The difference?

International hosting refers to websites that may have a .co.za domain and refer to South African content but which are hosted on servers located overseas - usually the USA.

The hosting service that we provide is exactly the same as on the local option, the only difference is that the server is located in America. This means that the site will perform somewhat slower for South African audiences than a site hosted on a server located inside South Africa. This is for the obvious reason that the data must make a tran-antlantic journey from the server to the browser.

Why is it so much cheaper?

The current monopoly in the local telecommunications industry means that all service providers look to only a handful of sources for their connections to the internet.

South African web hosting providers can bypass this monopoly by buying hosting space from American or European hosting companies and then selling it on to the local market. Even with the exchange rate this works out much cheaper than hosting sites on local computers and purchasing bandwidth which ultimately must be provided by Telkom.

Which should you choose?

There's nothing wring with the international hosting option. The equipment is the same, you get the same robust and reliable service but there is one significant drawback.

The speed issue has been mentioned but note that this will also apply to e-mails sent to a domain hosted overseas.  In extremely rare cases this delay could be a matter of hours. In most cases it will be a matter of minutes.

Of course if your target Audience is American or European then there is great advantage in hosting your site overseas.