Budget web hosting is generally defined as any hosting service that is below $10 per month. Most companies in the budget web hosting category only offer one year plans. Most hosting companies however, will quote you the monthly fee you would have to pay. Keep that in mind when you are comparing one company with another. The other thing to look out for is the setup fee to get up and running.

What's your first impression of the company?

The first place to start evaluating web hosting companies is their front page. Does their website look professional? Is it easy to find all of the information you need? Take a look at their contact information. Do they list a physical address, an email address and a phone number to contact them? If they don't provide any contact details, that has to throw up a red flag. If you run into problems setting up your website and you have no contact information, how are you going to get service from that company?

How about a toll free support number?

Does the web hosting company provide a toll free number for you to contact them? If they are based in Atlanta, GA and you are in Seattle, WA, you don't want to be paying long distance while you are trying to solve problems over the phone. A toll free number also speaks to their willingness to deal openly and honestly with their customers.

What is the uptime guarantee?

Uptime guarantee refers to the amount of time the server is live and serving your web pages. An uptime guarantee of 99% means that the host guarantees that their servers will be up and operational 99% of the time. Over the course of one year, 99% uptime would represent a downtime (the one percent) of around 87 hours in a year or an average of 7 hours per month. An uptime of 99.9% would involve only 8 hours of downtime for the entire year.

What kind of after sale support can you expect?

While there are many factors to consider, make sure the company provides after sale support. What kind of resources do they make available for you? Find out if the budget web hosting company offers free scripts. Do they have any marketing tools they can make available to you? What kind of support for setting up your account can you expect from the budget web hosting company? All of these factors must be taken into consideration. Just because a company offers a budget web hosting service, doesn't mean you necessarily have to compromise on features, quality or service. All three will only be found, however, if you make sure to do your homework to find a budget web hosting company that is a good fit for you.