Web Design and Web Development Blog from Webilicious in Tasmania

In 2024, the most popular ways to build and publish a website are:

1. content management systems such as Joomla or WordPress
2. static HTML websites
3. software as a service options such as Wix and Squarespace

Options 1 and 2, where you can choose your own hosting provider, make the most sense to me because you stay in control of your website and your investment is protected. CMS suppliers, template suppliers or hosting companies can go out of business but you can quickly restore your website from a backup to alternative hosting if necessary and continue business as usual.

With option 3, the service provider can implement changes at any time with little or no or warning and changes may not suit your particular requirements. If you are not happy with the direction the service provider is heading or if the service provider goes out of business, there is often no easy way to export or migrate your website to a format that can easily be restored elsewhere. Relying on one particular service provider risks the future of your business and the risk increases with the amount invested.

Given that I only recommend and provide options 1 and 2 (content management systems and static HTML websites), these are the two options which I compare below.

In summary:

Content management systems such as Joomla and WordPress are best suited for websites requiring more advanced features or for websites that are updated regularly such as every week or every month. Ongoing maintenance fees start at around AU$39 per month.

Static HTML websites are best suited for simple websites where the website might only be updated a few times a year. Ongoing maintenance fees cost little or nothing.

Remember to allow at least $100 per year for website hosting and domain registration which you will need with a CMS or static website.

For websites hosted on LiteSpeed servers, LiteSpeed Cache dramatically improves performance.

LiteSpeed Cache is easy to install and enable on Joomla 3.x and Joomal 4.x websites by installing the Joomla LiteSpeed Cache extension from LiteSpeed.

Installation

The install package is installed normally via the Joomla installer and installs a LiteSpeed Cache Component and a LiteSpeed Cache Plugin which are both enabled by default during the install. The default settings seem reasonable.

The LiteSpeed Cache has some server requirements. if you're not sure whether your server complies, it's fairly easy to download the Joomla LiteSpeed Cache extension, install and verify whether it's working or not.

Disable GZip

If you are using LiteSpeed Cache, disable GZip in Global Configuration.

Testing

I have tested the Joomla LiteSpeed Cache extension on a few hosting plans and so far have found it works on:

• the "Starter", "Freedom" and "Premier" VentraIP shared hosting plans
• all shared and reseller Digital Pacific hosting plans
• at least some of the Panthur shared hosting plans

I will add to this list as I discover other web hosting plans this works with.

From the few examples I have tried so far, web pages are typically loading three times as fast with the LiteSpeed Cache enabled.

Clearing the LiteSpeed Cache

The LiteSpeed Cache can be purged via Components -> LiteSpeed Cache -> Purge All LiteSpeed Cache.

More Information

For more information, see the following:

• LiteSpeed Cache for Joomla 3.x or later
• LiteSpeed Cache for Joomla on GitHub
• LiteSpeed Cache Extension for Joomla on LiteSpeed Forums
• OpenLiteSpeed vs. NGiNX vs. Apache

After moving my own websites to SiteGround a few years ago and encouraging a few clients in the same direction, it has been very disappointing to discover that SiteGround have massively increased their prices on their shared hosting (and possibly other services) in June 2018.

Unfortunately, SiteGround don't show GST inclusive pricing (in contravention of the Australian component pricing laws). Once GST is added, the GrowBig plan actually changes from AU$178.20 (what I paid last year) to AU$329.34 which is a massive 85% price increase.

June 2020 Update: Not satisfied with the massive price increase in 2018, SiteGround have yet again increased their prices. The regular price of the GrowBig plan is now AU$395.87 per year (including GST).

April 2024 Update: The regular price of the GrowBig plan is now AU$527.87 per year (including GST).

This is a separate issue to SiteGround's deceptively low introductory prices (which revert to the full price when plans are renewed after the first year).

As far as I am aware there has been no blog post or other announcement and the first clients usually become aware of the price increase is when they receive their renewal notice four weeks before their hosting expires. This does not leave budget conscious customers much time to find an alternative host and also burdens them with the cost of the move if they choose to go elsewhere.

The official explanation seems to be that many new features have been added and the increase brings them to similar value for money as their competitors. I don't dispute any of this but surely new features could have been added as an option rather than forcing the features and resultant price increase on clients who may not need or use the new features? I suspect SiteGround have done their homework and many clients will grudgingly pay the increased price rather than work out how to move their business elsewhere as this does not seem like a trivial task to most clients (although it is usually fairly easy to do).

The most promising alternative hosting providers with a Singapore or Hong Kong data center option are:

• A2 Hosting
• FastComet
• ICDSoft

The other option expecially for Australian website owners is to bring the websites home to VentraIP and enable a CDN such as CloudFlare or similar. Speeding up shared hosting plans is possible by installing the free LiteSpeed Cache extension released in May 2018. This improves performance significantly so website visitors across the globe are still able to load web pages quickly even when they are hosted in Australia. For more information see: LiteSpeed Cache for Joomla. The VentraIP "Starter" plan @ AU$120.00/year with LiteSpeed Cache enabled performs as well as, and is less than half the cost of, the SiteGround "Growbig" plan @ AU$329.34/year with Dynamic Cache enabled.

Although SiteGround don't seem to have made any official announcement, they are very quick to answer any complaints on social media including the post I made on the Webilicious Facebook Page (which only has about 100 followers!) and also a post I submitted to the Whirlpool Forums.

Clients who are still hosting their websites with SiteGround should check their renewal dates and plan accordingly.

Renewal notices are sent out 30 days in advance of renewal but credit cards are billed two weeks before the renewal date if you have Autorenew enabled. If you need a little more time to move the website, you can disable Autorenew by logging in to the hosting control panel and going to Billing -> Billing Settings: