Which hosting should a Bangkok business choose?
For most Bangkok business sites, a company profile, a clinic, a hotel or a small shop, the sensible choice is managed WordPress hosting or a small cloud server in a Singapore or Bangkok data centre, with daily backups and SSL included.
Hosting is the rented computer, kept switched on in a data centre, that stores your website files and sends them to every visitor who types your address. Hosting services differ in how much of that computer you get, who looks after it, and where it sits.
You rarely need a dedicated server, and you should avoid the cheapest shared plan if the site takes bookings or orders. The rest of this guide explains the terms, the trade-offs, and the questions that separate a good provider from a frustrating one.
A note on independence: we build websites, and we do not sell hosting as a standalone product, and nothing here is an affiliate recommendation. We help clients pick and set up hosting as part of a build, and the same principles apply whoever you buy from.
Domain and hosting: how they fit
People often ask what hosting and domain mean in a website, because they are usually bought together. The domain is the name, such as yourshop.co.th. Hosting is the place the files live. The domain points to the hosting through DNS records, a short list of settings that say "the website is on this server, the email is on that one".
You can buy a domain with web hosting from one company, or keep them apart. We usually recommend keeping the domain registration in an account the business owns, separate from the host, so a hosting problem never locks you out of your own name. Our guide to choosing a website domain that fits your business covers naming, and if you want the Thai country extension, the .co.th domain registration walkthrough explains the documents THNIC asks for.
Who should own what
- The domain: registered in the company name, login held by an owner or director.
- The hosting account: also in the company name, with your developer added as a user rather than as the owner.
- DNS: wherever it is managed, write down who has access.
Types of hosting
Every web hosting provider sells some mix of four types. The names overlap, so judge by what you actually get.
Shared hosting
Your site sits on one server with many others. It is cheap and fine for a small brochure site with modest traffic. The weakness is neighbours: if another site on the server gets busy or hacked, yours can slow down. For a site that takes bookings or payments, shared hosting is a false saving.
VPS hosting
Web hosting on a VPS (virtual private server) gives you a fixed slice of a server that nobody else uses. Performance is steadier, but someone has to install updates, configure the firewall and watch the disk. If that someone is you and you are not technical, a VPS becomes a risk rather than an upgrade.
Cloud hosting
Hosting in the cloud runs your server on a large pool of machines from providers such as AWS, Google Cloud or DigitalOcean. Cloud VPS hosting is simply a VPS on that kind of platform: you can resize it in minutes, take snapshots before changes, and pick a region close to your visitors. It suits growing stores and busy hotel sites.
Managed WordPress hosting
The host runs the server and also looks after WordPress itself: core updates, caching, staging copies and malware scans. You pay more than for shared hosting, but most of the routine work disappears. For a typical Bangkok company site built on WordPress, this is where we usually point people. Stores on Shopify, the hosted e-commerce platform, skip the question entirely, because Shopify includes hosting in its plans.
Where should your server be?
If most of your visitors are in Thailand, the server should be close to them. A data centre in Bangkok or Singapore keeps the round trip short, which helps pages feel quick on mobile data. Our guide on how to read a speed test shows how to check the difference yourself. A server in the United States or Europe adds a noticeable delay to every request before a single image loads.
Website hosting in Thailand itself is an option, and some local providers offer Thai-language support. Singapore is the most common choice for international cloud platforms serving Southeast Asia, and the speed difference for a Bangkok visitor is usually small. A content delivery network (CDN) then copies your images and files to servers around the world, which matters if you also serve tourists or overseas buyers.
Does location change rankings? Google says it uses several signals to work out which country a site targets, and that server location is not a definitive one, partly because many sites sit behind a CDN; speed is where you feel it. We cover the details in our post on server location and SEO, and the Core Web Vitals guidance from web.dev explains the speed measures Google reports on.
Email, backups and security
Email on your own domain
An address on your own company domain looks far more credible to a Thai corporate buyer than a free Gmail account. Some web hosts bundle mailboxes, but bundled email is often basic, with small mailboxes and limited spam filtering. Many businesses are better off with Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 and keeping the website server for the website. Our guide to hosting with email on your domain compares the options, and whichever you choose, the SPF, DKIM and DMARC setup decides whether your quotes land in the inbox or in spam.
Backups
Ask how often backups run, how long they are kept, and whether they are stored away from the main server. A backup on the same machine disappears with it. Test a restore at least once; a backup you have never restored is only a hope.
SSL and updates
A free SSL certificate should be standard, renewed automatically, so the padlock never lapses. Server software, PHP versions and WordPress itself need regular updates. On managed hosting the provider handles much of this; on a VPS it falls to you or your developer.
Questions to ask a hosting provider
Before you pay, put these questions to any provider, Thai or international, and get the answers in writing. A good host answers them without hesitation. Support language and hours matter more than people expect: if your site goes down on a Saturday evening during a promotion, you want someone who replies in a language your team reads comfortably.
- Where is the data centre?Bangkok or Singapore suits a mainly Thai audience; ask whether a CDN is included.
- How are backups handled?Frequency, retention period, off-server storage, and how a restore is requested.
- What does support cover?Hours, languages (Thai, English), channels, and whether they fix WordPress issues or only the server.
- Is SSL free and automatic?Certificates should renew without anyone remembering to do it.
- What are the renewal prices?Many plans are discounted in year one; ask for the price from year two.
- What are the resource limits?Storage, monthly traffic, PHP workers or CPU, and what happens when you exceed them.
- Can I leave easily?Full file and database export, no lock-in, and help with DNS changes.
- Who owns the account?It should be registered to your company, with your developer as an added user.
What does the cost of hosting depend on?
We will not quote hosting prices here, because they change often and vary by currency and promotion. What we can tell you is what pushes the bill up or down, so you can compare offers fairly.
- Type of hosting. Shared is cheapest, managed WordPress and cloud cost more because you get dedicated resources or someone else's labour.
- Resources. Memory, CPU and storage. A WooCommerce store with thousands of products needs more than a five-page company site.
- Traffic peaks. A hotel or restaurant with Songkran or New Year promotions needs headroom for those weeks, not the average month.
- Management. Paying the host to handle updates and security is often cheaper than paying a person to do it on an unmanaged server.
- Extras. Email, CDN, staging sites, extra backups and premium support are sometimes separate line items.
- Billing term. Annual and multi-year terms cost less per month, but check the renewal rate before you commit.
Compare the full two-year cost rather than the headline monthly figure.
Moving hosts and domains
Changing host is routine when it is planned, and painful when it is rushed. The safe order is simple.
- Take a full backup of files and database from the old host, and keep a copy offline.
- Set up the site on the new host and test it on a temporary address.
- Lower the DNS time-to-live a day ahead so the switch spreads faster.
- Point the DNS records to the new server, leaving email records untouched unless email is moving too.
- Check forms, checkout, SSL and email for a few days before cancelling the old plan.
Moving the domain registration to another registrar is a separate job with its own lock and authorisation code. Our domain transfer guide goes through it step by step. If a site suddenly stops loading during or after a move, the checks in why is my website down help you tell a DNS problem from a server problem.
After launch: maintenance
Good hosting keeps the server healthy. It does not keep your website healthy. Plugins still need updating, forms still need testing, and content still goes stale. That gap is what maintenance fills, and our explainer on why website maintenance is important sets out what goes wrong without it.
If you prefer to handle it in house, work through a monthly website maintenance checklist. If you would rather hand it over, we offer website maintenance after launch, priced per site on request. The page on what care after launch costs explains how that quote is worked out. For more reading, browse our articles on hosting, domains and maintenance.
Who reviewed this guide
Who builds your site
Litesh Dhir
Builds and ranks the websites: the systems behind the 17 client sites whose Search Console numbers we publish.
More about usMore on hosting and domains
Sources
- THNIC: .th domain registration
- Google Search Central: Managing multi-regional and multilingual sites
- web.dev: Web Vitals