Before You Buy Hosting, Ask These Questions

This is the first question most businesses forget to ask. Many assume that because a provider is Irish, their data must be hosted in Ireland. In reality, a large number of websites operate on infrastructure located in the UK, mainland Europe or the United States, often without the business owner realising it.

Data location matters because it determines which laws apply, how access is governed and what happens in the event of a dispute or investigation. A reliable provider should be able to answer this clearly, without hesitation, and explain what protections apply under Irish and EU law.

At SmartHost, data hosted on our Sovereign Irish Cloud stays on Irish soil, governed by Irish and EU regulations, with no ambiguity about jurisdiction.

Every hosting environment encounters issues at some point. The difference lies in how they are handled. Some providers hide behind ticket systems, long response times or vague explanations. Others take ownership, communicate clearly and resolve problems methodically.

Before signing up, ask how incidents are handled, how quickly issues are acknowledged and whether there is a structured process for resolution. The answer will tell you far more about the provider than any uptime statistic.

Support is not a feature. It is a behaviour.

Backups are often mentioned in passing, yet rarely explained in detail. Businesses should know how frequently backups run, where they are stored and how restoration works if something goes wrong.

A good provider will explain this in plain language and confirm that backups are automated, tested and stored separately from live data. If the explanation feels vague or overly technical, that is usually a sign that backups are treated as an afterthought.

SmartHost includes daily backups as standard, with additional replication safeguards built into the infrastructure.

Security claims are easy to make and hard to verify. Certifications, however, require evidence. ISO 27001 is one of the most widely recognised standards for information security management, and it confirms that a provider follows documented, audited processes rather than informal practices.

If security matters to your business, ask whether the provider follows any recognised framework and whether those controls are audited independently. Without structure, security becomes inconsistent.

SmartHost is ISO 27001 certified, meaning our systems, processes and access controls are continuously reviewed and improved.

Many websites start small and grow quickly. Traffic increases, content expands and new features are added. Hosting that works well at the beginning may struggle under increased load.

Ask whether resources can scale, whether storage can be expanded without downtime and how performance is maintained during busy periods. Modern hosting should grow alongside your business, not hold it back.

SmartHost’s infrastructure uses NVMe-powered storage and cloud-based scaling to support growth without disruption.