There are hundred or thousand of hosting companies out there that declare to offer free or economic web hosting, but many of them have unseen costs or low quality services. It seems that reasonable web hosting plan can hastily turn into a expensive nightmare if you aren't careful. This is why it is essential that you do your homework and research a number of hosting companies before making any final decisions.
Comparing Costs If you are looking for economic web site hosting, then you will actually require to compare the costs that are charged by unusual hosting companies. Detailed expenditure to look at when searching for an affordable hosting plan include site set up fees, monthly or annual maintenance fees, and any other fees that may be linked with the plan.
It should be renowned that some hosting companies offer free set-up. If you can discover a web host who is offering this in addition to low monthly hosting charges, you will of course be much better with this host against one more who makes you pay for the same service.
Features Things to contrast in addition to the price when looking for cheap web site hosting services include the amount of storage space received with the plan, the programming languages supported by the web host, and the sum of client support offered. Some hosting companies will offer all of these features in their basic or most reasonable plan, and others will not.
Final, but not least, you need to make sure that you will have all of the sustain you need if you want the most reasonable web hosting plan that is being offered to you. Precise things to ask about include technical support response time and customer service representative accessibility.
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Personally, I have done a lot of research into web hosting companies for my own websites. There are many criteria which I evaluate before narrowing down my search to three or four companies. I have listed down a few of the criteria (in no particular order) which I deem to be the most important to consider when looking for a web hosting company.
Technical Support
A good, responsive, 24 by 7 technical support is a must for anyone serious about hosting a business website. Whether you program your own site or hire someone else to do it for you, it is downright frustrating when troubleshooting your site to find that your support ticket doesn't always get replied and sometimes get responded to after waiting for something like eternity.
Before choosing a hoster, find out more about their technical support. Check out their 24x7 live chat support, dial their technical support hotline and post in their support forums. Ask some pre-sales questions and find out how responsive their support is. Also, try to ask some difficult questions to see if their technical support is really up to the mark, and that not any Tom, Dick or Harry is manning the hotline.
You also want to make sure that the company has a thriving technical forums page, which has very active participation from both clients and support staff. This will ensure that you have an avenue to turn to when you need help.
Reliability and Uptime
This criteria is absolutely critical for business sites, where time is literally money. You website cannot afford to be down for extended periods of time. However, there is really no such thing as 100% uptime as hardware may need to be replaced or software patched once in a while. Nowadays, web hosting companies typically advertise an uptime of 99.9%, which works out to be less than 45 minutes of downtime per month. A good place to check out the uptime for a hoster is .
You can also browse through the company's forums page to see if there were any complaints for downtime and how quickly the issues were resolved. Another indicator of reliability and reputability is how long the company has been in operation. Typically, you want a company that has been around for at least three years and has a large client base. This means and that the level of service provided is good enough for it to survive in a highly competitive industry, and that the company is here to stay.
Disk Space and Bandwidth
Don't believe it when a company advertises unlimited disk space and bandwidth. The truth is if you are using shared hosting, the bottleneck is really the CPU and the RAM, not the disk space and bandwidth. Your hosting company will typically have a cap on the amount of CPU and RAM resources you can use. If you exceed the limit, your site will be kicked for using too much resources. It has NOTHING to do disk space or bandwidth!
Notwithstanding, you can expect anything from 1GB to 50GB for disk space and 10GB to 1000GB for bandwidth.
Price and Affordability
For shared hosting, the price can range from $4.95 from a starter plan to more than $70 for a premium plan. Take into account the disk space, bandwidth and features you need and choose a plan that fits your requirements.
The important thing I feel here is don't get locked into a one- or two-year contract. Although many companies have a one-month money back guarantee, it is not in your best interest to lock yourself into a contract however enticing the offer is; there may not be any problems during your first month, but what about two or three months later?
Most respectable companies will have a monthly payment option, and this goes to show that the company is confident of what it is doing and is likewise confident to retain you as a customer. If the company does not have a monthly payment option, avoid them like the plague! They have no idea what they are doing, and they simply want to tie you down with a contract.
My advice is don't stinge on a few dollars because it is not worth it. Pay a few more dollars for monthly payment and it will save you from countless hours of frustration later on.
Scripts
Most websites make use of either PHP (4 or 5) or PERL, and use GD for manipulating images. Most hosting companies should have them installed. Check with them if you are not sure. They also normally come with other scripts which can be installed via their Control Panel. Scripts that may be useful include content management systems (Drupal, Mambo, etc.), forums (phpBB, SMF), blogs (Wordpress, Movable Type), and e-commerce carts (osCommerce, ZenCart).
Others
A few more things you may want to check before clicking that order button.
How fast do the websites hosted by the company serve out their pages? As you are using a shared hosting plan, it means that you are sharing the CPU, RAM, and bandwidth with many other people. A slow speed probably means that the hoster is squeezing every cent out of their servers by cramming as many customers as they can into a single server. Therefore, you want a fast speed. Use to check the speed of the website.
You want a company that manages their own data centers. Reputable companies will generally have an "about" page where they will list the data centers they manage, while resellers do not. Normally, I prefer to go "direct" and not to go through resellers, because when things happen (server crash, etc.), I would be able to obtain information first hand rather than through a third-party. This will make troubleshooting much easier too.
Conclusion
The above are the most important criteria which I use to assess the web hosting companies, before I make the decision to sign up. It takes time and effort to research and find a good hosting company, but be assured that it is time well spent. It will save you a lot of frustration later on.
Both Ahsan Mirza & Walter 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.
Ahsan Mirza has sinced written about articles on various topics from About Web Hosting, Mobile Phone Reviews and The Internet. Register and best domain and hosting company from 2004 or you can find good and best. Ahsan Mirza's top article generates over 1600 views. to your Favourites.
Walter has sinced written about articles on various topics from About Web Hosting, Golf Guide and Computers and The Internet. Walter Tang is a student who is documenting his journey in building anonline business so that he can work at home when he graduates. His trialsand tribulations are documented in his. Walter's top article generates over 14800 views. to your Favourites.
Advice Of The Day It is also worth noting that you should always check that any financial adviser you speak to is registered with the FSA and is thereby duty bound to offer you unbiased advice