Indeed, choosing a right web hosting service for your website is not an easy task especially when there are thousands of web hosting providers all offering almost identical web hosting packages. Therefore, it is important to know few major considerations even before you start your web hosting search. Below are three major criteria for web host seeker:
Web hosting features requirement
This is probably the most important consideration to start finding a host for your site. You need to decide the technical requirements for your website, this including:
a) Server platform and hardware requirements
If you plan to set up a website that uses programming environments such as Active Server Pages (ASP), Visual Basic scripts, Cold Fusion or Microsoft Access or Microsoft SQL database, in this case, you will need to find a web hosting service that supports Windows platform such as Windows NT or Windows 2000 servers.
Likewise, if you plan to use programming languages such as Perl, CGI, SSI, PHP or mySQL database, then any web hosting plans that support Unix/Linux platform should be sufficient to meet your hosting requirements. Once you have these server platform and hardware requirements in mind, you can decide the best web hosting plans for your need. For more information, you can read "How to select a web server and server platform?"
b) Disk space & Bandwidth requirement
Here is another technical requirement that you need to consider before selecting a web hosting plan, i.e. disk space and bandwidth. If you intend to publish a website that does not have a lot of contents (meaning, web pages), then the disk space requirement may not be a big concern to you. In general, a disk space with 200MB to 500MB should be enough to meet your hosting requirement. In contrast, if you plan to host a website with enormous amount of graphic pictures, mp3 or video files, then you should consider a web hosting plan that provide huge disk space, for example, 500 MB to 1,000 MB.
Similarly, the bandwidth requirement will depend on your site traffic estimation. Obviously, a website that expect to attract high traffic will consume the monthly bandwidth allowance very fast. If so, you will need to find one web hosting service that offer huge bandwidth with 40 GB to 100 GB per month. Depending upon your website requirement, choosing a web hosting service that provide sufficient amount of disk space and bandwidth is crucial consideration to prevent paying extra costs in the future should you overuse the monthly disk space and bandwidth allowance.
c) Other hosting features
While the above requirements are utmost important, there are other hosting features that you have to consider too. Can web hosting provider support video clips on your website, if you have? Is the web hosting service compatible with Dreamweaver or FrontPage web authoring tool? Do you plan to set up a virtual store online? Can the host support the e-commerce features without adding extra cost to your monthly payments? On top of that, you may also want to find out the number of email accounts provided, number of FTP accounts, web statistic software (analyze your web traffic), type of control panel supported (manage your web hosting account), database and scripting languages supported and etc.
Reliability and scalability
A first-class web hosting provider offers reliable server uptime and fast Internet connection. You should only choose a web hosting service that guarantee at least 99% server uptime with high-speed Internet backbones using at least OC3 (Optical Carrier) lines (155 Megabits per second) or above instead of T1 or T3 lines. A reliable web hosting provider usually invests heavily on their data center infrastructure with high performance servers, high speed multiple backbones providers with fail-over redundancy, backup power generators and firewall software protection in place to ensure they meet the uptime guarantee specified in the terms of service.
Similarly, you should choose a web hosting service with hardware facilities that designed for scalability, so that they can grow with your business. For example, if you need to increase more disk space, bandwidth or number of mySQL databases, you should be able to upgrade as needed without any problems.
Customer service and support
The last major consideration in choosing a web hosting service is to find a web hosting providers that offers excellent customer service and support. You should always search for a web hosting provider that offers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week technical support that fielded with highly experience technicians, so that any web hosting problems will be resolved within a reasonable amount of time. You may also want to consider to test how responsive is their customer support by sending few inquiry emails to the web hosting provider. In general, any response in less than 24 hours is considered acceptable. It is a sign of poor customer support if they take more than one day to response.
In addition, a web hosting provider with excellent support should also provide multiple support channels, such as toll-free phone support, 24/7 email support, live chat, online knowledgebase, Interactive flash tutorials and FAQ.
Above are few major considerations before you choose your web hosting service. In addition, how long has the web hosting provider in business and the number of customers that they currently have are also a good indication of the quality of their hosting products as well as the stability of the company. Even though cost of the web hosting service is also important but it should not be your major consideration. Because the price of a web hosting service has been declining over the years due to competition, as a result, the price of most of the web hosting services offering quality hosting features has been converging to less than US$10 per month. If you can't afford less than $10 per month, you probably isn't in the online business for the long haul. Therefore, price should not be a major deciding factor.
On the other hand, it is more important to ensure the web hosting service that you choose is able to meet your website hosting requirements, guarantee your website is always accessible with satisfying speed, provide scalability to grow and expand your website as well as offer excellent customer supports. Depending on your web hosting requirement, you can take advantage of our site, Cheap Web Hosting Review to find the recommended web hosting services that can match the three major criteria above. Good luck to your search.
Andrew Loh is the owner of Web Hosting Services, a website that provides complete and detail reviews on web hosting services. You can visit his website at:http://www.lowest-price-web-hosting.com/
Here are some things you should know before finding a... Read More
Many online entrepreneurs these days are faced with the problem... Read More
If you've got or are considering a web hosting account... Read More
After you have spent some time and creativity on designing... Read More
As a web host reseller, one of your most important... Read More
Reseller Defined:The term Reseller according to the dictionary means to... Read More
Starting out in any type of online marketing or Internet... Read More
Web hosting services play a vital part in your website's... Read More
If you're reading this article, you might be interested in... Read More
Managed Hosting Services are used primarily by companies that either... Read More
Blogging is an abbreviation of "web-logging". The simplest definition of... Read More
Deciding how to host your ecommerce Web site and what... Read More
After the dot.com bubble burst a few years back I... Read More
Hosting Support ? An IntroductionImagine yourself as a person running... Read More
Promoting a new company in the crowded industry of web... Read More
Your new website is ready to upload, and now you... Read More
If you are anything like me, you'd probably like to... Read More
Sooner or later, as everyone finds out, nothing in this... Read More
If you have ever used EBay then you know how... Read More
So - you know shared hosting no longer cuts it,... Read More
A few time ago appeared a lot disagreements between opinions... Read More
Some web hosts are offering more than others for the... Read More
When looking for a Web Host there are lots of... Read More
1. The reputation of the web hosting company.Most web hosting... Read More
All the good ones are taken. The really good ones,... Read More
In my opinion, free web hosting is one of the... Read More
If you are looking for a deluxe web site hosting... Read More
Reseller webhosting can be a great way to earn some... Read More
Every website needs a great web host, however when you... Read More
When you first start out trying to get a site... Read More
There are literally thousands of hosting solutions on the internet... Read More
You must have done all the hard works for developing... Read More
There are a couple of key things to look at... Read More
Once you have considered the design for your website and... Read More
Anybody who decides to get a web hosting service or... Read More
With so many web hosting companies competing for your web... Read More
When service at your web hosting company is lacking, or... Read More
Computers, Internet, Web sites?what do they all mean? Hey, you're... Read More
Before we talk about what it takes to... Read More
If you're looking for a professionally designed web site at... Read More
When talking about free anything the legitimate question that first... Read More
Many start-up web hosts in their desperate attempt to get... Read More
There is no concept of free lunch in the world,... Read More
Hosting Support ? An IntroductionImagine yourself as a person running... Read More
In this article you'll be provided with helpful information about... Read More
Choosing a host or switching hosts can be an agonizing... Read More
Every individual when it starts surfing the net for choosing... Read More
When it comes to web hosting, the quality of the... Read More
Moving a web site to a new host is not... Read More
There are various reasons why an online business owner like... Read More
Web Hosting |