Search "best web hosting in Pakistan" and you'll find a dozen top-10 lists, most of them written by someone who gets paid when you click. We're a hosting company, so we're obviously not neutral either. Rather than pretend otherwise, here's the checklist we'd hand a friend who asked us how to choose, including the questions to ask us.
1. Where are the servers?
If your visitors are in Pakistan, distance matters. A server in Karachi will usually answer a visitor in Lahore faster than one in Virginia or Frankfurt. It's not the only factor in speed, but it's an easy one to get right. Ask the host directly where your account will live. Ours sit on LiteSpeed SSD servers in Karachi.
2. What are the real resources?
"Unlimited disk" sounds great, but disk is rarely what slows a site down. What matters day to day is CPU, RAM and IO, the limits on how much processing your account can use at once. A good host will tell you these numbers without fuss. If the answer is vague, assume the limits are low.
3. What does it cost at renewal?
The first-year price is marketing. The renewal price is what you'll actually pay for as long as you stay. Read the small print for the renewal rate before you buy. Our hosting renews at the rate you signed up on, and we think every host should say this plainly.
4. Can you pay the way you normally pay?
Many international hosts only take dollar cards, and you'll pay the exchange rate plus your bank's foreign transaction charges. A Pakistani host should accept JazzCash, Easypaisa, Raast and bank transfer, and invoice you in rupees.
5. How fast does support actually reply?
Every host says 24×7 support. The real test is to send a pre-sales question at 11pm on a Friday and see what happens. Look for a host that answers in the channel you use (for most people in Pakistan, that's WhatsApp) and in the language you're comfortable with.
6. Is SSL free and automatic?
A free SSL certificate should be standard now. Without it, browsers flag your site as "not secure" and Google ranks it lower. Check that it's installed for you and renews automatically, rather than something you have to set up and remember.
7. Backups and refunds
Two questions: how often are backups taken, and can you restore them yourself? Then: is there a money-back window? A host that's confident in its service lets you try it. We offer 30 days on hosting, no questions asked.
8. Will they move your existing site?
If you already have a website somewhere else, migration is where things go wrong. Ask whether the host will move your files, databases and email for you, and whether it costs extra. We do it free, and there are a few more tips in our comparison page if you're switching from another provider.
Which plan type do you need?
Once you've picked a host, the next question is which kind of hosting. Roughly:
- Shared hosting for most business websites, portfolios and small shops. Start with our web hosting plans.
- Unlimited hosting for online stores, busy blogs and several sites on one account.
- WordPress hosting if your site runs on WordPress and you want it tuned for that.
- Reseller hosting if you build sites for clients and want to host them yourself.
On a budget? We've written a separate guide to low-cost web hosting in Pakistan covering what you should still expect at the cheapest tier.
Our honest pitch
We've been hosting Pakistani websites since 2017. Karachi servers, rupee pricing, renewals at the same rate, free SSL and migration, a 30-day refund, and a person on WhatsApp who replies. If that's what you're after, have a look at the web hosting plans. If it isn't, use the checklist above on whoever you're considering. It works just as well on us as on anyone else.
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