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How To Choose A
Reliable Web Hosting Provider
Learning how to choose a reliable web host
for your web hosting needs is an important and difficult
decision. Make sure that you prepare a detailed list of
your web hosting requirements before you start searching
to find the most suitable web host. Here are few
'verification' points to make sure that your web host is
reliable.
- Past performance: Go through the web
site of the host to find out details like how long the
host has been around, up time commitment (I will come
...
hosting, host, web host
Learning how
to choose a reliable web host for your web hosting needs
is an important and difficult decision. Make sure that
you prepare a detailed list of your web hosting
requirements before you start searching to find the most
suitable web host. Here are few 'verification' points to
make sure that your web host is reliable.
- Past
performance: Go through the web site of the host to find
out details like how long the host has been around, up
time commitment (I will come to this later), any awards
that the web host has won, any well known sites that are
being hosted by this provider (normally a list of
clients can be found on the host’s site or you may find
testimonials). These should provide you with a
sufficient amount of confidence in the first place to
deal with this specific web host.
- Up time: This
is a very important feature. Web sites hosted on the
servers of a particular web hosting provider are subject
to technical problems and things can happen and servers
crash. This means that during this period if a web
surfer comes to see your site, they will be unable to
view it. Normally represented as a percentage, this
value gives you the idea of the time the sites hosted by
the particular host are up and working fine. A value
above 98% is good. Nowadays many web hosts guarantee a
certain percentage of up-time like 99.8%. This is
exceptional.
- Flexibility: A flexible web
hosting plan is useful because you can start with a
minimum plan and later upgrade to another hosting plan
when your needs grows. Web Hosts who provide only one
kind of plan are always not useful for everyone.
- Cost and features: Compare the features and costs of a
few web hosting providers. See if the features match
your need. Also make sure that all basic requirements
are covered and also check out the availability of
latest technologies on the hosting feature list. Even if
you don’t need them, this can show the reliability of
the provider.
- Payment plans: Check out very
carefully the payment plans of the web hosting provider.
A monthly payment plan is always good even if it costs
you a few dollars more. You always have the choice to
change providers at any time you want. Most web hosts
now provide a 30 day money back guarantee period.
- Support: This is something you will need the most.
What kind of support the web hosting company provides
the clients such as telephone support, email, FAQ
sections, etc... Maybe a dedicated discussion board or
forum will help as well. Also check on the delay in
responses especially for the email support service. A
web hosting provider who supports clients 24-7 is an
excellent feature.
- Backup: Last but not least.
Recently we have been hearing a lot about sites with
tons and tons of pages disappearing. Why, because of
some technical problems on the servers and no backups.
No one likes to see their years of hard work disappear
within a few seconds. Now, many reliable web hosting
service providers have a daily automatic backup feature.
Learning how to choose a reliable web host for your
web hosting needs is really about what is important to
you and your needs!
How to Choose a Web
Host: Factors to Consider
With all of the web hosting companies,
including resellers, out there today, and with all of
the promises they make, choosing a web host isn’t always
easy. Here are five factors you should consider when
comparing web hosts and their hosting plans:
web
hosting, cheap hosting plans, web hosting advice, domain
name articles, web development
Copyright 2006
Stephen Ashton
With all of the web hosting
companies, including resellers, out there today, and
with all of the promises they make, choosing a web host
isn’t always easy. Here are five factors you should
consider when comparing web hosts and their hosting
plans:
Support
Even if you prefer email
support, see if the company at least offers a toll-free
support number. Check the hours that it’s available. If
something happens, and your site goes down, will someone
be there to help you? Also find out what kind of support
documents they make available to their customers, which
you can use to find answers to your own questions. At
the very least, email the hosting company with some
questions, and see how long it takes them to respond to
you. A good hosting company will answer you within a
matter of a few hours if you email them on a weekday
(some even on the weekend).
Price Plans
Don’t worry so much about the exact monthly price, but
instead on how you’re expected to pay. You’re better off
finding a host that allows you to pay on a
month-to-month basis than one who requires you to pay up
front, whether it’s for three months, six months, or
even a year or more. Don’t just trust that a hosting
company will be around for long, or that they’ll let you
out of your deal without any problems if you find their
service less than satisfactory. Comparing the simple
price per month can be misleading, because you need to
account for every small detail being offered between two
competing hosting packages.
Services & Features
Most small business sites would be fine with 100mb
space, and sometimes less, if they don’t have an
image-heavy site. Other sites require more space and
bandwidth, because they host many image, audio, or video
files. You should find out what you need and compare
similar services from different hosting companies. For
instance, do you need to host unlimited domain names? Do
you need to be able to create unlimited sub-domains? Do
you want access to Fantastico? Do you need a certain
number of email addresses included? Do you need access
to set up a MySQL database, or even unlimited databases?
Do you need a hosting provider that includes a stats
package? Do you need to have FrontPage extensions or
e-commerce support? Do you want a hosting company that
provides free web site templates? These are all
different features that you should consider when
evaluating a lower-cost plan that may not have them,
versus a higher cost plan that does.
Their
History
Find out how long the hosting company has
been in business. A larger number of new hosting
companies don’t survive past their first year, so
signing up for an account with one that’s been in
business for several years is usually the best idea. You
can find out how long a hosting company has been in
business by running a WhoIs search on their domain name
to see when it was originally registered. You should
also do a search on the Web for reviews about the
hosting company you’re interested in. Don’t simply
believe the testimonials on their own sites.
Specifically look for negative reviews to see what past
complaints have been.
Your Freedom
Before
you sign up with any web hosting company, find out what
kind of freedom you will, or won’t, have when managing
your site(s) through them. Something as simple as
blacklisted email can be overlooked. For example, let’s
say you run a small business, and you want to run a
company-wide newsletter. You can sign up for email
marketing services through companies such as Constant
Contact. If your employees each have an email address
associated with your hosting account, you may find out
the hard way that your employees won’t be allowed to
receive your newsletters. For instance, if you were
hosted through GoDaddy.com, you’d find out that they
blacklist certain email providers from sending mail to
their customers. So, with Constant Contact blacklisted
(which it was at last check), you would be forced to
sign up for a new email management service or a new
hosting provider. Some hosts, such as HostGator.com,
allow you to decide who you want to blacklist and
whitelist, so you’re completely free to use whatever
external services you choose. If you’re running a very
small personal site, you might be willing to give up on
some freedom for the savings you’ll find. But if you’re
a business owner, be sure to find out all of the details
about what kinds of freedoms you will and won’t have
when running your business’ site through any potential
hosting provider.
How To Choose A
Quality Web Host
There are thousands of web hosting services
available online, and some of them are more reliable
than others. When you are looking at the number of
options available, it is easy to become overwhelmed.
hosting
There are thousands of web hosting
services available online, and some of them are more
reliable than others. When you are looking at the number
of options available, it is easy to become overwhelmed.
It is important to look at potential problems with
hosting companies prior to using them. This can save you
a lot of time, money, and headaches.
You should
avoid hosting services which have servers which are
constantly down. A good hosting company should be able
to monitor its servers and quickly fix problems. Some
hosting services may be down as long as a few days, and
these are companies you will want to avoid. It is also
important to make sure all the features offered by the
company work. If your email is down, this prevents you
from being able to run your business. This is something
you can't afford, and you will want to make sure you
stay away from companies which do this.
Another
thing which is important for you to look at is tech
support. How long does it take the tech department to
answer your phone calls or emails? A good company should
answer within a few hours. Some hosting companies take
many days to answer your questions, and the answers they
give you may not solve the problem. Hosting companies
like this should be avoided. You should also look for
hosting services which communicate well with their
customers. A lack of communication is one of the leading
causes of business failure. You don't want to do
business with companies that don't effectively
communicate.
Sometimes when you cancel your
account, the hosting company will continue billing you.
This is a very frustrating situation, and you may have
to file claims with your bank in order to get your money
back. Most hosting companies take out automatic
payments, and you will want to do research to make sure
they stop billing customers once the service is
cancelled. When you look online at hosting companies,
always look at the price. If it is too good to be true,
it probably is. The prices charged should be enough to
pay for their service maintenance and other fees.
Any hosting services which advertise unlimited
bandwidth should make you suspicious. If you use a lot
of bandwidth, you may have your website taken down.
Hosting websites which don't look professional should
also raise red flags. Websites with lots of spelling
errors or no information about the company are unlikely
to provide quality service.