You’ve worked hard on your website and you’re ready to introduce it to the world, but there’s just one thing missing – a web host. Unless you have the right equipment, your site will be rather useless without a web host. Fortunately, there are dozens of web host who would be more than willing to host your site. Unfortunately, choosing the right one can be a bit of challenge.
Not every web host will be able to live up to your expectations. All of them may have excellent marketing techniques, but you can’t be sure that what you see in the ads is what you’re going to get. Further, more, if you’re not too familiar with the web hosting terms and jargon, you might not even understand what they’re offering. To help you choose the best web host for your site, here are some of the most important things to consider.
1. Cost -
One of your first concerns will probably be how much this is going to cost you, especially if you’re not expecting revenues from your site just yet. Thinking about cost is only natural because most site owners don’t expect that their sites will bring in revenues right from the very beginning. Although cost is a valid concern, you should be careful about jumping at the lowest priced hosting plans out there. Doing so can be a huge mistake. It’s important that you know exactly what you expect from your site and that the web hosting plan is capable of supporting your expectations.
2. Hosting Plan -
The cost of a hosting plan will largely depend on the features of that plan. Dedicated servers are naturally more expensive than shared VPS hosting or other plans since you'll be given access to what is essentially your own physical server (although you won’t take ownership of that server). You will also need to decide on whether you'll require an unmanaged or managed plan. If you’re going with a Linux VPS hosting plan, you may want to consider a managed option especially if you’re not too familiar with Linux VPS servers.
3. Features -
Hosting plans will typically have a wide variety of features so you'll need to check the overview of the hosting features available. Don’t get too excited if you see a long list of features. Sometimes, having more features won’t necessarily mean that the plan is better. It is best that you look for the features you‘ll need on for your site. For instance, a plan may provide an online store and selling tools, but if you don’t intend to build a store and prefer revenues from advertisements, then that feature would be useless. The features you’ll most likely be looking for are unlimited bandwidth, enhanced security, and scalability.
4. Technical Support -
It’s imperative that you choose a web host that has an impeccable reputation of providing quality technical support. During the life of your website/s, you’re bound to encounter more than a handful of technical issues. If the web host provides quality technical support, then those issues can be quickly resolved. If not, you might be in the market for another web host some time soon.
5. Hardware -
Believe it or not, some web hosts don’t even have their own hardware. You will need to make sure that you know exactly what type of hardware the host is using. If you cannot get a definite answer for this, you might as well search for another company. The existence of your website will rely heavily on the type of hardware it resides in. If the host uses top-of-the-line equipment, then you know you’re in good hands.
6. Expertise -
Ideally, web hosts should be able to accommodate every type of customer. Unfortunately, this isn’t the case sometimes. There are times when web hosts like to specialize on a certain type of business. If this happens, your site may just end up on the back burner whenever you need support. This can happen especially when the host specializes on providing support to large companies or enterprises. If your site is a small blog, you might not get the attention you need.
7. Reputation -
Always check the hosts’ reputation before anything else. You want to buy the services of a host that has an impeccable reputation with customers at your level. If you have a blog, check with other bloggers if they know a certain web host. You might even get a recommendation. However, don’t be fooled by biased reviews or recommendations. The link you’re clicking may be an affiliate link and not particularly a reputable one.
Choosing the right web host and hosting plan can be a tough task, but you need to make the right choice. Many website owners decide on a Linux VPS hosting plan, simply because these are more stable than windows servers and they also provide more options. You might want to consider this carefully because many believe that Linux VPS hosting is better than windows hosting, thus they avoid many potential problems.
