How to choose web hosting
Step 1 :
You might be aiming to choose a new web host for your existing or new website. Although it is tempting to go for a free or cheap hosting company, you got to bear with certain of its limitations.First of all, you got to define your purpose of creating a website. If you are an amateur who has created website for fun purpose, to share with friends and family, free hosting might just serve you perfectly fine. Free hosted sites have ads on them which can’t be removed also their speed is slower than the paid ones. Hence strike a balance between cost and need.
Step 2 :
If you are a business looking to expand in future make sure you have plenty of room for future expansion. Scalability is pivotal to meet unexpected demand. Hence planning for future is equally important as understanding current requirement.
Step 3 :
There are three types of hosting – dedicated, shared and VM hosting. Understand these terminologies well. A dedicated hosting offers you a specific dedicated line entirely focused to keep your website up and running. In a shared hosting, IT resources including CPU utilization, RAM, disc space, RAM, etc. are shared with other websites who reside on the same server as your website. In a virtual server, you get a virtually unique IP, disc space, etc. for your website although the server is common between your site and other sites. Shared servers are more affordable and best suit start-ups and SMBs. On the contrary, dedicated server fits well for websites attracting high traffic.
Step 4 :
Check the customer service, technical assistance offered by the web hosting provider. Ask queries through emails to test the response time, go through reviews on company’s service on public forums. Reviews on company forums are often doctored and should not be trusted.
Step 5 :
Meticulously develop an eye for detail regarding hosting features including disc space, bandwidth, etc. Forecast future demand keeping an estimate of 20 per cent expansion within a year in mind. Keep a note of bandwidth limits. Generally hosts offering unlimited bandwidth provide slow services as compared to hosts putting a certain upper cap on bandwidth. Find out what will happen once you cross your allotted bandwidth. How much you will have to pay beyond that limit?
Step 6 :
Test the response speed of the server. Often it is inversely proportional to the bandwidth limit. Servers offering unlimited bandwidth will generally be accommodating more number of websites.
Step 7 :
Be vary of hosts promising 100% uptime. Uptime is the make or break point for your critical business. It can lure customers or disappoint them if not provided upto satisfactory levels. There is a significant difference between 99% uptime and 99.99% uptime. Ensure you understand the network uptime point crystal clear.
Step 8 :
Confirm from the hosts whether they use quality and effective security tools to help protect your sensitive data from malicious threats. Also check on the OS being used. Linux serves fine for small businesses however businesses using custom tools written via Microsoft .NET are better off using windows server for higher compatibility.
Step 9 :
If you are going for a cheap in price customer service support, do not expect it to be stellar. A reliable customer service does not come cheap. The benefits it proffers more than makes up for the little extra cost.
Step 10 :
