Reliability: Reliability is very important since this will determine the availablitiy of your website. I consider reliability to be of utmost importance. The term "reliability" is a bit general but it encompasses many options. In this case, my focus is on down-time. If the host you select is always "down" or "slow" then it can affect your business. Review carefully the uptime percentage the host has listed on their website. Some hosts will display the uptime status of their servers.
Pricing: Sacrificing a few dollars for better quality service is usually worth it in the long run. Carefully go over all the pricing options available with the hosts you've reviewed. Compare their pricing and plans, and based on that you can make an informed decision.
Support: It goes without saying that legitimate around the clock support is preferred. You should ensure that the web host you select is easily accessible via email, telephone or live chat, 24 hours a day. Many hosts advertise this, but do not honor it. Before registering with any host, always send a test email first to their support department to see how quickly they respond to your query. You could also call the host outside of normal business hours to see if they really do provide suport around the clock. This will give you a good indication of what to expect if you should decide to host with the company.
Features: When selecting a host, always review the features they offer. You should never "assume" that the host provides all the features you are looking for. Carefully read the list of hosting plan features. If there is a particular feature you require, and it's not listed, then send a support query inquiring if the feature is available.
Reviews: Do your due diligence, and search for reviews on the hosting company. There are many websites that offer in depth reviews of hosting companies. Another good idea is to conduct a search on Google regarding the company to find feedback from current or past customers. You'll also find that many hosts have an open support forum format. Browse their support forums to get an idea of what their current customers are saying about the service being offered.
Overall, the key to selecting a web hosting company is to always do the necessary research, to ensure the company offers all that you need. Review feedback, and weigh the pros and cons, and you'll then be making an informed decision rather than a blind one.
Best Web Site Hosts
But how do you HONESTLY know `which is the most unsurpassed web host?
To begin with, you need to break it down to what you need, which is either three families of web hosting: Shared, VPS, or Dedicated web hosting.
Firstly, you are most likely after shared hosting, which is entry and medium level hosting for small to medium sites. Virtual Private Server (VPS) hosting and also Dedicated server hosting are both more costly but can handle the resource demands on more huge web site.
The Best Web Host's Control Panel:
This is the online software that will let you tweak your site settings and even view your visitor statistics, such as which web site they came from, which country they are in and some other details. Without this, everything becomes 10 times harder. Creating an email account to use will suddenly take an hour of research instead of 20 easy seconds and will suddenly necessitate almost programmer level skill requirements without this smart interface. Your Control Panel makes doing any of this, easy for absolutely anyone. Only go with hosts offering ?cPanel? (or possibly even, ?DirectAdmin?). If they don't offer these, look elsewhere.
The Best Web Host's Support:
Everyone wants decent web hosting support that will answer their questions quickly. But if you are paying $3 per MONTH, you can't expect support that's going to be that great. But some support should hopefully be available. Check if they have a phone number to call (most won't ? which isn't that much of a bad thing), but if they have a ?Live Support? chat button, that's a huge plus, and a very nifty thing to have present to you in case you need to contact them fast.
The Best Web Host's Reliability and Uptime
If they are not offering a 99.9% Uptime guarantee, look elsewhere. Downtime is aggravating and costly for anyone advertising their sites. Web visitors that come to your site when it's down, will be very turned off to to returning. The only way to know of their reliability is to read reviews and other people's attitudes. However a fast way to test speed (but not quite reliable) is to see how fast the web host's own web page loads up for you, which can give you an hint of what kind of speed your site will be load with.
The Best Web Host's Free Scripts
If the web host you want to choose is running cPanel, they will very often provide you with over 50+ free easily installable scripts through an addon known as ?Fantastico?. This is very useful, as it contains entire e-commerce shopping carts, CMS systems, forum scripts and heaps of extras, all installable with one mouse click. Not necessary, but certainly comes in handy.
The Best Web Host's Per Month Pricing
Now if you are like a good number of people. You want good value, and don't want to use up your bank. Web Hosting has become a ?commodity? item with loads of competition. You can even find hosts offering hosting for a measly $2 a month. However, you can expect downtime and slowness and emotional distress with these confusingly cheap hosts. End result, not worth the hassle of saving a couple of bucks with these cheaper than lollies hosts. Go for something around the $8-12 mark. Yes that's over 4 times the fee of our $2 comparison. But this means the web host can actually afford to give you top support and put your account on a server that will always be up, and actually run quickly.
In truth, you will really pay far more with a super-cheap web host because of downtime, unusual slowness, lost visitors and lost revenue, poor support, and your own frustration when you check and see your website is down and your host is out of reach to help ? or don't offer any. Website hosting is truly something that will get you in the behind if you go with the cheapest is best mentality and that is the solid truth.
Both Andrew James & James Collinsworth are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
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