E-commerce Hosting: Choosing Wisely Before Launch
By The Atlas Hoster team4 min read
An online store is not hosted like a showcase website. E-commerce hosting must handle traffic spikes, protect payments, and never lose an order. Here are the actual needs of a store, and the criteria for choosing before launching.
E-commerce hosting: the real technical needs of a store
A store is a heavily used database (catalog, products, customers, orders), dynamic pages, many images, and a payment funnel. Concretely, this imposes four requirements: constant performance (every second of waiting costs sales), the security of customer data and cards, frequent backups (orders are live data that changes every minute), and the ability to withstand traffic spikes without interruption.
WooCommerce, PrestaShop, Magento: prerequisites
Each platform has its own requirements. WooCommerce, which relies on WordPress, recommends PHP 8.3 or newer, MySQL 8.0 (or MariaDB 10.6), HTTPS, and at least 256 MB of PHP memory. A good-quality shared hosting plan is sufficient to start a small WooCommerce store. PrestaShop and especially Magento require more—more memory, precise server settings—and work significantly better on a VPS. Regardless of the platform, verify that the host provides the required versions and access to configuration.
Performance and traffic spikes (promotions, seasons)
Store traffic is rarely steady: it explodes during promotions, sales, and holidays. Without preparation, a spike takes the site down at the worst possible moment. Two levers change the game: application caching (Redis, Varnish) which absorbs repeated reads, and a CDN that serves images and pages as close to visitors as possible. Before a commercial campaign, a load test verifies that the infrastructure holds up—rather than discovering this on the day itself. Our article on online store speed details these levers.
Concretely, prepare each commercial campaign: a load test a few days in advance, well-configured caching, and an active CDN for images. If the site has previously withstood a spike, note what was put in place so you can replicate it. Consistency matters more than last-minute solutions.
Online payments and security
As soon as a store accepts card payments, the PCI DSS standard applies: it sets a baseline of technical and organizational requirements to protect payment data, and concerns any entity that stores, processes, or transmits card data. The simplest path for a merchant is to outsource payments to a payment service provider (PSP), so that card numbers neither pass through nor are stored on your server. HTTPS is mandatory throughout the entire funnel regardless. This topic is covered in detail in our article online payments and PCI DSS.
In practice, most stores integrate a payment service provider that handles payment processing and card security. Your role is then limited to keeping the funnel on HTTPS, keeping the store updated, and never requesting or storing card data on your own forms.
Backups: do not lose orders and catalog
The catalog and orders are your most valuable data: a loss is irreparable. This requires frequent backups—at least daily, ideally more frequent—verified and restorable quickly. Check the host's details for what is backed up, how often, and how to restore. A backup that has never been tested offers no real guarantee.
Also set a retention rule: keeping several days of backups allows you to go back in time after a late-detected issue, not just after the last crash. An order accidentally deleted three days ago can be recovered if the backup from the day before still exists.
When to move to a high availability architecture
Stay on a VPS as long as the store is small and traffic is moderate. Consider a high availability architecture when the store generates significant revenue, when spikes are regular, or when every minute of downtime is costly. The typical architecture: a load balancer, multiple redundant web servers, caching, and a replicated database. Our guide on high availability explains how this handles the load.
Pitfalls to avoid
Storing card data yourself: outsource payments to a payment service provider to never handle card numbers, thereby reducing your obligations. Neglecting backups: the catalog and orders change every minute; a monthly backup is insufficient. Discovering your traffic spike on the day of a promotion: without a load test or caching, the site goes down at the worst moment. And choosing hosting based solely on price: a slow or unavailable store loses far more than the savings achieved on the bill.
Frequently asked questions
Is shared hosting sufficient for a store?
For a small WooCommerce store that is just starting, yes: good-quality shared hosting is sufficient as long as the catalog and traffic remain modest. As soon as traffic or the number of products increases, a VPS becomes more comfortable. PrestaShop and Magento, which are more resource-intensive, often require a VPS from the start.
Should card numbers be stored on your server?
No, this should be avoided absolutely. Outsource payments to a payment service provider (PSP): the customer pays on their secure page, and you neither store nor transmit any card data. This significantly reduces your PCI DSS obligations and the risk in case of a breach. Your server then never has to handle card numbers.
How often should you back up a store?
At least once a day, and more frequently if there are many orders: every order placed after the last backup would be lost. The ideal is an automatic backup, regularly verified, and restorable in a few minutes. Test the restoration before you need it: a backup that has never been tested offers no guarantee.
For technical help, our support covers configuring a web application with MySQL, making a backup copy, and installing an SSL certificate.
Launching a store? Discover our high availability architectures for e-commerce, sized to handle your spikes.