What "cloud" actually means
"The cloud" is just someone else's servers — accessed over the internet, managed by a third party, and available without you owning any hardware.
For most businesses, this is a good thing. You don't have to worry about hardware failures, software updates, security patches, or capacity planning. Someone else does that — and they're better at it than you need to be.
When someone builds you a website, it has to live somewhere. That somewhere is a server — a computer that runs 24 hours a day, connected to the internet, serving your website to anyone who visits it.
The question isn't whether to use a server. It's what kind. There are three main options: shared hosting, VPS (Virtual Private Server) hosting, and cloud hosting. Here's how cloud hosting compares to the traditional shared hosting that most cheap websites use.
Shared hosting vs cloud hosting
Where your site lives
Shared hosting
On a physical server shared with hundreds of other websites. If another site on that server gets a traffic spike, your site slows down too.
Cloud hosting
On a distributed network of servers. Your site can draw on more resources automatically if traffic increases.
What happens if a server fails
Shared hosting
Your site goes down until the server is fixed.
Cloud hosting
Traffic is automatically routed to another server. Most cloud providers offer 99.9%+ uptime guarantees.
Scaling
Shared hosting
Fixed resources. If your site gets a spike of traffic — from a campaign, a press mention, a viral post — shared hosting often can't cope.
Cloud hosting
Can scale up automatically to handle traffic spikes and scale back down when traffic normalises.
Security
Shared hosting
Your site shares an environment with other sites. Security vulnerabilities in neighbouring sites can affect yours.
Cloud hosting
Isolated environment, managed security updates, usually includes DDoS protection and SSL by default.
Cost
Shared hosting
Cheaper upfront — sometimes a few dollars a month. But often the wrong tool for any serious business.
Cloud hosting
Slightly higher, but still very affordable for most businesses. The reliability and performance difference is significant.
Which platforms count as "cloud hosting"?
Vercel, Netlify, AWS, Google Cloud, Azure, Cloudflare Pages, and Railway are all cloud hosting platforms. For most modern websites and web applications, we recommend Vercel — it's fast, reliable, has an excellent free tier for smaller sites, and scales seamlessly as traffic grows.
For businesses that need databases, file storage, or user authentication alongside their website, Supabase (for database + auth) combined with Vercel (for the site) covers most requirements with minimal operational overhead.
What you should expect from your hosting
Regardless of which cloud provider you use, you should expect: 99.9%+ uptime, automatic HTTPS/SSL, a global CDN so your site loads fast for visitors anywhere, automatic deployments when you update your site, and reasonable response times from support.
If your current website host can't offer these things, it's almost certainly on cheap shared hosting — and that's likely affecting your site speed, your Google ranking, and your visitor experience.
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