7 Key Points to Consider When Choosing a Web Host
With literally thousands of web hosting companies in the
industry all vieing for your business, carefully consider
these key points to ensure you make the most well informed
decision possible.
1. Server Space
First, think about how much space your site will take up
on a server. Unless you are planning on running a software
repository or an image gallery, the files that make up your
website will probably only use between 1 and 5 megabytes
of disk space. Many companies will offer several hundreds
of megabytes of webspace for a very reasonable price in
attempt to out perform their competitors, but ask yourself
"Do I really need that much space?". Though it's
true that you should allow your site "room to grow",
don't opt for what seems like a great deal on a massively
sized account if you'll never use all of the space offered.
Chances are you'll find an even better deal on an amount
of space more suitable for your site size.
2. Data Transfer Allowance
This decision should be based on the same principal as
above. Though you may be convinced that your site will be
the next Amazon or Yahoo and receive a gazillion visitors
a day, you really shouldn't need an extremely high data
transfer allowance unless, as stated above, you're running
a software download site or a large image gallery. Even
heavily trafficked normal HTML sites usually only use a
few gigabytes per month in bandwidth allowance. Don't go
overboard just because it seems like an awesome deal. You
may also want to be wary of companies who offer "unlimited"
data transfer as there are usually some fine-print stipulations
that make this claim not entirely true. Be sure to read
their terms and conditions very carefully before opting
for this type of account. A five or ten gigabyte bandwidth
allowance is usually plenty enough for a small to medium
sized business or personal site.
3. Technical Support
A very important point to consider when choosing a web
host is the types of technical support offered by the company
and how easy they are to contact when you need them. Ideally,
a company should offer 24/7 toll-free telephone support
and email. I have seen companies that do not even offer
a telephone number on their website. You should look for
a company that is very easily accessible in your time of
need. Nothing is more frustrating than being in the middle
of working on your site and needing an important piece of
information to finish the job and not being able to contact
your hosting company to find it out.
4. CGI-Bin Access
No matter what type of site you are planning on running,
chances are you will eventually need to install some type
of CGI script. Whether it be a mailing list management script,
contact form processor, or maybe even a fancy credit card
processing script, your hosting account will need to allow
you to install and run them. This requires access to a special
folder on your server called "CGI-Bin". Some hosting
accounts will only allow you to use "pre-installed"
scripts as a security measure. These are scripts that the
owners of the company have installed and configured so that
they know that they will work properly and not adversely
affect their server's performance. That may be all you need,
but if you have the knowledge, it's always nice to have
the ability to install your own scripts and configure them
to suit your individual needs. You should also be sure that
the account you choose supports the language in which your
scripts are written, such as PHP, Perl, etc.
5. Up-Time Guarantee
Another very important issue in determining the value of
a hosting company is how often and for how long their servers
"go down". No matter how good a deal you get on
server space or bandwidht allowance, or how wonderfully
the company's tech support takes care of you, your site
can't receive visitors or produce revenue if the machine
on which it is hosted is not up and running. Naturally you
want a company who can guarantee the highest up-time percentage
possible. Servers are taken down briefly from time to time
for maintenance or upgrading, so no company can ensure 100%
up-time, but you want your site to be hosted on dependable,
well managed machines that are not constantly having problems
which require them to be down for long periods of time.
6. Email Accounts
Again, like data transfer allowance and server space, some
companies will offer you loads more email accounts than
you will ever use. Some offer hundreds or even unlimited
email accounts as a selling point. This is an important
factor if you are Bill Gates and have thousands of employees,
each who need their own email box, but not such a big deal
if you're just one person or a small company. You should
be okay with 10 or 15.
7. Reputation
This is probably the most important factor to consider
when choosing a web host. Do your homework. Pay attention
to any negative feedback you may hear or read about a particular
hosting company. There are several sites arount the Web
that feature discussion forums that allow people to discuss
and critique various hosting companies. Ask specific questions
about any company you might be interested in using to see
if anyone else has had any negative experiences with them.
As a beginning webmaster, I had initially contracted the
services of a particular web hosting company to host my
first site, who promised very good, dependable service for
a very cheap price. Then one day, for no apparent reason,
decided to delete my entire site without warning or explanation.
Only then did I visit some hosting forums and find that
many others had similar negative experiences with that company.
Don't make the same mistake I did, find out for sure from
the start that your hosting company is not going to let
you down.
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