Choose Personal Hosting if your site is a small brochure site and you’re comfortable with email, ticket and chat support on weekdays. Choose Business Hosting if your website brings in leads or sales, you want to be able to phone someone 7 days a week, and you need faster responses and more resources. The servers are the same quality. The difference is support and capacity.
Key takeaways
- Both tiers run on the same Australian servers, with free SSL and free migration.
- Business Hosting adds phone support, 7 days a week, and faster response times.
- Business plans start with more CPU, memory and disk than entry Personal plans.
- If downtime would cost you customers, Business Hosting is usually the safer choice.
- You can move between plans as your needs change.
What’s the difference between Personal and Business hosting?
| Personal Hosting | Business Hosting | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | $29 a month + GST | $98 a month + GST |
| Support channels | Email, ticket and chat | Email, ticket, chat and phone |
| Support hours | Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm | 7 days, 9am to 5pm |
| Response time | 72, 48 or 24 hours, by plan | 16, 8 or 4 hours, by plan |
| Entry resources | 1 CPU core, 2 GB memory, 5 GB disk | 2 CPU cores, 4 GB memory, 20 GB disk |
| Largest plan | 4 cores, 8 GB, 20 GB | 6 cores, 12 GB, 100 GB |
| Free SSL and migration | Yes | Yes |
Emergency help is available 24/7 on both, on 0426 833 422.
Who is Personal Hosting for?
- Sole traders and small brochure sites with a handful of pages.
- Sites that don’t take payments or bookings.
- Owners happy to raise a ticket and wait for a weekday reply.
- Personal projects, portfolios and community groups.
Who is Business Hosting for?
- Websites that generate leads, bookings or sales.
- Online shops, even small ones.
- Businesses that trade on weekends.
- Teams who want to pick up the phone and talk it through.
- Sites with more traffic, larger media libraries or several staff updating content.
Why is Business Hosting priced so differently?
Most of the difference is people, not hardware. Phone support 7 days a week and faster response times take more staff time. Business plans also include more CPU, memory and storage, which matter for busy or growing sites.
Here’s a useful comparison. Business Essentials ($98) costs about the same as Personal Ultimate ($99.50), but has half the cores and memory. What you’re paying for with Business is phone access and faster responses. If your site is resource-hungry but not business-critical, Personal Ultimate may suit you better. If it’s business-critical, Business Essentials is the better buy.
How much storage and power do I need?
Most small business sites use far less than people expect. A typical WordPress brochure site with a few hundred images fits comfortably within 5 GB. Online shops, large media libraries and sites with many backups need more. Our guide to how much storage your website needs explains how to check.
CPU and memory matter more than disk for speed, especially for shops and sites with many logged-in users.
Three questions to decide
- What would a day offline cost you? If it’s more than a month of hosting, choose Business.
- Do you trade on weekends? Then 7-day support matters.
- Would you rather phone or type? If you want to talk to someone, choose Business.
For a broader look at what an SME needs, read our guide to small business web hosting. See full details on our business web hosting page or compare our hosting plans.
Remember that hosting looks after the server, not the website itself. If you’d also like updates, backups and security handled, add one of our Maintain & Protect website care plans.
Frequently asked questions
Can I upgrade from Personal to Business later?
Yes. Your site stays on the same servers, and changes are charged pro rata.
Is Business Hosting faster than Personal?
The servers are the same. Business plans include more resources at entry level, which helps busy sites. The bigger difference is support.
Do both plans include email?
Ask us about email for your plan. Many businesses use Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace with their domain instead, which works with either tier.
What does response time mean?
It’s the maximum time before our team responds to your request. Faster tiers mean shorter waits for non-urgent help.
Are prices shown with or without GST?
Without. All our hosting prices are shown excluding GST, with GST added at checkout.