Website Hosting for Healthcare: What Makes It Different

“It’s just website hosting—what’s the difference?”

This is what we hear from medical practices shopping for the cheapest option. And for a basic brochure website with no patient data, they might be right. But most medical practice websites aren’t that simple anymore.

Online appointment requests. Contact forms asking about health concerns. Patient portal integrations. Secure document downloads. The moment patient information touches your website, hosting becomes a compliance issue—not just an IT decision.

Here’s what medical practices need to understand about website hosting.

Is Regular Hosting Enough for Healthcare?

It depends on what your website does.

Scenario 1: Basic Informational Site

Your website has:

Practice information (location, hours, providers)
Service descriptions
Contact form asking only for name, phone, email
No patient health information collected

Hosting needs: Standard quality hosting is likely sufficient. HIPAA doesn’t apply because you’re not collecting protected health information (PHI).

But you still need:

SSL certificate (HTTPS)
Regular backups
Basic security
Reasonable uptime

Scenario 2: Website Collecting Health Information

Your website has:

Contact forms asking about health conditions or symptoms
Appointment request forms with health history
Prescription refill requests
Any form collecting information about patient health

Hosting needs: HIPAA considerations now apply. You need:

Hosting provider willing to sign a Business Associate Agreement
Encrypted data storage
Access controls
Audit logging

Scenario 3: Patient Portal or EHR Integration

Your website:

Integrates with your patient portal
Connects to your EHR system
Handles patient data directly

Hosting needs: Full HIPAA-compliant infrastructure. This is typically handled by your EHR vendor or specialized healthcare hosting providers.

HIPAA and Your Website

Let’s clear up a common misconception: HIPAA doesn’t require a BAA for every website hosting provider. It depends on whether PHI passes through or is stored on that hosting.

When You Need a BAA

A Business Associate Agreement is required when:

Your hosting provider has access to identifiable patient information
PHI is stored on their servers
PHI is transmitted through their systems

Examples requiring BAA:

Form submissions containing health information stored on web server
Patient portal hosted on third-party infrastructure
Appointment system collecting health histories

When You Might Not Need a BAA

Basic brochure website with no health information collection
Contact forms collecting only name and phone number
Form submissions immediately forwarded to secure systems without storage

However: Even if you technically don’t need a BAA, choosing a hosting provider that understands healthcare adds a layer of protection.

Hosting Providers Offering BAAs

Major providers that offer HIPAA-compliant hosting or BAAs:

AWS (Amazon Web Services): Enterprise-grade, complex to manage
Microsoft Azure: Similar to AWS, enterprise focus
Google Cloud Platform: Cloud infrastructure with BAA
Atlantic.Net: Healthcare-focused cloud hosting
Liquid Web: Managed hosting with HIPAA options
HIPAA Vault: Specifically designed for healthcare

What a BAA covers:

Provider’s responsibility to protect PHI
Required security safeguards
Breach notification procedures
Limitations on PHI use

Learn more about HIPAA compliance

SSL Certificates: Non-Negotiable

If there’s one hosting-related requirement that’s absolute, it’s SSL.

What SSL Does

SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) encrypts data transmitted between your website and visitors’ browsers. You can tell a site uses SSL when the URL starts with “https://” instead of “http://”.

Why It’s Essential for Healthcare

Security: Any data patients submit—even just their name and phone number—is protected from interception.

Trust: Browsers mark non-SSL sites as “Not Secure.” Patients notice. They lose confidence.

SEO: Google uses HTTPS as a ranking factor. Non-secure sites rank lower.

Compliance: While HIPAA doesn’t explicitly require SSL for all websites, transmitting PHI without encryption is a clear violation.

Getting SSL

Most modern hosting providers include free SSL certificates (Let’s Encrypt). If yours doesn’t, or if you need enhanced validation:

Domain Validation (DV): Basic encryption, free to ~$50/year
Organization Validation (OV): Verifies organization identity, $50-200/year
Extended Validation (EV): Highest trust level, $100-500/year

For most medical practices, a standard DV certificate is sufficient—as long as it’s properly installed and renewed.

Uptime and Reliability

When your website is down, patients can’t find you. For some practices, that’s a minor inconvenience. For others—especially those relying on online scheduling—it’s lost revenue.

Uptime Expectations

Uptime is expressed as a percentage:

Uptime	Downtime per year
99.0%	3.65 days
99.5%	1.83 days
99.9%	8.76 hours
99.95%	4.38 hours
99.99%	52.6 minutes

For medical practices: Aim for at least 99.9% uptime. This is standard for quality hosting providers.

What Affects Uptime

Server quality: Cheap shared hosting = more downtime Provider infrastructure: Redundant systems, backup power Maintenance approach: Planned vs. unplanned downtime DDoS protection: Ability to handle attacks Geographic redundancy: Multiple data centers

Monitoring Uptime

Don’t just trust your hosting provider’s claims. Use independent monitoring:

UptimeRobot: Free monitoring for up to 50 sites
Pingdom: More detailed monitoring and alerting
StatusCake: Free and paid options

These services check your site regularly and alert you immediately if it goes down.

Backup and Disaster Recovery

What happens if your website is hacked? Or accidentally deleted? Or the hosting provider has a catastrophic failure?

Hosting Backup Options

Provider backups:

Many hosts offer daily backups
Check retention period (7 days? 30 days?)
Understand restoration process and time
Don’t assume backups exist—verify

Your own backups:

Never rely solely on hosting provider
Maintain independent backups
Store in separate location
Test restoration regularly

What to Back Up

Website files: All code, images, documents
Database: If you use a CMS like WordPress
Configuration: Server settings if you manage them
Form submissions: If stored locally

Recovery Time

Ask your hosting provider:

How long to restore from backup?
Is the process automated or manual?
What’s the most recent backup available?
Can you restore to a specific point in time?

For critical practice websites, consider providers offering instant failover or redundant hosting.

Speed and Performance

Slow websites lose patients. A one-second delay in page load can reduce conversions by 7%.

Factors Affecting Speed

Server location: Closer to your patients = faster Server resources: CPU, RAM, SSD vs. HDD Hosting type: Shared vs. VPS vs. dedicated CDN usage: Content delivery network for faster global delivery Provider optimization: Caching, compression, modern protocols

Hosting Type Comparison

Shared hosting ($3-15/month):

Your site shares resources with hundreds of others
Slowdowns when neighbors are busy
Fine for basic informational sites
Not ideal for high-traffic or critical sites

VPS hosting ($20-100/month):

Virtual private server with dedicated resources
Better performance and reliability
More control and configuration options
Good balance for most medical practices

Dedicated hosting ($100-500+/month):

Entire physical server for your site
Maximum performance and control
Overkill for most practice websites
Consider for large groups or high-traffic sites

Managed WordPress hosting ($25-100/month):

Optimized specifically for WordPress
Automatic updates and security
Often includes performance optimization
Popular options: WP Engine, Kinsta, Flywheel

Choosing a Hosting Provider

Questions to Ask

Security:

Do you offer or require SSL?
What security measures are in place?
How do you handle malware or hacking?
Will you sign a BAA (if needed)?

Reliability:

What’s your uptime SLA?
Do you offer uptime credits if SLA is missed?
Where are your data centers located?
Do you have redundancy built in?

Backup:

How often do you back up?
How long are backups retained?
How quickly can you restore?
Can I download my own backups?

Support:

What support channels are available?
What are support hours?
What’s typical response time?
Do you have healthcare experience?

Migration:

Will you help migrate my existing site?
Is there a cost for migration?
What’s the expected downtime?

Red Flags

No SSL or extra charge for it: SSL should be included
Vague uptime claims: No specific SLA percentage
No backups or extra charge: Backups should be standard
Only email support: No phone for urgent issues
No BAA available: If you need one
Too cheap: Hosting under $5/month often means problems

Managed vs. Self-Hosted

Managed Hosting

Someone else handles the technical details:

Software updates
Security patches
Performance optimization
Backup management
Server configuration

Pros: Less technical work, professional management Cons: Higher cost, less control

Best for: Practices without IT staff, those wanting to focus on healthcare not technology

Self-Hosted/Unmanaged

You (or your IT team) handle everything:

All updates and patches
Security implementation
Performance tuning
Backup procedures
Troubleshooting

Pros: Lower cost, full control Cons: Requires expertise and time

Best for: Practices with dedicated IT resources

The Healthcare Recommendation

Most medical practices should lean toward managed hosting or work with a web partner who handles hosting management. The cost difference is minor compared to the risk of security issues or downtime with unmanaged hosting.

Learn more about website hosting services

Content Delivery Networks (CDNs)

A CDN distributes your website content across multiple servers worldwide, serving visitors from the nearest location.

Benefits for Medical Practices

Speed: Faster load times for all visitors Reliability: Multiple servers = better uptime Security: Many CDNs include DDoS protection Scalability: Handles traffic spikes easily

Popular CDN Options

Cloudflare: Free tier available, easy setup
AWS CloudFront: Enterprise-grade, complex
Fastly: High performance, healthcare customers
StackPath: Good mid-market option

For most medical practice websites, Cloudflare’s free tier provides meaningful benefits with minimal setup.

The Bottom Line

Website hosting for healthcare doesn’t have to be complicated, but it does require more thought than choosing the cheapest option.

If your website collects any patient health information: You need HIPAA-aware hosting with appropriate security measures and potentially a BAA.

If your website is purely informational: Quality hosting with good uptime, SSL, and reliable backups is sufficient—but don’t go bargain basement.

For everyone: SSL is mandatory. Backups are essential. Uptime matters.

Need Help Choosing the Right Hosting?

At MedTech Consulting, we help medical practices select and manage hosting that meets their needs—whether that’s basic reliability or full HIPAA compliance.