Is there any reason I'd want a website hosted in the UK rather than the US?

October 12, 2006 4:30 AM

Is there any reason I'd want a website hosted in the UK rather than the US?

I'm not interested in bulletproof business-grade hosting; this would just be a simple VPS for half a dozen friends to use. I've looked at a few hosting companies in both the US and the UK, and the US ones invariably offer about twice the storage and bandwidth for half the price, even accounting for overseas transaction fees from my bank. Why would I not go with a US provider?

If there's no reason, how do non-US hosting companies survive?

posted by hoverboards don't work on water to computers & internet (9 comments total)

If you want telephone support or rapid replies to email inquiries then choosing a host in your timezone is a good idea.

For UK visitors to a site, hosting it in the UK may result in a marginally quicker connection since there are fewer 'hops' between the user and the server. For companies that have to comply with the Data Protection Act, hosting in the UK probably simplifies the legal situation for them. These aren't compelling reasons for most site owners though.
posted by matthewr at 4:36 AM on October 12, 2006

It means you are open to the random idiotic restrictions levied on US ISPs by their government (rather than the random idiotic European restrictions). There are some detailed issues to do with hops and being seen to be in a particular geographic area by your visitors - but nothing that I think would concern you for what you have in mind.
posted by rongorongo at 5:06 AM on October 12, 2006

If someone goes to Google UK and does a "pages from the UK search", your site won't show up if it's hosted in the US.
posted by chrismear at 5:30 AM on October 12, 2006

If someone goes to Google UK and does a "pages from the UK search", your site won't show up if it's hosted in the US.

Not if you're using a .uk domain name. All of my servers are in the US and every .co.uk site I have comes up for UK searches with Google. I'm not 100% confident of the policies of the other UK engines, but I believe most use a "IP and/or domain" policy rather than just an IP policy.

If there's no reason, how do non-US hosting companies survive?

At the small business level, mostly through fear and familiarity. I get people asking me for various types of UK-based hosting all the time where US hosting would work just fine. When asked about it people tend to say they'd just 'like' it to be in 'their country' and that they don't 'understand dollars'. There's also the worry about the US govt being able to subpoena data.

My advice is that if you're halfway smart about hosting, know how to pick a good provider, and know how to cover your own butt most of the time, go for the US provider. I've tended to get better support from them and they're more likely to have 24/7 support systems than UK companies.
posted by wackybrit at 6:04 AM on October 12, 2006

Once you're out of the realm of shared hosting, incidentally, it's a whole different picture. Having to deal with customs every time you have to move hardware across the border has convinced me that domestic colocation has a lot going for it.
posted by mendel at 6:15 AM on October 12, 2006

If there's no reason, how do non-US hosting companies survive?

Local companies are easier. They don't ask you for info that you can't provide, like zip code, or give you payment options that you don't have. Plus you don't get into time zone issues, where you need to talk to the billing department but they only work 9-5 local and they're +5 hours from your time.
posted by smackfu at 6:37 AM on October 12, 2006

There's also the worry about the US govt being able to subpoena data.

I'd say that this (apart from the support issues already pointed out here) is an important aspect. If something goes wrong (you get sued, or you run into other legal trouble) whether it's your fault or not it would probably help enormously if you're dealing with a court of law in your country that is bound to the same country laws that you are.

Probably irrelevant for simple one-page website stuff, but as soon as you've got data of any significance on there (this includes email that is "just passing through", btw) I would certainly advise taking a closer look.
posted by spherical_perceptions at 6:54 AM on October 12, 2006

Probably not entirely relevant to you, but British companies aren't allowed to store customer data in the US because of lax data protection.
posted by bonaldi at 7:05 AM on October 12, 2006

Many poker blogs and discussion forums are moving to offshore hosts because of fears that the new anti-gambling law will allow the Goverment to force them to remove their affilliate links, which is their primary source of income.
posted by Lame_username at 8:15 AM on October 12, 2006