Choosing a Domain and Hosting — Decisions You Rarely Make Twice
Which extension makes sense, what to watch in a hosting contract, and which cheap offers turn expensive later.
Domain and hosting are usually decided in five minutes and then kept for years. That is fine, as long as those five minutes contain the right questions.
The domain
The extension. For a business with German customers, .de is the obvious choice. It is expected, and what is expected feels familiar. A .com is worth adding if you work internationally. Creative extensions look modern but always have to be spelled out on the phone.
The name. Short, pronounceable, no hyphen and no number. The test is simple: say the name to someone on the phone. If they have to ask how it is spelled, it is too complicated.
More important than anything else: the domain has to be registered to your company, not to your provider.
The hosting
- Server location in Germany or the EU. Saves you a large part of the data protection discussion and shortens load time for local visitors.
- Backups you can restore yourself. "We do backups" is not enough. The question is how long until you are back online, and whether you can trigger it yourself.
- A contact who is reachable. In an outage, response time counts, not price.
- Enough mailboxes and sensible email delivery. This is where cheap packages most often fail.
- A free SSL certificate. Standard today, but check it.
How to spot an offer that is too cheap
A package for two euros a month is possible, but it usually means an overloaded shared server, no meaningful support, and backups you cannot reach yourself. The price difference to a solid package is a few euros a month. The first hour of downtime costs more.
Hosting is like insurance. You notice the difference on exactly the day something goes wrong.
If you are facing a move or are unsure whether your current package fits, we are happy to look at it together.
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