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How to Choose a Web Hosting Company
Web Hosting Advice
Choosing a web hosting company to host your website isn't
easy these days. There are literally thousands of web hosting
companies to choose from, each offering different combinations
of web space, bandwidth, extras (such as databases, asp,
php, cgi, free scripts), and customer support. Some companies
lure customers with extremely low prices on the physical
assets like space and bandwidth. In return, however, most
customers of these extremely low-priced companies get poor
- if any - customer and technical support. In the hosting
business, as with everything else, you usually get what
you pay for.
So how do you determine the web hosting company that's
right for your website? Having been in the hosting business
for several years, I've often had friends and acquaintances
ask me, in so many words, this very question. I always suggest
that they first sit down and simply write out what they
think their website (whether for a company or personal)
will need. Do they need a database? If so, what kind of
database do they want, MySQL or something else? Likewise,
do they need support for PHP, CGI, ASP, or some other programming
language? If you have certain scripts you'd like to use
on your website, these questions can be very important.
Also think about exactly how much space your website is
going to need - not necessarily right now, but perhaps five
years down the road after you've expanded a bit. The same
thing goes for bandwidth, or transfer. You want to secure
enough space and bandwidth now so that you do not have to
switch hosts, or pay a premium for extra services, in the
future.
On the topic of bandwidth and storage space, there is an
important financial lesson I'd like to impart. Although
you want to make sure you have enough of both for the foreseeable
future, you don't want to pay for lots and lots of bandwidth
and storage space, month after month, that you will never
actually use. For instance, there are many hosting companies
out there who are now offering 5+ GB of space and perhaps
100 GB of bandwidth from $7 - $10 a month. This may seem
like a pretty good deal. However, if you are only going
to use perhaps 100 MB of space, and 10 GB of transfer, then
you are wasting money! You can find a nice 500MB / 20GB
plan for under $5 per month. This is where planning really
comes into play; know how much space and bandwidth you will
need before you go looking for a host.
Many hosting companies, big and small, are offering 24/7
technical and customer support these days. Be very weary
of these claims. Most companies that claim 24/7 support
don't really live up to expectations. In addition, a 1-800
number does not guarantee that someone will actually answer
you phone call, or even be helpful. Look for a company that
has a good, honest support structure set up with a variety
of support options: support tickets, live support chat,
e-mail support, and perhaps phone support as well. My own
web hosting company, for instance, has everything but phone
support. We are still capable of answering inquiries within
minutes. If you are considering a particular web host, the
best thing you can do to evaluate their support is simply
send them an e-mail or open a support ticket and see how
long it takes them to respond to your inquiry. If it takes
more than 24 hours, that's probably a bad sign.
In order to substantiate the credibility of your potential
web hosting company, I suggest looking for some type of
customer testimonials on their webpage. If they list the
customer's website or e-mail address, go the extra step
and contact at least one of the customers. They will be
able to confirm that they are real customers and let you
know about their experiences with the given company. If
they have no testimonials, or the testimonial listings do
not contain a means of contacting the customers, do a search
on the company using a big search engine like Google and
Yahoo!. Look for forums and other webpages that may contain
customer feedback about your company. Many times, customers
that have either had a very bad or very good experience
with a hosting company will go onto at least one webmaster
forum and tell others about their experience. Looking up
these comments is a good way to get a third-party assessment
of a particular hosting company.
If you follow these bits of advice I am certain you will
find a reliable, affordable hosting company that is right
for your website. If nothing else, you could give my hosting
company (SitePhase) a look and compare it to other companies
offering similar plans. Whatever company you decide to go
with, I wish you the best of luck!
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