Comparing web hosts: what really matters
Most comparisons show the price in the first month. What matters is what you pay afterwards, where your data is stored, how it is backed up and whom you reach when something goes wrong. Here are the criteria – and the values of well-known providers as they state them themselves.
Compare five things: the price after the promotional period, the contract term, the server location including a data processing agreement, backups (how often, how long, who restores) and how reachable support is. Storage is rarely the bottleneck for entry plans.
Entry plans side by side
Monthly prices including VAT, as the providers state them on their own websites. Every row is checked daily against the provider’s page; anything no longer stated there disappears from the table.
The provider table is only available in German, because the values are checked against the wording of the German provider pages.
The key questions for every host
Every serious offer answers these questions on its website or in the contract. The right column shows how it is with us.
| Criterion | What to look for | At ProMedia24 |
|---|---|---|
| Price after the promotion | Many entry prices only apply for the first months. Calculate with the price that applies afterwards and check how long you commit. | WebBasic €2.99 per month, no teaser price: the starting price is the price afterwards. |
| Contract term and cancellation | A low monthly price with a 24-month term is not a cheap contract if the project ends after three months. | Cancellable monthly with monthly payment; 30-day money-back guarantee. |
| Server location and data protection | “Europe” is not “Germany”. For customer data you also need a data processing agreement (DPA). | Data centre in Germany, DPA in the customer centre. |
| Backups | Ask: how often is data backed up, how long are versions kept, is there an off-site copy – and who restores it, at what price? | Every night, on the server and off-site, 7 daily and 4 weekly versions; we restore free of charge. |
| Support | Phone or not, at what times, and how quickly does a person reply? A measured response time says more than “fast support”. | Phone Mon–Fri 9 am–6 pm, personal. First reply to requests after 20 min median (measured). |
| Uptime with consequences | A percentage without a credit is a wish. Check what happens if it is not met. | 99.9 % per calendar month in our terms, below that a credit on request. |
| Storage and performance | Fast disks (NVMe/SSD), enough PHP memory and a measured response time matter more than many gigabytes. | WebBasic: 50 GB NVMe, 512 MB PHP memory; WordPress responds after 18 ms median (measured in the data centre). |
| Migration | Switching takes time. Ask whether the new provider moves website, database, mailboxes and domain. | Migration assistant free of charge; on request we move everything for you. |
Web space, cloud server or managed?
Before comparing providers, decide on the type: for websites and WordPress, web space is almost always enough. You only need your own server for your own software or heavy load.
How this comparison is made
- All information about other providers comes from their own websites; the source is linked in every row.
- Every morning a program fetches these pages from our server in Germany and checks that price and details are still stated as before. If something is missing, the row disappears – we do not show an outdated number.
- We are a host ourselves and therefore appear in the first row. There are no advertising or commission links on this page.
- The plans differ in scope. The comparison does not replace reading the offer you book.