The best website host is essential for any business moving onto the web. By using a well established and reliable provider you should have few problems and will be able to offer a good service to your customers through your website always being available and loading quickly. Google are now taking loading speed into account when generating their search results so, if you will be aiming for a good search engine ranking, finding the best website host is even more important.
Business users should not think about using free or very cheap website hosting providers. There are plenty of website hosting providers which can provide the level of service required and a web search will find several sites which list the top suppliers. However, this can still be confusing because there is no consistency about which providers are considered best and reviews usually emphasise certain features of each package, making a detailed comparison difficult.
To get through this and make a good choice you need to be clear about what you want:
Linux or Microsoft Hosting- If you are having a site built for you the developers will advise you on the hosting requirements. If, for example, they build a site which requires a Microsoft hosting environment it is no good signing up for a Linux package. On the other hand, if you are building your own site you should go for a Linux package.
Shared, VPS, Dedicated Server- A best website host will offer a range of services offering more resources, bandwidth, disk space etc. and reduced competition with other users for these resources. This provides and upgrade path for the future. If you are starting a new site a basic shared package will be fine. Here multiple users have their websites and email on the same server and share the disk space, bandwidth etc.. There is a danger that shared servers can be overloaded but this is unlikely with a reputable supplier.
Speed and Reliability- To provide a good service to your customers and to avoid them going elsewhere it is vital that your site is always online and loads quickly when requested. It is worth looking for recent user comments on potential suppliers and also checking that they give a guarantee of 99.9%+ uptime.
Help and Support- This can be overlooked at the outset but it can be critical if you have a problem. Look for 24/7 support preferably with a toll free phone number, in addition to email.
Disk Space/Bandwidth- Most hosting providers now offer unlimited website hosting with unlimited disk space and unlimited bandwidth. This is really just a marketing gimmick as it is obvious that the disk capacity in the server is finite, as is the provider’s bandwidth, so the terms and conditions are likely to include some sort of limitation. However, bandwidth and disk space are unlikely to be an issue in the short term and may never become so unless your site grows dramatically.
Domains/Databases- The lead-in packages often limit these. If you are only interested in creating a single website these packages will be fine – you can always upgrade later.
Cost- This is last here because the price difference between the top website hosting providers is not enough to outweigh the other factors above and should not be a major criteria in choosing your best website host. You normally pay a number of months in advance (the more months the cheaper it is per month) but some providers will allow you to pay monthly.