Hosting your websites with Nigeria based web hosting companies comes with some benefits, but there are some snags you need to be aware of. Here you will find the best web hosting in Nigeria as well as the pros and cons of hosting your websites with web hosting Companies in Nigeria.
There are two options you can take if you want to engage the services of a web hosting company from Nigeria. You can either subscribe with a global hosting company with affordable hosting plans like Hostinger or you use a Nigeria based web hosting company like WhoGoHost.
One of the major advantage of using the services of Nigeria based hosting providers is that you can pay in Naira and the with scarcity and difficulty in accessing dollars in Nigeria, this one advantage can be a big deal. International web hosting services will usually require you to pay in dollars and with the outrageous USD spending limits in the country, getting enough Forex to maintain the services of such companies is now a major challenge.
In this article we will look at the advantages and disadvantages of web hosting in Nigeria. We will also look at some of the best web hosting services in Nigeria.
Pros of Hosting with Nigeria Web Hosts
Here are the benefits of hosting with Nigeria based web hosting services.
Pay in Naira Bank Deposit
Nigeria Web hosting companies accept Naira payments. This makes things easy especially if you do not have a USD denominated MasterCard or Visa Card.
You simply pay with your Naira denominated MasterCard or VISA card without worrying about the availability of the dollar. You can also pay for the hosting services of Nigeria based web hosting companies using your bank’s Mobile App or Internet Banking platform or with a payment solution like OPay.
If you prefer to pay in cash, you can visit a designated bank to make your bank deposit, you fill in your payment details online at the web hosting site, and in a matter of hours your web hosting account will be ready.
Acceptance of Naira payment is a huge selling point for Nigeria based hosting companies. This is becoming very huge with the difficulty to access dollars. You do not want to lose your website or blog just because you could not source enough dollars to make payment.
Free .ng domain names
Some web hosting companies in Nigeria offer free .ng or .com.ng domain name registration when you buy a web hosting plan. You can also get .com, .org, or .net domain names free with your web hosting plan.
However, not all web hosting sites in Nigeria offer free .ng domains, so if you need one, make sure your intended host will offer you one.
However, note that it is always better to buy your domain name separately from your hosting, but it is good to know that if you don’t mind, you can get it free from your hosting company in Nigeria.
Affordability
You can get web hosting for as low as 750 Naira (about 53 cents) monthly from web hosting companies in Nigeria. However, you need to pay a lot more than that to get a decent web hosting service.
This is a major advantage with the Naira losing value against the dollar weekly. The average price of decent web hosting from international hosting services starts at around $10 monthly which at current rate translates to around 14,000 Naira monthly and if the Naira loses further against the dollar, the cost will increase even further.
There was a time when most Nigeria based web hosting companies accepted only yearly payments, which made cost of entry challenging beginners. However, these days most Nigeria based web hosting services offer affordable monthly plans which is very convineint for beginners.
Cons of Hosting with Nigeria Web Hosts
Here are some snags of Web Hosting Companies in Nigeria:
Limited Storage and Bandwidth
While most leading global hosting companies now offer reasonably unlimited storage and bandwidth, even for the most basic hosting plan, web hosting companies in Nigeria still offer limited storage and bandwidth.
This means that if your websites become very popular, you will exceed the limits set by your hosting plan and you may be penalised.
Bandwidth limit offered by Nigeria web hosting sites may be okay for personal sites, small blogs, and small business sites, but if you are planning to host the next big website to compete with top Nigerian websites like Nairaland, GTbank, Jumia, or websites with 50,000 unique visits or more per day, Nigeria web hosting may not be good enough for you.
In fact, you need to go for dedicated hosting plan or for a very flexible and versatile managed web hosting.
Poor Customer Service
Perhaps the biggest complaint of webmasters about Nigeria based hosting services is their poor customer service. Users complain about delay in responding to issues and a lack of useful and effective technical support.
You are bound to have issues with your web hosting. Something will invariably go wrong every now and again. When in does, you want your web hosting company to offer useful technical support that will ensure the issue is resolved in record time so that your business does not suffer.
You may also be interested in Best Web Hosting for Small Business
Web Hosting in Nigeria
Although web hosting companies in Nigeria have improved a lot in their quality of service and reliability, they are not there yet when it comes to customer service.
This is largely due to poor infrastructure and poor human capital. Bandwidth availability is still limited in Nigeria (Though it has to be said that most web hosting companies in Nigeria are just resellers for global players or have their infrastructure outside Nigeria).
If you are planning to host a very large website, a Nigeria based web hosting company may struggle to deliver the required quality of service, so you may be better off with top hosting services in the US, UK, or Germany.
Because of the poor service offered by web hosting companies in Nigeria and the general lack of infrastructure, most of the top Nigerian websites are hosted abroad. For example, of the top 10 Nigerian websites owned and managed by Nigerians, only one is hosted in Nigeria.
Most Nigeria’s top websites are not hosted in by Nigerian hosting companies. So, if you are planning to compete with any of these website, you are better off hosting in the US or UK.
However, if your target is a website for a few thousand visits per day, a Nigeria based web hosting site will be able to handle it. So, your small business sites, personal sites, blogs, etc can be handled by web hosting companies in Nigeria.
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Five important factors to consider in web hosting are uptime, Bandwidth, server speed, available storage, and technical support. No matter the hosting company of choice make sure they deliver high on these factors. They should also offer decent customer support.
