Which is the Best Web Host

If your in the process of choosing which web host then you’ve come to the right place, we cover the basics of what to look for in a hosting company and hopefully ensure your hosting experience is a good one.

We asked around to find out what was the most important things when deciding which web hosting package by the average web design/creator, we put together a shortlist of the results and to say the least many of the results were a complete surprise to both myself and the team.

Cost $$$
One of the easiest ways to get cheaper web services is to sign up for more than a single year, lots of hosting companies offer cheaper web services when you sign up for 2 or 3 years, sometimes the saving can amount to around a 20% saving which over the course of 3 years is actually quite a saving.

Support
If you’re new to website building then support will be a big thing to you. Having a support service which is a one man show can lead to poor support and help.

On the flip side of course some hosting companies are very large and they don’t seem to invest enough in support, so look around for one that offers a real-time like chat interface, I’ve used this type for a few years now and have no complaints.

How reliable is the service?
What is worst having the greatest website that is offline all the time, or the worst website that’s online all the time? What’s the point in having a greatest website when no one will ever see it, so when choosing which web host service its absolutely vital that its is reliable, just imagine if a very popular website was down even for a few hours, the revenue lost could run into millions.

Add-ons, databases etc
Which extra do you think you will need? If you’re creating a blog or dynamic website then you will need some type of backend database, will you be sending or receiving lots of emails, then you will need lots of email storage and bandwidth, otherwise you could run into lots of problems. This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to add-ons so its something that really need to be planned.

Easy administration
Which web host company gives you the most easy to use administration tools? A lot of website administration can be very hard even for an experienced website designer; this is time which could be much better spent actually working on your site.

Shall I use Windows or Unix hosting?
Windows or Unix web hosting? both of them have their advantages and disadvantages, the only thing I will add from personal experience is I initially started with Windows web hosting, but soon changed it when I wanted to create a dynamic website and blog, there just seemed to be so many Unix programs around that were free, that literally setup my sites and blogs for me, plus a whole range of add-ins and plugins to quickly and easily do all manner of things without me having to have any real programming experience, it just made my whole introduction to web building so much easier.

Renewing hosting and domains automatically
Of course your website could be the next latest and greatest thing, but in case it all goes wrong, or you simply move on to your next project, are you aware that your chosen website hosting company could be entitled to simply renew your hosting and charge you without notification? I had this exact thing happen when I setup a website, never touched it again and 11 months later got a charge on my credit card, as it turns out the hosting companies terms and conditions stated I had to contact them 4 weeks before the hosting came up for renewal or I would automatically be charged, so be warned.

Website expansion
If your building a website for an existing business make sure you allow for expansion, if your website cannot handle the volume of traffic it means lost visitors it’s as simple as that. It’s a fact that if visitors cannot access a website fast or find what they want quickly they will leave.

Make sure when you choose which web host – it can offer extra bandwidth or dedicated server facilities if needed.

Adding email
Does your hosting company offer email as part of the hosting package? They should, also check to make sure it supports common protocols such as POP3, which means you can setup email through common applications such as Microsoft Outlook and view email locally as opposed to having to be online all the time.

Another nice feature, although not vital is webmail, so you can check your email from literally anywhere on any computer with an internet connection.

Which web host company is right for you, search for more tips and points to consider

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