Are you on the verge of choosing a web hosting company and can’t make up your mind?
It’s no wonder – choosing a hosting provider from the many available out there can be quite difficult, as most offer similar conditions. But that’s what this article is about. We’ll help you consider bandwidth, disk storage, live and email support and a few other criteria in order to find the web hosting company that will be your best fit.
You Get What You Pay for
This is the first factor to consider before choosing a web hosting company for your website. Choosing the cheapest option out there is definitely not a good idea if you are planning on running a business site. Cheap hosting providers won’t provide the necessary RAM, disk space and processing power you will need.
A hosting company which offers full-time support, quality hardware and unlimited disk storage is going to be costly. Therefore, a valuable web hosting company will not be the cheapest out there.
Also, you should be aware that there are two types of hosting plans: shared vs. dedicated. If you choose a dedicated hosting plan, you will be the only website which is hosted on the server. On the other hand, when choosing a shared hosting plan, you will have to share the bandwidth and disk space with other websites. That’s the reason why dedicated hosting plans are more expensive than a hosting plan you share with others and pay less for.
What’s the Company’s Specialty?
First of all, you have to figure out what exactly is your company’s specialty and then find a hosting company that matches your purpose. Not every web hosting company will be a fit for you because each has a different area of focus, satisfying the needs of a certain customer.
A good starting point for your research is to check out the WordPress hosting companies your competition has already chosen. This doesn’t mean that choosing the same web hosting company as your competitors will guarantee success, but in most cases, there’s a good chance that it will fit your business as well. You can decide for yourself after doing your own research.
Does the Web Host Company Provide 24/7 Support?
Having access to 24/7 tech support is a very important thing to consider when choosing a web hosting company. Most of the popular web hosting companies offer live chats where you can ask for support anytime there is something wrong with your website. The hosting companies which offer an option to call and talk to a real person are worth buying. However, make sure that the hosting provider has these exclusive live chat offers all the time, instead of offering a short free trial to new users.
What Are the Special Features of the Hosting Company?
What are the advantages of the hosting company you are about to choose? Is it somehow different from the rest, offering more perks? Some web hosting companies help you easily set up a site if it’s your first time choosing a hosting company. For example, if you are looking for hosting a large network of websites then something like LaunchCDN might be the best option. Also, the web hosting company you are about to choose should offer regular data backup and free domain privacy.
What Kind of Hardware Is Used?
The hardware the web hosting company is using is crucial for their servers and directly connected to your site as well. Therefore choosing a web host company which uses new and quality hardware is important. If the hosting company does not guarantee an uptime of 99.9%, then they might not be using quality hardware. Avoid going for host companies which use hardware with “suspicious origins” or don’t use the fact that they have modern and quality hardware as a selling point.
Does the Web Host Company Satisfy Your Future Plans?
You should think big and long term when choosing a web hosting provider for a small company which may flourish in the future. It doesn’t mean that if a hosting company offers you the “perfect conditions” for your site right now, it will be a wise long-term option. So, before choosing a web hosting company, you should evaluate whether the web hosting company in question has the ability to scale with a rapidly growing site.
Migrating to another hosting company if your site experiences rapid growth is a very daunting task, and one that can be easily avoided from the very start. Therefore, bear in mind that you’ll have to choose a hosting company which can accommodate any future growth.
Does the Company Provide Email Hosting?
You will receive more feedback if you have an email which is linked to your domain name. However, some web hosting companies do not offer an option to provide email hosting for the primary email of your website which is a huge drawback. Also, if you have a spam problem the host company you are going to choose should be able to fix it.
Conclusion
The above-mentioned questions can serve as a general guideline for choosing the best web hosting provider for your particular needs – and we hope that our advice will help you pick out the best! If you need extra guidance, we suggest checking LifeHacker and Web Hosting Talk before you make a decision, as these two websites will help you compare different hosts, as well as allow you to get a grip on people’s experiences with a particular hosting provider.
