Choosing a web host can be tricky, especially when there are now a lot of web hosting companies that offer affordable or free hosting. But while it’s tempting to sign up for a free web host, there are a lot of factors you need to keep in mind, and you’ll eventually find that a paid web host is more beneficial in the long run.
Anyway, if you already have web hosting, you can skip this training section.
These are some pretty basic stuff, but the tips I’m about to share with you will help you make an informed decision when it’s time to decide which web hosting company and package best suits your needs.
Here are some factors you need to consider when choosing your web hosting.
Solid Reputation
You need to be a little creative to get the real story on a web hosting company’s reputation. You can do a Google search for a particular web hosting company or check out what their previous and current customers are saying about them. You can also ask people on social media – ask a question about a particular company or service provider and you’re more likely to get a few honest answers.
Customer Support
Most people consider this as the most important factor when choosing a web hosting service provider. For example, if your website goes down for some unknown reason, will you be able to call and get a real, live person on the phone? Moreover, can they help you fix the issue, or at least tell you what you need to do to get your site back online?
Before going with a web host, make sure to look into their reputation for customer support. Find out the different ways you can contact them whenever you need support, and whether or not you can reach them 24/7.
Friendly, Knowledgeable Sales Representatives
All web hosting companies are not equal. Some companies focus on providing top-notch customer support, while some view it as an afterthought. If it’s the latter, avoid it like the plague. If it sounds like some tired outsourced person, move on.
Must Have Cloud VPS Offering
Cloud VPS offers a nearly unlimited ability to handle high traffic or traffic spikes. Going for dedicated hosting is good too, but it’s often quite expensive.
With Cloud VPS, you could be paying $100/month for a great, fast setup that’s scalable, versus $300/month (or more) for a dedicated server with limited bandwidth, limited CPU, etc.
Managed Support
This is important if you’re going for Cloud VPS or a dedicated server. This is not really applicable to shared hosting where you site is placed on the same web server as many other sites. It’s affordable (as low as $10/month) but I would only recommend it for sites with moderate traffic levels or for newcomers who have minimum technical knowledge. For the most part, I stay away from this type of web hosting.
As for VPS and dedicated web hosting, it’s great to have managed support for hands-on guidance. You usually have to pay more for this but if you ever get into trouble, your own system administrator will take care of it for you so you can focus on other, more important stuff.
Support for Popular Control Panel
Most web hosting companies these days come with support for a popular control panel, so this really isn’t an issue. Most web hosts use cPanel.
Must Offer SSH Access
Web hosting with SSH access could probably cost you more than the basic package, but it provides better flexibility in creating your website and maintaining it.
Recommended Web Hosts
BlueHost (~$100 per year)
Popular choice, especially for budget hosting. The company has been around for years, and is trusted by many private individuals and companies. They’re also one of the largest providers of cloud-based online solutions.
Steadfast ($100+ per month)
Perfect choice for cloud hosting and dedicated web servers. They provide powerful, reliable, and fast web hosting solutions, with top-notch customer support. For this level of serious web hosting, you’re going to pay more than your usual hosting plan, although it’s not the most expensive web hosting service provider out there.
If you choose to host your site with Steadfast, I highly recommend their Cloud platform with CentOS Linux as the operating system and cPanel WHM for the control panel. This particular hosting plan lets you easily host unlimited number of websites without any restrictions on resources. And as your websites grow, you can easily increase system resources to ensure optimum performance.
Hostgator. Another popular choice, especially for budget hosting. They also offer other web hosting solutions such as dedicated server and VPS.
If you’re new to web hosting and you’re on a tight budget, I’d recommend BlueHost.
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