become unresponsive during busy periods.
Extra charges - some providers charge you if you go over your limit, and sometimes without warning.
Your host pulling the plug - in worst-case scenarios, your site could be taken offline to protect the server.
Storage: where your site lives
Storage is where all your content exists on the server - images, databases, files, emails and more.
Need just a few pages, a couple of images and a contact form? You’ll use barely any storage. But add a lot of high-res images, detailed downloads or thousands of customer records, and you’ll need more space.
Most modern hosting uses SSDs (solid-state drives), which are fast, durable and energy-efficient. While you can still get good performance from HDDs, the risk of failure is a lot higher, as anyone with an old computer will tell you.
What to look for:
Clear storage limits (not “unlimited” with caveats)
SSD as standard (like we do at Krystal)
Easy upgrade paths when you grow
And watch out for hidden storage limits - some hosts exclude email in their storage allowances, or will charge for exceeding mailbox quotas.
RAM, CPU and server resources: the power behind your site
Storage is only part of the picture. The files might have plenty of space, but your site also needs processing power to show it to your visitors. This is where the server’s RAM and CPU come in, giving it the power it needs to keep everything running smoothly, especially under pressure.
RAM (Random Access Memory) is the server’s working memory - it serves up your pages snappily and allows multiple users to interact with your site at the same time.
CPU (Central Processing Unit) is the server’s brain. It handles requests, processes actions and keeps everything ticking over perfectly on your site.
So if you’re running:
A five-page info site? More modest specifications will be absolutely fine, meaning you’re not spending more than you need to.
A site with a content management system, password protection or e-commerce features? You’ll need more muscle the larger the site is.
What you get with different types of hosting:
Your site shares resources with others on the same server. Good for small, steady sites - but if someone else’s site receives a massive spike in traffic, your site might slow down.
Your site still shares resources with others, like shared hosting, but there is a limited number of users on each server and the resources are of a higher calibre. Perfect for businesses who need performance, but not enough to justify their own server.
VPS hosting (Virtual Private Server)
You get your own slice of guaranteed resources. That means consistent and tailored performance for your site with the freedom to grow.
All the server’s resources are yours alone, to optimise as you see fit. Ideal for large-scale, high-demand setups.
At Krystal, our shared hosting plans are carefully optimised, and our VPS plans offer generous, scalable resources - so you get the performance you need without overpaying for what you don’t.
Uptime: how often your site is actually online
Uptime measures what proportion of each hour/day/month your website is accessible. Sounds basic, but it’s absolutely crucial to your site’s performance.
Even 99.9% uptime can equal up to 43 minutes of downtime per month.
That’s 43 minutes of lost leads, sales or signups.
Frequent downtime harms your reputation, frustrates visitors and can hurt your search engine ranking, so every minute absolutely counts.
Look for:
A 99.99% uptime or better
Backing from a formal SLA (service level agreement)
At Krystal, our hosting includes an uptime guarantee of 99.99%, backed by robust, cloud-based infrastructure and proactive monitoring to catch problems before they affect your customers.
Backups, SSL and security features
Speed and storage are great. But without backups, encryption and security tools, it won’t matter how fast your site loads if something goes wrong
Daily backups mean that a backup of your entire site is taken every day and stored on another server. If something breaks, you can restore your site fast.
SSL certificates encrypt your site’s connection between the user and the server and boost trust with search engines and visitors. (That padlock in the browser? That’s SSL.)
Firewalls block threats from accessing your site, and **malware scanners **spot anything that gets in before it starts causing trouble.
DDoS protection defends against crushing traffic floods (known as Dedicated Denial of Service attacks) that could knock your site offline.
At Krystal, all of these come standard. No sneaky charges. No threatening add-ons.
Matching the right specs to your business needs
The perfect plan depends on what your site needs to do now - and what it’ll need to do next. Our recommendations are:
For simple sites or portfolios:
5–10GB SSD
Modest bandwidth
Shared hosting works well
For growing businesses or customer-facing platforms:
20–50GB SSD
Higher bandwidth to support regular traffic
VPS hosting for speed, security and room to scale
For data-heavy or app-based platforms:
50GB+ SSD
Dedicated RAM/CPU for consistent speed
VPS or dedicated hosting for serious stability
Still unsure? Feel free to get in touch with our friendly expert team. They’ll be more than happy to help you get exactly what you need, with zero hard sell.
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About the author
Darren H
I'm Darren and I'm the Senior Copywriter at Krystal. Words are what I do. Aside from writing, I play guitar and sing in my band Machineries Of Joy and seek adventure with my wife and daughter.