Web Hosting: Understanding Uptime

There is a great deal of competition between web hosting providers

, they are all keen to stand out from the crowd and try to do this by offering the best deals and services. The reason behind the high levels of competition is that there are simply hundreds, if not thousands, of different web hosting companies to choose from. As a result it can be fairly daunting trying to choose a provider and a hosting package to go with. One of the ways that many providers will try to distinguish themselves is through offering competitive levels of uptime for your website. So, what is uptime and what does it mean for your website? Is it a useful way of differentiating between the multitudes of providers and plans on offer?

The terms uptime and downtime are opposites, so when looking for a hosting plan you will want one that offers high levels of uptime and very low levels of downtime. Uptime is, in basic terms, the amount of time that the server (or servers) hosting your website is up and running. It is similar to the availability of your website but the two terms do mean different things. Uptime generally refers to the amount of time the server or system is functional (and therefore the amount of time your website is online). Availability is the amount of time your website is publicly accessible or available this takes into account more than just the servers and can include other factors like network outages. Web hosting providers are usually more concerned with offering high levels of uptime rather than availability as the latter can include external factors caused by the user.

How is uptime measured? The majority of providers will list their levels of uptime as a percentage. This percentage is usually something of a historical average for their previous service. Levels of uptime have become particularly competitive as it is an important aspect of web hosting with most companies offering uptimes of 98% or higher. Some companies will even offer uptimes of 99.99%. Initially it may seem like an uptime level of 95% is fairly high, but when calculated it can mean that your website could be down for just over 18 days in a year or 36 hours every month. Finding a plan with 99% uptime will reduce downtime to just over 3 days a year or 7.2 hours a month. 99.99% uptime will mean downtime of just under an hour per year.

Uptime can be crucial if you are making money from your website, for example through e-commerce. If your website is down a lot it could potentially mean a loss in income as customers will not be able to visit your website and will not be able to carry out transactions. Equally if your website is down repeatedly many customers will get a negative impression and assume that your website is unreliable. This could result in many customers choosing not to revisit your website and taking their business elsewhere.

The main problem with the levels of uptime on offer is that they are usually assigned by the hosting company themselves and there is no way to independently check that what they are claiming is true. In most cases you will have to trust that their claims are true. When choosing a hosting package you will need to check the uptime guarantee that comes with it. Many hosting providers will offer to refund you for any unscheduled outages that reduce the rate of uptime that they claim to offer. If you have chosen a managed hosting plan, where you are not responsible for the server software maintenance, you may want to check that your agreement covers guarantees for software running time not just server uptime.

Uptime percentages can be a good way to determine which hosting provider to go with as it can show you how reliable your website will be if you choose to host it with them. However you should not just base your decision on the levels of uptime on offer as it can be misleading. You should try to find a hosting provider that has the skill and experience to deal with downtime and minimise the amount of time servers are offline. Some providers will claim to have 99.9999% levels of uptime, but if they cannot follow this claim up with planning and expertise, it will mean very little.

by: Izzy Evans

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