Web Hosting: Services, Prices, Uptime And More

When you’re looking to start a website, on an Internet based business; web hosting is the first thing that comes to your mind. Due to the sheer number of web hosting offers out there, finding them isn’t exactly what you’d call a tough task. Finding the right one, however, is a totally different ballgame.

The most important factors when choosing a web host are: your present needs, website’s popularity and the environment you want. If you are just starting a personal blog, you don’t really need a lot. Shared hosting will do the job for you. If you want a startup’s website, you should ideally pick something that can scale up as and when needed. Of course, cost is a concern as well. If you have multiple websites, or plan to create multiple websites and use a lot of resources, you may opt for a dedicated server.

For someone who is new to all of this, all these terms (shared, dedicated) would be alien. It is important thus that you educate yourself as much as possible. If your server is shared with many other people, that’s what’s called shared hosting. This is ideal when you’re looking to cut down on your costs and are fine with compromising when it comes to performance. Dedicated server is when you rent an entire server CPU and only you are using it. It’s really expensive and offers the best functionality. It’s suited to whoever has extremely high traffic sites or numerous sites and need excellent performance.

When selecting a web host for you, there are some things to consider. Let’s take a look at some of them –

1. Support – This is very essential, particularly if you’re a beginner. Website hosting, server settings, etc might get a little ‘geeky’ if you don’t know the details. Fortunately, most top rated website hosts have outstanding support. Hostgator, for instance, has excellent and quick customer support.

2. Their Plans – Quite a few website hosts promise unlimited bandwidth, infinite storage and infinite everything. These are just over the top claims which are never going to be fulfilled. Once you start reaching a particular cap, you’ll get a notification from their website either to update your plan or they may shut you down. For sites that don’t encounter massive traffic, these plans will be fine. Having said that, if you’re looking for good performance plans, do not fall for these.

3. The price – Hosting plans, essentially, have a similar price-points throughout various companies. There are a few which charge a lot less which in itself should be a sign to keep away from them. When you choose one of the leading players in the market, you might pay one or two additional bucks but they also have a standing to maintain as well, so that you can be assured of great service.

These are some of the critical factors you should consider when choosing a web host. Would you like to learn more? Head over to top web hosting to find unbiased reviews of several top web hosting companies. There, you can compare several hosting plans and find the one that suits your needs.