8 Things to Keep in Mind While Choosing a Web Host

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Web hosting plays an important role in the success of your website. Just imagine what would happen if your website loads too slowly or is down most of the times. Though cost is an important factor in choosing a web host, you should not end up using an unreliable hosting service. Make it a point to research carefully before you decide upon a hosting service for your website. So, how to choose a web host? What are the factors to look for while choosing a web host? Here is a quick checklist:

 

1. Cost

Though cost is the first thing to consider while selecting a hosting service, it should not be the decisive factor. Keep in mind, going for the cheapest service may not help you in choosing the best service for your site. What you need to do is check out the prices of different hosting services and find out the features they are offering. By comparing the prices and features, you will be able to shortlist on some of the companies. Also, you can set off the cost to some extent by visiting some company specific coupon sites; like for instance, MyBluehostCoupons.com, if you decide to buy from Bluehost.

 

2. Resources

Analyze your site and think how much resources your website will require. If you have a website that is already receiving high traffic, you need to choose a hosting plan that provides you with enough resources. So, you need to carefully study about the storage space, bandwidth, backups, uptime guarantee, etc. to know that your site always remains accessible to your site visitors. Sometimes, shared hosting may not be sufficient and you may want to go for VPS or dedicated hosting. But irrespective of the type you decide to go for, it is always good to check out the respective reviews; sites like VPSHostingReviews.net and many others can help you do this.

 

3. Scalability

Find out what all services your prospective web host provides. Today you may be okay with shared hosting. But if you require VPS or dedicated hosting tomorrow, are you okay moving to a different web host? Or do you expect the same hosting company to meet your new requirements? Take all these things into account.

 

8 Things to Keep in Mind While Choosing a Web Host

 

4. Suitable Plan

What all plans and packages does the web hosting company offer? Does it have a hosting plan suitable for you? Remember, a plan may be good, but if it’s not suitable for your needs, it’s no good for you.

 

5. Special Requirements

Depending upon the CMS you are going to install, you may have some special requirements. What version of PHP, MySQL, etc. do you need? Are you particular about web hosting control panel (like cPanel), auto installation script (like Fantastico), etc.? Check out whether your prospective web host offers all these.

 

6. Server Configuration

By finding out what kind of hardware your hosting service is using for its server, you can understand how reliable it is. Since hardware plays an important role in the performance of your site, you should try to find out the system configuration of the server, guaranteed uptime and site load speed you can expect.

 

7. Tech Support

When your site is experiencing downtime or there is some issue with the hosting service, you should be provided with prompt advice and solution. The hosting company should be quick in responding to you. The tech support team should be accessible to you 24 x 7 through various ways such as email, live chat and phone support.

 

8. Reputation & Reliability

How reputed and reliable is your web host? Stay away from fly-by-night operators. Read unbiased reviews on the internet to see what people are talking about various web hosting companies. Visit discussion forums and ask questions to find out how reliable a hosting service is.