SA Web hosting on the comeback trail
While South Africa is becoming an increasingly popular hosting destination for companies amid lower broadband prices, making hosting fees attractive, more still needs to be done say local hosting companies.
Web Africa and Afrihost, have both noted an increase in new business hosting in South Africa, with Afrihost specifically highlighting a bigger presence from small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the sector.
“We are definitely seeing good growth in the SME space in South Africa. Businesses are realising that hosting an application is easier and more cost-effective than setting up infrastructure, hardware and software in-house,” Afrihost said.
The local hosts also noted that many companies which hosted sites overseas for affodability reasons are making their way back to South African shores on the backdrop of lower broadband prices.
“Many are returning due to bandwidth prices coming down, but we still have more work to do in SA to make it more affordable,” Afrihost said.
Web Africa indicated a similar trend: “Since the international bandwidth capacity has increased with the new undersea cable systems over the past two years, we’re seeing a movement back home – which is good news for the SA economy, as it keeps the business here where it belongs,” Web Africa said.
“There is a definite preference amongst the SA market for a locally-based provider. There is still peace of mind for our customers in dealing with a provider based in the same time-zone with an understanding of the local environment,” said Afrihost added.
Previously, South African businesses shied away from hosting sites locally as international prices and support services were far more appealing. This is changing, the hosting companies said, as South Africa rises as a more competitive hosting location.
“On most fronts South Africa is competitive. In certain areas, like bandwidth, we are still more expensive – but from a support point of view I think you get great value for money in South Africa,” Afrihost said.
“We’ve received a very positive response since the launch of our new web hosting packages in June, which are now competitive with US-based hosting companies in product and price,” Web Africa said.
Web Africa also noted that, apart from growth in the number of new hosting companies in the country, there was also growth in product types and offerings for hosting in the country.
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