Website Hosting Provider – What Points To Consider
Below are areas you should think about when choosing a website hosting provider. Research at the outset will ensure that you get the service you need and help you avoid problems later.
Do you pay monthly, annually etc.? – A website hosting provider will normally quote a monthly fee but this is often just for comparison purposes and you actually have to pay 6/12 months in advance as a minimum. In some cases getting the quoted monthly price can mean paying three years upfront. If you do not want to (or cannot afford to) pay in advance you need a website hosting provider who allows monthly payments.
How long are you locked in for? – If you do pay in advance you need to check the cancellation terms to see if you get a refund if you need to cancel for any reason. Look for a provider who allows you to cancel at any time and will refund unused credit. If you pay monthly it is reasonable to expect to be able to terminate at a months notice.
Is there a money back guarantee? - A website hosting provider may offer you the chance to cancel and get all your money back within a number of days of signing up. These guarantees usually have conditions to ensure that a person can only claim under the guarantee once but are still worth having.
How many domains are you allowed? – Many of the basic website hosting plans only allow one domain. This may be fine but it is worth looking at the costs for multiple (or unlimited) domains, as once you get started you may well discover a need for another domain.
Is a domain included? – A website hosting provider may include a free domain. Check if it is always free or just for an introductory period. It is likely that the free domain will use one of the less popular extensions (it will probably not be .com) so it may not be the best option for your new site.
Is there a bandwidth limit? – Whilst limits are generally high it is best to have unlimited bandwidth to avoid any problems if you have high peaks of traffic. However, it is obvious that unlimited is a marketing term which cannot be taken literally and your usage needs to be reasonable for the package you are on.
How much disk space are you allowed? – As with bandwidth it is safest to go for unlimited but the same warning applies.
How good is the provider’s infrastructure? – The speed of loading of your pages is important not just to users but also now to Google (with loading speed affecting search results). You can have your site monitored by third parties once operational but at the outset you can only go by existing user feedback. This should not be an issue with any of the top website hosting providers. Your website hosting provider should also provide a guarantee on percentage uptime which should be around 99.9%.
Do you want Linux or Windows hosting? – Many website hosting providers offer both Linux and Windows hosting. There is no connection between this and your PC operating system and I recommend that you go for Linux unless you have a specific reason not to do so. Linux powers the majority of websites, including major sites like Google, and there is a wealth of free software, tools, forums etc. dedicated to it. Many people now use Wordpress to build their websites or blogs and about 95% of these installations are on Linux as it is easy and straightforward. I would only recommend using Windows where you have had a website built for you and the developers have used tools that require it to run in a Microsoft environment.
Other Functions – You should expect to be able to:
* set-up and control multiple email accounts on your domain, preferably with a webmail service
* set-up unlimited (or a reasonable number) of FTP accounts
* have access to and control of databases
* have a facility backup your site (and database where appropriate)
* It is also good to see support for Fantastico – which makes it very easy to install Wordpress.
Customer Support – Although I have put this at the end it is very important. If you are stuck the other services mean nothing until your website hosting provider provides help. Look for the support options to include a toll free phone number. It is also worth searching the web to see feedback from real users.
