Your website hosting (web hosting) is perhaps the most underrated decision you make for your site, yet it directly affects your loading speed, your SEO ranking, security and availability (uptime). According to a Google study, every second of delay in loading cuts conversions by 7% and increases the bounce rate by 32% when a site takes more than 3 seconds to load.
The right hosting is more than “the cheapest package I could find”. It is the combination of (1) the right type of hosting (shared, VPS, cloud, dedicated, managed WordPress) for your traffic, (2) server location (Athens, Frankfurt or Amsterdam for a Greek audience), (3) SSL + daily backups + DDoS protection, and (4) an uptime guarantee of 99.9%+. In Greece, the most popular packages cost €5–25 a month for shared hosting and €30–150 a month for VPS/managed.
In this detailed guide you will learn about the 6 types of web hosting, a comparison of 10 providers in Greece, how hosting affects SEO, when to migrate, what a CDN is, and how to choose correctly for an e-shop, a company website or a WordPress site.
From server location to network latency, several factors can affect how fast your website loads. In this article, we will look at the impact a server has on the speed of your website or eshop and give you tips on optimising it for speed.
First, let’s find out what a server is.
What is a server?
A server is a high-performance computer that hosts websites, applications or data and makes them available on the internet or on a closed network. When a user visits your website, the server responds to their request by delivering the website’s content. It is essentially the “base” that supports your online presence. The quality of the server affects the speed, security and stability of your website.
The 6 Types of Web Hosting: Which One to Choose
| Type of hosting | Typical cost | Performance | Ideal for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shared Hosting | €3–10/month | Basic | New sites, blogs, small brochure sites |
| VPS Hosting | €15–80/month | Good | E-shops with up to 5,000 visitors/month, company sites |
| Cloud Hosting | €10–200/month | Very good + scalable | Sites with variable traffic, SaaS, viral content |
| Managed WordPress | €15–100/month | Excellent for WP | WordPress sites focused on performance, no tech knowledge needed |
| Dedicated Server | €80–500/month | Excellent | Enterprise, very high traffic, custom apps |
| Reseller Hosting | €20–100/month | Good | Agencies hosting many clients |
Webmate’s recommendation: For 9 out of 10 Greek business websites, Managed WordPress hosting or VPS offers the best value for money. Shared hosting is fine to start with, but upgrade after the first 6 months.
Contents of this hosting article
When someone visits a website, their request is sent to the hosting company’s server. The server then delivers the requested page to the visitor’s computer, tablet or smartphone. The server and the hosting are responsible for the website’s speed. If the site is hosted on a slow, outdated server, its speed suffers and the website will be slow.
For example, imagine that a website is hosted on a server with limited resources. This will make the site slow to load, because the server can’t process requests in time. On the other hand, if the website is hosted on a server with enough resources, the site will be much faster and the user experience will improve.
It is important to understand the relationship between server and hosting, because it can have a major impact on website speed and user experience. Investing in reliable, secure hosting services can help make sure your website runs smoothly and your visitors have a good experience. On top of that, a good hosting provider can help protect your website from possible cyber attacks and generally contributes to proper website development
What impact do the server and hosting have on website speed?
Website speed is a critical part of website performance, and the quality of a website’s server and hosting has a major impact on it. If a website is hosted on poor-quality hosting, it will take longer to process each request, leading to slower page load times and a user experience that can be frustrating. On the other hand, websites hosted on high-quality servers respond quickly and give users a smooth experience.
Apart from the speed of the server, its physical location can also affect website speed. The further the server is from the user, the longer it takes to process the request. When choosing a hosting provider, it is important to make sure the server is close to the majority of the website’s users, so that requests are handled quickly. For example, a website in Greece shouldn’t have its server in America, and vice versa. Of course, there are solutions if we want something like this, the so-called CDN, but best practice is what we described above.
Finally, the quality of the hosting itself also affects website speed. If a website is on shared hosting, for example, it may be competing for resources with other websites on the server. This can slow down load times or cause other performance problems. Dedicated servers and VPSs, on the other hand, are dedicated to a single website, making sure the website has access to all of the server’s resources. Of course, it all comes down to price, since shared hosting is very cheap, e.g. €120 a year, while a VPS or a dedicated server can cost thousands of euros depending on its specifications. There is no good or bad here, only the requirements of each website: for websites without special requirements, a good shared hosting plan that isn’t overloaded could be a solution. In more detail:
Shared Hosting
One option to consider when choosing a server and a hosting plan is shared hosting. This type of hosting is usually the most affordable, because users share the same server, which makes running the server and the hosting cheaper. However, when a server is shared with other users, it can affect website speed. Because the server is shared with other websites, it can sometimes be slow to respond to requests and may not be able to cope with large amounts of traffic. To deal with this, it is important to choose a hosting provider that offers good performance, as well as other benefits such as scalability, security and reliable customer service.
VPS Hosting
VPS (virtual private server) hosting can be an excellent solution for anyone who wants to balance powerful hosting with cost savings. VPS hosting involves splitting a single physical server into several virtual servers, each with its own operating system, applications and resources. VPS hosting offers a dedicated environment that can be customised to a large extent, letting organisations achieve better performance than with shared hosting. As with shared hosting, the speed of a site in a VPS environment depends largely on the resources allocated to each individual server, as well as on the hardware. A VPS solution can offer faster page loads and a better user experience, improving the overall speed of the website. We recommend it for eshop and websites with “moderate requirements” and traffic.
Dedicated Server Hosting
This is a type of hosting that gives a whole server to a single client. It is often used by businesses or websites with a lot of traffic. Dedicated server hosting can be an excellent solution for websites that need to run non-standard software or have a large number of users. Because the server’s resources are dedicated to the client, the site will be faster than if it were hosted on a shared server. Clients also get more control over the server environment, so they can set the server’s parameters to their specific needs.
The 10 Best Web Hosting Providers in Greece
| Provider | Type | Server Location | Starts from | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Papaki | Greek | Athens + Frankfurt | €4/month | Greek-language support, beginner-friendly |
| Top.host | Greek | Athens | €3/month | Cheap packages, small sites |
| Pointer | Greek | Athens | €5/month | WordPress hosting, Greek-language support |
| MYIP.gr | Greek | Xanthi | €6/month | Reliable, mid-range to premium, our choice |
| IPS Hosting | Greek | Athens | €4/month | WordPress + WooCommerce |
| SiteGround | International | Frankfurt, Amsterdam | €5/month | Premium WordPress, excellent support |
| Hostinger | International | Frankfurt | €3/month | Best value-for-money |
| Cloudways | International cloud | Choice of 60+ locations | €11/month | Managed cloud for e-shops |
| Kinsta | International premium | 35+ locations | €33/month | Premium WordPress, agencies |
| WP Engine | International premium | Multiple regions | €22/month | Enterprise WordPress |
Pro tip for a Greek audience: Choose a server location in Athens, Xanthi or Frankfurt for latency under 30ms. Server location directly affects your Time to First Byte (TTFB) and, by extension, your SEO.
How to optimise the impact of your server and hosting for a faster website
For website and e-shop owners, getting the best possible website speed is essential. Site speed affects user satisfaction, search engine rankings and, in the end, sales. To make sure your website’s performance is optimised, it is important to understand how server and hosting settings can affect website speed.
One of the most effective ways to optimise your server and hosting settings for better website speed is to look for ways to reduce server latency. Latency is the time it takes for data to travel from the server to the user’s device. It is usually measured in milliseconds (ms). Latency can be reduced by improving the server hardware, configuring the server for performance and using a CDN.
To improve the server hardware, the server should have a fast CPU, enough RAM, fast storage and a strong network connection. These upgrades can cut the time needed to process requests. If a website needs a lot of data processing, dedicated resources should be allocated to make sure requests are handled as quickly as possible.
Server settings also play an important part in improving website performance. They should be optimised to cut the time needed to process requests and to improve caching. Configuring software such as Apache, Nginx, Litespeed and PHP can help make the web server faster. Caching, such as page caching and object caching, can improve load times further by storing static versions of web pages. At Webmate, in recent years we have invested in LiteSpeed servers which, together with wordpress, which we use widely, give the best performance according to our measurements.
Another way to optimise your server settings to reduce latency is to use a content delivery network (CDN), which we mentioned above.
What is a CDN?
A CDN is a network of proxy servers located all over the world that store static content such as images and videos. When a user visits a website, the content is delivered from the nearest proxy server, cutting the time it takes to deliver it. In essence, these are intermediate servers around the world that serve your website’s content faster.
6 Steps to a Fast Server and a Fast Website
Choose a suitable location for your server
As we mentioned above about hosting and servers, the server’s location can have a major impact on your website’s speed. The closer the server is to the majority of your visitors, the lower the latency and the faster your site will load. For example, if your website is mainly used by people in the US, a hosting server in the US will be much faster than one in Europe or Asia. If your website is used internationally, you can choose a hosting provider with several servers in different regions to serve users in their own countries.
Choose the right type of server
The type of server your website is hosted on determines the resources available, such as RAM, CPU and disk space. Depending on your needs, you may want to choose a shared server (shared hosting), a dedicated server or a virtual private server (VPS). A shared server is affordable but offers fewer resources, while a dedicated server gives you full control, although it is more expensive. A VPS is a middle ground, with the resources of a dedicated server at a more affordable price.
Minimise the number of server requests
When you design a website, it is important to think about the number of requests your server has to handle to serve it. This is because every request takes time, and cutting the number of requests can improve your website’s speed. Common requests include HTML files, images, scripts and other resources. To cut server requests, try to keep your files as small as possible to reduce download time. Also try to optimise and compress your images. Finally, make sure you use caching to cut the number of requests your server has to handle. This is where the experience of your website developer and proper data analysis come in.
Use a content delivery network (CDN)
Websites with a large number of users accessing their content often see a big improvement in speed when they use a content delivery network (CDN). CDNs give fast access to web pages and files through a network of servers in many locations around the world. Files are served from the server closest to the user’s location, which means faster load times. A CDN can also improve security by blocking malicious attacks from different locations.
Caching and compression
Caching stores a copy of a website’s content, including HTML, JavaScript and style sheets. When a user visits the website, the cached version is delivered to them instead of the site being rebuilt from scratch, which cuts load time. Compression works by reducing the size of the files sent to the user’s browser. This also improves website speed by giving users faster access to the content. Both caching and compression can be applied on the server side, and you should use them to optimise your website’s performance
Optimise database performance
Databases are used to store data and process requests, so when they are not well optimised, they can slow down your website. There are several things you can do to maximise website speed. First, keep the database small. This means removing any unnecessary data, including old entries that are no longer needed. Second, create indexes for the tables used most. This will help speed up data retrieval and queries. Third, use caching wherever possible to minimise the load of repeated queries. Finally, analyse the database for any bottlenecks, to make sure the necessary resources are available. By taking the time to optimise the database, website owners can dramatically improve their site’s overall performance.
Hosting & SEO: How Hosting Affects Your Rankings
| Hosting factor | Recommended threshold | SEO impact |
|---|---|---|
| Server Response Time (TTFB) | < 200ms | Direct impact on Core Web Vitals (LCP) |
| Uptime Guarantee | 99.9%+ (max 8.76 hours of downtime a year) | Downtime = de-indexing risk + revenue loss |
| Server Location | Athens or Frankfurt for a Greek audience | Latency directly affects LCP & user experience |
| SSL Certificate | Free Let’s Encrypt or paid | Ranking factor since 2014, mandatory today |
| HTTP/3 + HTTP/2 Support | Yes, on all modern hosts | Faster connections, better page speed |
| Caching (Server-side) | Object cache + page cache | 5–10x faster pages |
| CDN Integration | Cloudflare, BunnyCDN, KeyCDN | Global speed, DDoS protection |
| PHP Version | PHP 8.2+ (no 7.x) | Speed boost 20-30%, security |
| Daily Backups | Automatic + 30-day retention | Disaster recovery, no data loss |
SSL, Backups & Security: The 3 Non-Negotiables in Hosting
SSL Certificate (HTTPS)
Since 2014, SSL has been a Google ranking factor. Since 2018, Chrome has marked sites without HTTPS as “Not Secure”. Today, all modern hosting providers offer free Let’s Encrypt SSL with auto-renewal. Premium SSL (DigiCert, Sectigo OV/EV) is only needed for banking, finance and government sites, and costs €50–300 a year.
Daily Backups
In fact, 30% of websites in Greece have no automated backups. If your site goes down (a hack, a server failure, a faulty update), without a backup you lose everything. Recommended: daily automatic backups + 30-day retention. For extra protection, use a third-party tool: UpdraftPlus (WP), JetBackup (cPanel) or BlogVault.
Security Layers (WAF + DDoS Protection)
- Web Application Firewall (WAF): Cloudflare, Sucuri, Wordfence
- DDoS Protection: More than 80% of premium hosts offer it built in
- Malware Scanning: Daily scans with auto-cleanup
- Brute Force Protection: Failed login attempts blocking
- 2FA on the hosting control panel
Note: Cheap shared hosting packages often don’t include the above. If your site is business-critical, invest in managed hosting or a premium VPS.
How to Move Your Website to a New Host
You can change hosting without downtime if you follow the right steps. The right way:
- Choose a new host and buy a package (don’t cancel the old one yet)
- Full backup from the old host (files + database)
- Upload to the new server and set up the database
- Test on a temporary URL or by editing the hosts file
- Change the DNS records (A record or nameservers) at your domain registrar: propagation takes 0–48 hours
- Monitor for 7 days before cancelling the old hosting
- Update Google Search Console and submit a new sitemap
Most good hosting providers offer a free migration service (SiteGround, Kinsta, Cloudways, Pointer, IPHost). For WordPress, plugins such as All-in-One WP Migration, Duplicator or Migrate Guru make the move a one-click job.
Choose the right server for you
In conclusion, anyone with a website should choose the right hosting for their needs, since their website speed depends heavily on it. From the type of server and hosting to the location and bandwidth, making the right choices can significantly improve a website’s speed. In addition, by using caching and compression, minimising the number of requests and optimising database performance, website owners can improve their site’s speed even further. In the end, understanding and optimising the impact of the server and hosting on website speed benefits the website owner and can also improve the site’s user experience, which is of course the whole point.
FAQ
How much does website hosting cost in Greece?
Website hosting in Greece costs: €3–10/month for shared hosting, €15–80/month for a VPS, €15–100/month for managed WordPress, €80–500/month for dedicated. On top of that: a domain at €10–15 a year. In total, for an average business site: about €70–300 a year.
What is the difference between shared hosting and a VPS?
With shared hosting, many sites share the same server resources (cheaper, but slower performance and security limitations). With a VPS, you get dedicated resources (RAM, CPU, storage) and full control, with better performance and security. For an e-shop with 1,000+ visitors a month, a VPS is clearly the better choice.
Where should my server be for a Greek audience?
Ideally Greece (latency <10ms) or Frankfurt/Amsterdam (latency 25–30ms). A server in the US or Asia adds 100–200ms of latency, which hurts Core Web Vitals and SEO. All serious Greek providers have data centres in Athens or Frankfurt.
Do I need a CDN even if I have good hosting?
The answer is yes, especially if you have an international audience or lots of images/videos. A CDN (Cloudflare for free, BunnyCDN from €1/month) distributes static content across 200+ servers worldwide, reduces the load on the main server and offers DDoS protection. It is a must-have for e-shops and high-traffic sites; we usually use Cloudflare.
How do I change hosting without downtime?
The right process is: (1) buy new hosting before cancelling the old one, (2) move the files + database, (3) test on a temporary URL, (4) change the DNS records (propagation 0–48 hours), (5) monitor for 7 days, (6) cancel the old hosting. Many premium hosts (SiteGround, Kinsta, Cloudways) offer free migration.
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