How to choose the right web hosting

Written by Kevin Liew on 13 Dec 2017
15,425 Views • Miscellaneous

There are thousands of web hosting companies which help connect your site to the internet so how do you go about choosing a hosting company that supports your businesses needs and doesn’t create unnecessary hurdles to the success of your website.

Below are some things you should consider when choosing a web hosting company.

1. COST

While it is important you look for a hosting service that offers reasonable rates, you should avoid free hosting programs entirely as they may be unreliable and their low cost are often subsidized by on-site advertisements which will affect visitor engagement and eventually, traffic.

2. CUSTOMER REVIEWS

Customer reviews are an excellent resource for evaluating the effectiveness of a web hosting company as anyone can put up a professional-looking sales page and make bold promises. Therefore, you should search for multiple reviews from current or past customers before coming to a decision. It’s important you take your time to go through each of these reviews to ensure it is legitimate and note that if it seems too good to be true, it probably isn’t. A2 Hosting Reviews look legitimate and are a good example of how reviews for a web hosting company should look

3. CUSTOMER SUPPORT

Whether you are a newbie webmaster or an experienced digital business owner, you will want a dependable customer support team behind your web hosting plan. Things could go wrong at the backend and get support as soon as they can go a long way toward minimizing any potential damage to your business.

Lookout for companies that provide 24/7 phone support, email access, and live online chat. Before committing your money, test out each of these features to get a feel of how well your needs will be met.

4. STORAGE AND BANDWIDTH ALLOWANCES

Most recent hosting plans provide unlimited storage and bandwidth, so most businesses choose not to concern themselves with this. However, it is important you are aware of any limitation to ensure your plan has enough space for your website to operate effectively.

5. SCRIPT SUPPORT

One final consideration is the hosting company’s built-in support for common web scripts. Say for example you want to run a WordPress on your website; some hosts provide built-in script packages which make the installation of the popular blogging platform a one-time thing. Other hosts limit the amount of MySQL databases which can be created which you will need to run WordPress and other programs.

6. Web Hosting Plans

Shopping for a hosting plan is one of the most important things you will have to do as a webmaster, and when doing so, you should also consider the different hosting options which could be an individual, dedicated or reseller accounts.

INDIVIDUAL PLANS

Individual plans are the most affordable options, and they usually provide hosting support for a single domain and may limit the features, data storage, and bandwidth. So they are best suited for beginning webmasters who don’t anticipate significant traffic or special needs for their websites.

DEDICATED SERVERS

Individual plans are sometimes known as “shared hosting plans” as they share space on hosting servers with other webmasters. When webmasters outgrow the features available from these limited plans, they will have to upgrade to those that provide companies with their servers.

RESELLER ACCOUNTS

Reseller hosting occupies a special niche between individual plans and dedicated server arrangements which allow clients set up multiple individual plans within a single account.

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