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A Beginner's Guide to Choosing a Good Web Host
Think of the Internet. What's in it? Websites, websites and more websites. And what runs them? Most of the time, its hosting companies. Similar to the Internet, hosting companies have come a long way. In the 90's, there were a few hosting companies on the Internet, and you would pay a lot for domain registrations and hosting-related services. You could pay $9.99 a month for 15MB of disk space and 1.5GB of bandwidth. But that was in the 90's.
Today, there are millions of hosting companies out there. For $6.95/mo, you can get 5GB of space with 250GB of transfer. The hosting industry has grown - and become cheaper. However, choosing a hosting company has gotten much harder than it was in the 90s. You ask helplessly, "Which host should I choose?"
In this article, I will tell you how to choose a good web hosting company.
Part 1: What do you need?
One man's meat is another man's poison. This statement is true when it comes to web hosting. What works for someone else might not work for you.
All of us have different needs. Some of us need 500MB space, some need 1GB, and some need 15GB of space.
Before choosing a web hosting company, it is important to know your needs. Do you need PHP? Do you need PERL? Do you need MySQL? Or is your website just a simple HTML/CSS website? Consider what you need, and your budget. Think over this for a while. Only then can you make a good choice that meets your needs.
Part 2: Looking out for standards
In today's hosting industry, standards have become higher. Look out for the higher standards. Hosts nowadays offer 99.9% uptime guarantee, some form of technical support (not necessarily 24x7) and automatic payment processing. Many hosts also offer a money-back guarantee (15 to 60 days), or a free trial.
Today's web hosts should offer something along the lines of the mentioned standard features that I have written about. When researching for web hosts, it is important to make sure that they meet the standards for web hosts. They might offer slightly less, for example instead of 99.9% uptime they might offer 99.7% or 99.8%. Choose wisely. Steer clear of hosts which don't meet standards, if you want a good experience.
Part 3: Smelling a rat
When choosing web hosts, it is important that you know how to smell a rat. You know you've smelt a rat when you come across offers like "unlimited web space", "unlimited bandwidth", or very large amounts of space and bandwidth for low prices (for example: offering 1TB of space and 5TB of bandwidth for $5.95/mo).
Hosts which offer these are generally unreliable (though there are exceptions - very few however). This practice is called overselling. Overselling refers to selling more than the provider can handle. When a client falls for an "unlimited space" offer, and really uploads a lot of files, the hosting provider cannot afford to continue to add hard drives just to serve that particular client. In most cases, the client's account is suspended. In some cases, the account might be deleted.
Another way of saying that unlimited offers don't work is that there are no unlimited hard drives, and it will never happen. Unlimited bandwidth is impossible unless the host is their own ISP, and even that would cost them a lot of money, and is simply not practical.
Part 4: Do your homework
You know what you need. You know what the standards are of today's hosting industry. You know how to smell a rat. Now, its time to do your homework.
Research is the key here. Go to directories, and look at hosting companies. Pick a few, then read their customer reviews. This is a good way to tell if the host is good or not.
Steer clear of a host with mostly negative reviews. Some hosts might yield false impressions - the owners of the hosting companies write positive reviews of the host in the directories. Although this does not happen very often, it does happen sometimes - and when it does, it might not be so easy to tell.
When doing research, you should take into account a few factors: uptime, speed, honesty, support and reliability. These factors are essential for good service, and all hosts should have them.
Once you've decided on a particular hosts, take your research even further. Google is your friend. Google (host name) reviews for more customer reviews. If the host has mostly positive reviews, then you have a green light.
Part 5: Settling down
You've chosen the host. This is your (almost) final decision. You've decided the host is for you, and that its time to settle down. But before you settle down, there are a few final steps to take before you push the "Pay Now" button in PayPal.
Why do hosts tell you to read their Terms of Service? It is because their restrictions and rules are all laid out there. So spend some time and read it. Make sure you know what you can do and what you can't. Make sure that your doubts are all clarified. If you still have doubts, ask the hosting provider.
Once all your doubts are clarified, ask yourself once more whether this is the hosting provider for you. Then make your decision. If yes, go ahead and press "Pay Now". If no, go back to step 4 until you find your perfect host.
Now that you know the host that is perfect for you, go ahead and press the "Pay Now" button.
