Determining the best web hosting company for you is critical to your web site’s success. Whether it is for business, e-commerce, a fan site or just a hobby, the host you choose plays a large factor on how well you’ll fare in the online world. In such a flooded market with so many different hosting companies and packages out there, how do you know who to trust with your site? You want a reliable company that will make sure your site is always available, you want a support department that actually exists and can help you quickly, but of course it needs to be affordable and fit into your budget, especially if your web site isn’t intended to generate any income.
Knowing your requirements is the first step in finding the best host for you. Try to determine how much disk space your site is going to require, how your site will deliver its content such as static pages like HTML or dynamic automated content via scripts like wordpress or Joomla, and of course how many visitors you are expecting to visit monthly to gauge how much bandwidth you will need. If you already have a website, you should know most of this information, if you are just creating your website and have no idea, don’t sweat it. If you are just starting out chances are you will need less then 500MB of disk space, and 5,000-10,000MB (5-10GB) of bandwidth should be sufficient for a starter. It you plan on running a personal blog or a message board, make sure the package you choose has access to a database, it’s best to pick a host that allows you at least three databases. Most hosting companies have a small basic package that should work well for the time being. If you plan to mass market your website or run a business or ecommerce site you may have a higher bandwidth requirement. Eigen Email Always check with potential web host’s to make sure you have growth potential. So if your website out grows your hosting package you can always move up to something with more room.
Next you are going to need to determine your budget. How much can you financially afford or are willing to spend on web hosting? Figure this out before you shop for a host, don’t let a host decide your budget for you. Remember, you want a reliable web host that gives your site good uptime but offers you support should you experience a problem. Running reliable and stable servers can be expensive and so can staffing a support department 24/7. So make sure you have a practical budget that takes this into account. Do not waste your hard earned money on hosts that offer you the world for a buck or two, it will only lead to heart ache. For a basic plan with 500MB – 2,000MB storage space and 5,000MB – 10,000MB bandwidth you should expect to pay around at minimum $6USD for a good host. However, hosts that sell their plans at this price are not necessarily a good host.
Do not be fooled by marketing gimmicks, flashy web sites or statements made on a web site! The biggest problem in the hosting industry today is the UNLIMITED sales pitch. No host worth their salt is going to offer you up unlimited everything. It’s not possible. Web servers are simply “heavy-duty” computers that use RAM and Hard drives just like your home PC or laptop. When is the last time you bought a computer with an “UNLIMITED” hard drive? As for bandwidth, sure, it could be unlimited, but only if you have unlimited money. Hosts that offer unlimited disk space and bandwidth generally “oversell” their servers. This means they can pile hundreds of customers on one server. They sell the same storage space and bandwidth they sold you, to other customers as well. What they offer you is not dedicated only to you, but to everyone. If you try to start using that unlimited space and store 25GB of files or use that unlimited Bandwidth using over 200GB a month, you will soon find your site shut for “abuse”. You see, a huge secret in the hosting rules is the TOS known as the terms of service. Some hosts will state unlimited on their sites and in the TOS they declare unlimited as 500MB or something similar. They may also limit you to what you can store on your site, saying you are only allowed to have html files. No images, videos, or anything. Sure you can upload these files and use them, but if you use that disk space and bandwidth they will shut you down and claim abuse because you uploaded files that were not allowed. Unlimited hosts have a lot of dirty tricks like this up their sleeves always stipulated in their TOS.