Finding reliable hosting is the first step toward your success. You may build a stunning website with enticing copy and lucrative products. However, what’s the point if no one can see it? This is where web hosting comes into play. It’s the single most important decision you will make for your website, as the website is only as good as its hosting infrastructure allows.

Thankfully, over the past decade or so, the competition in this sector has pushed service providers to improve their products, infrastructure, and offerings significantly. Needless to say, today’s hosting is more than adequate to what users consider acceptable. But more importantly, this progress is far from stagnant. On the contrary, the hosting market is alive and running at a formidable pace. This can be seen by the wonderful plans and products hosting companies offer for what’s essentially next to nothing. Just look at our magnificent offers. Indeed, HostArmada is not a random name in the hosting service community, as we are at the forefront of innovations in this industry. But even so, you can see the endless list of features we offer for what’s essentially an extremely affordable plan.

The best part is that the fast development pace in this industry is far from slowing down. You needn’t look any further than the trends of 2024 to see that hosting companies are beyond dedicated to bringing the best service possible to their clients.

So, what will be new in 2024? Let’s have a look.

1. Improved Website Security

Security has always been a cornerstone of a good hosting infrastructure. Often, it’s the feature that hosting companies take care of the most. Whether it’s development or updating existing software, hosting companies invest heavily in finding new and more robust methods of protecting their clients’ websites and data. And how could it be otherwise when malicious hackers are constantly looking for vulnerabilities and weak points?

Moreover, with cyber threats at an all-time high and with our lives and personal information digitized faster than ever, hosting companies will have to put website security at the center of their development efforts. Over 8.2 billion data breaches and cyber attacks were recorded in 2023 alone. This is enough to make you question whether the internet is a safe place. Of course, the answer is “it depends”. It depends on the security infrastructure of the websites you visit.

Well, hosting companies are already introducing various methods to battling this mind-blowing number of threats. All sorts of strategies could be implemented. But generally, the best practice is a mix of various protections, backups, and sophisticated firewalls.

We at HostArmada, for instance, offer over a dozen security features even for our most affordable plan. Among them, you will find a state-of-the-art Advanced Firewall with herd immunity powered by AI. Also, there are the Network and Web Application Firewalls, along with Proactive defenses, Next-gen IDS/IPS, and a hardened PHP. Those are just a few of our security measures, making us one of the most protected hosting providers.

Naturally, most other hosting services will follow suit, as cyber security is the theme of 2024. Whether bullet-proof encryptions, automated threat detection, or more sophisticated protection against DDoS attacks, web hosting companies will implement robust security practices to ensure their clients have nothing to worry about.

2. Multi-cloud hosting

With 92% of enterprises having a multi-cloud strategy ready to enact, it’s hard to argue that Multi-cloud hosting won’t be a thing in 2024. This trend will inevitably become dominant this year, driven predominantly by the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, the massive boom in the technology sector, and its countless advantages. With the past few years gone, organizations worldwide recognize the importance of resilience, collaboration, and effective data management. This epiphany is actually one of the few benefits of the lockdowns.

The impact of the pandemic is evident in the strategic decisions of technology executives. A significant 76% plan to increase their spending on multi-cloud and hybrid cloud technologies in the next 12 months.

The advantages of multi-cloud hosting lie in its ability to enhance various aspects of business operations. It improves security, interoperability, data access, and IT operations, offering a comprehensive solution beyond the limitations of a single cloud host. However, challenges such as compliance, access control, and security remain, with many companies identifying these issues as their primary concerns.

The multi-cloud approach is gaining traction due to its capacity to seamlessly integrate services from different platforms. It allows businesses to tailor their cloud systems to meet specific objectives. Additionally, it mitigates risk by providing redundancy – in case one cloud host fails, operations can seamlessly continue with others. This risk mitigation becomes crucial as organizations face new challenges and increased cloud usage due to disruptions. For example, what happened during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The added data protection and robust risk mitigation capabilities make multi-cloud hosting a comprehensive and appealing choice. As you can imagine, this will inevitably lead to it becoming unavoidable for hosting companies in 2024.

3. Cloud VPS hosting

With the steady rise of online purchases and 2.64 billion online customers, many websites are updating their shared hosting plans for a better, yet still affordable, solution. One of the biggest problems with shared hosting is the shared resources. If, at any particular moment, a website you share a server with has a surge in traffic, your performance will suffer. It’s like being at an all-you-can-eat buffet. When everyone is taking a reasonable amount of food, everything is fine. Everyone has access to all sorts of dishes. However, if someone decides to take advantage of the system and takes over the meat buffet, emptying the trays, you will have to wait for him to move along before you can get a piece.

The same is true with your shared resources. If a website has a lot of traffic at some point, it will block your website from having the same. With cloud technology, that rarely happens. That’s why HostArmada offers 99.9% uptime, as we can divert resources immediately from other servers via the cloud network. Still, many companies who can’t afford to go down during rush hour prefer to take an extra step – Cloud VPS hosting. The VPS hosting allows you to have your own dedicated resources and utilize them as you please. Naturally, this enhances the website’s security, speed, and performance. In 2024, these benefits will be determining factors for decision-makers. Unsurprisingly, we expect the demand for these services to rise significantly.

4. Managed web hosting

Managed web hosting has been around for quite some time now but never really got into the spotlight. Mainly because most companies had IT departments that took care of everything regarding the hosting. The rest, used whatever resources and knowledge was available on the internet. Many hosting providers, such as HostArmada, have always been ready to help their customers with server problems. However, since the e-commerce boom after the COVID-19 pandemic, this has not been quite enough. Thus, the Managed web hosting service took the spotlight, and in 2024, it will truly become a rockstar.

Though expensive, this hosting service offers an all-inclusive solution to everyone with limited know-how in dealing with servers. This service offers to take care of your server and improve your website performance to the best of your server’s abilities. Moreover, they handle the server optimizations, updates, and security.

This service is particularly popular among small e-commerce operations and other businesses, who can afford the salty price and don’t want to hire an entire IT department. The rise in popularity is due to the fears of competition in the e-commerce sector, where any advantage over the competition is more than welcomed.

Furthermore, with the rise of cyber threats, managed web hosting services will give people with little to no IT knowledge the peace of mind that their data won’t be breached and their business won’t be ruined because of this.

5. HTTPS as the norm

HTTP is dead. Long live HTTPS. This change has been coming for quite some time. Mostly after Google started marking HTTP websites as “not secure” in 2018. As you can imagine, this changed the entire SEO strategy, and HTTPS became mandatory. Still, in 2024, we expect every active website that’s not a fraud, of course, to become an HTTPS website.

The S in this protocol stands for “secured.” It’s actually a sign that the website has an SSL certificate, encrypting the communication between the browser and the server. It’s the most basic security protocol out there, and not having one in 2024 is equal to chasing users away.

The benefits of an HTTPS protocol are countless. It builds trust with the users, protects sensitive data, and, most importantly, pushes your website higher in Google SERP.

In 2024, hosting providers who refrain from offering a complimentary SSL certificate to their customers will simply fall behind. As we already stated, that’s the basic security protocol, and having a website without one is absolutely pointless.

For example, HostArmada has long since offered four complimentary SSL certificates – a free SSL from Sectigo, a cPanel Auto SSL, a CloudFlare Free SSL, and a free SNI.

Naturally, in 2024, every hosting provider who wants to stay on the market will have to offer at least half of what we already provide.

6. DIY website builders

Website builders are on the rise and won’t stop for the foreseeable future. In fact, economists predict that the website builder market will skyrocket by the end of the decade, reaching 14.4 billion dollars. That’s hardly surprising, considering that more than 18 million websites worldwide were built thanks to a website builder.

The rapid pace of this trend is underlined by WordPress’s shift toward drag-and-drop website building infrastructure. The CMS will provide a significant relief for most hosting companies, who offer seamless integration with the most preferred website builder in the world. Still, some hosting companies prefer to have their own drag-and-drop builders, which can be a benefit if you are able to create your own CMS and all you need is help with the front end. In most cases, however, this is not the case.

So, while we truly believe that DIY website builders are the future, in 2024, hosting providers offering seamless integration with WordPress will still be preferred.

7. Offering additional services

Adding some basic complimentary services to the hosting packages is not something new for hosting companies. For example, an SSL certificate and email account support have been the bare minimum for quite some time now. But with the rise of demand and competition, we expect hosting companies to start offering all sorts of additional features and services for free.

For example, at HostArmada, we are providing our customers with not only unlimited email accounts but also a variety of features regarding email. Autoresponders, filters, outbound email filtering, and email virus scanners are typically additional services for which many hosting companies would ask a pretty penny. We offer them for free with every plan, as we understand that email communication with customers is crucial for any business.

Moreover, we offer website consultations, restoration of hacked websites, and a free website transfer.

So, in 2024, we expect those who want to retain their position in the market or grow to start offering additional services as part of their plans. Added value will always play a crucial role in customer decision-making. So naturally, staying behind your competition in this regard is a recipe for disaster.

8. Serverless Hosting

In 2024, Serverless Hosting is set to dominate the hosting landscape, driven by many advantages that cater to the evolving needs of businesses. The serverless architecture offers unparalleled benefits such as instant scalability, faster deployment, cost-effectiveness, and lower latency. Developers experience heightened efficiency and productivity as serverless hosting optimally allocates resources, allowing them to focus solely on coding without the burden of managing servers.

A key advantage of serverless computing lies in its ‘pay-as-you-go’ model, offering flexibility and cost-effectiveness. Users are charged based on actual computation usage, eliminating the need to reserve and pay for fixed bandwidth or server quantities. Despite the term “serverless,” physical servers are still utilized, but the intricacies of infrastructure management are abstracted away, allowing developers to focus solely on their code.

This pay-as-you-go model will become a hit in 2024, and it wouldn’t be a surprise if many more hosting companies implement it in their portfolios.

9. AI at the forefront

Just like with every other aspect of business and life in general, AI will play a significant role. First and foremost, it will be a great allay in customer support. However, infused with different features, it will make the customer’s website faster, more resilient, and much more secure.

AI will be behind personalized server optimization, which will help users utilize the resources they buy optimally.

Moreover, artificial intelligence will find implementations in security features. For example, at HostArmada, we use AI to enhance our customers’ security by implementing it in an Advanced firewall with herd immunity. There, artificial intelligence can detect new forms of attacks based on analytics and data. Naturally, this protects the websites not only from known threats but also from the unknown.

AI’s applications are truly endless. Thus, in 2024, we expect to see many new hosting features utilizing this security and functionality goldmine.

10. Going green

Finally, we have the one thing that will be a trend in almost any industry – sustainability. Regardless of whether you agree with sustainability practices or not, as long as customers find eco-friendly practices important, the industry will follow. Currently, green living is on everyone’s agenda.

So, in 2024, hosting will be going green and sustainable. With 3.7% of all global carbon footprint coming from internet use and supporting systems, this trend is a bit late indeed. Still, it’s better late than never.

This year, an increasing number of hosting companies will participate in eco-friendly initiatives and will try to gain a Renewable Energy Certificate (REC) or a Carbon Offset Certificate (VER). With customers becoming ever more environmentally aware, hosting companies have no choice but to follow the sustainability trend. So yes, REC and VER will be a must in 2024 if hosting companies have growth in their plans.

Some final words

As a business owner, it’s important to know the trends so you can find a hosting company that’s at the forefront of the industry changes. Usually, a plan ties you up for at least 2 years. This means researching how forward-thinking the hosting provider is will help you significantly in the long run.

HostArmada is an excellent choice. We implement the latest technologies and make sure to equip our clients with the latest software that could help their websites be the fastest, most reliable, and secure platforms on the internet. Check out our plans, and don’t forget to familiarize yourself with the vast array of additional features and services we are offering for free. Don’t forget that a great website (that’s you) starts with the choice of a great hosting provider (that’s us).