There are many hosting companies to choose from and each offer their own suite of
tools and services. Some are catered to small personal sites, while others have
support of enterprise level hosting. Knowing what to look for can save you money
and time. Here are the most important things to consider when choosing a web host:
Choose between free and commercial web hosting - Free web hosting is generally aimed at personal websites and possibly very small
business. If however, your site has any potential of growing, the limitations of
free web hosting quickly out-weighs its benefits. For larger businesses and other
higher volume web sites its important to choose a web hosting company that is right
for you. Read more about free vs paid hosting here.
Money back guarantee - Especially if this is your first site, you will not be familiar with all the requirements
for setting up your own site. If a web host does not meet those requirements you
want to have your money refunded so you can choose a host that does satisfy those
requirements.
Choose between shared vs dedicated hosting - Not all web servers are created equal. Especially when comparing shared vs dedicated
hosting. A simple analogy would be that of living in an apartment building compared
to living in your own house. Because a shared server shares all of its resources
among upwards of hundreds of sites, its possible that one offending site can cause
the entire server troubles. With a dedicated server these problems go away but at
a much higher cost. Our recommendation is unless you are expecting very heavy bandwidth
at the start, start with shared hosting, and choose a web host that allows you to
upgrade your hosting package.
Technical support - Inevitably you will run into a problem that only your host can solve. And as the
saying goes, time is money. If your site is down and you are waiting for an email
or a phone call you are loosing both money and customers. Make sure your web host
has 24/7 technical support.
Having the right technology - In the world of web hosting there are two major platforms to choose, Linux and Windows.
In the past the choice of platform came down to which which scripting engine you
used to create your site, such as PHP or ASP.NET. Each web server can now have support
for the others technology. The bottom line is make sure the technology you are using
is supported by the web host you decide.
Other technology requirements you need to look into are does the host support databases,
does the host provide you with multiple ftp accounts so you can access your files
easily. How much disk space are you allowed to have.
Data transfer (Bandwidth) - This is the amount of data transferred each time a request is made to your site.
Since your host will be paying for this bandwidth, you are limited to the amount
of data you can transfer. Don't believe hosts that try to advertise 'unlimited bandwidth'.
Your site will gain traffic as your site grows so make sure your bandwidth requirements
are met over time.
SSL and E-commerce - If you are planning on selling goods or services through your site that involve
credit card transactions you will need to have it secured. The means to secure a
site is by owning a SSL (secure socket layer) certificate. Check to see if your
web host can provide SSL support.
Email - If you own your own domain, you would want to have an email with that domain such
as yourname@yourdomain.com. Make sure your hosting company can provide you multiple
email addresses.
Control panel - The control panel is where you will spend a good amount of time maintaining your
domain names, hosting packages, ftp accounts, email accounts, database accounts
and billing information. Make sure you are comfortable in the control panel, and
that if offers you sufficient access and control of your account.
Summary
There is a lot to look at when choosing a hosting company that is right for you.
Knowing your requirements is the most important, but remember that as your site
grows, so will your requirements.