How to Choose a Good Website Hosting Company

There are many things you should consider when selecting a hosting company. We decided to provide a brief overview of the things you need to consider when choosing the right hosting company for your site. We will be focusing on Shared Server Hosting for the sake of simplicity.

Shared or Dedicated

There are two types of hosting: shared and dedicated. There is a big difference between shared and dedicated hosting. The main differences are speed, resource demand and control. Shared hosting is sufficient for most small businesses and individuals. A Dedicated Server Hosting plan is for large companies that require complete control of the entire server. Common websites can be served by most shared servers. The price difference could range from $150 to $300 per month.

Operating Systems Type

In your search for website hosting, there are two main operating systems that you may encounter: Linux or Windows. You might be tempted to choose a Windows server if you're familiar with Windows. The interface may not look exactly like your Windows computer. If you are using ASP.NET or.aspx as the URL, then Windows hosting is best. Linux is an open and free operating system that makes Linux hosting plans more affordable. Linux hosting plans come with an easy to use control panel, such as cPanel.

Disk Space and Bandwidth, as well as Databases

Many companies offer unlimited disk space, bandwidth, or databases. This is a marketing trick to make it seem like you get more than what you actually do. It is a good idea, in fact, to review the Terms of Use (TOU) of your hosting company. You may have unlimited disk space, but a limit on your inode. Inode can be thought of as a single file. This limit is easy to reach for large websites.

Unlimited bandwidth is also a myth. The hosting company will limit it by either saying that you use too many server resources, or that your script/website violates the TOU. Although a company may say "unlimited", this does not necessarily mean they are not a good host. However, it is a red flag that you should read the TOU.

Uptime

Hosting companies should offer a minimum uptime guarantee at 99.9%. Do your research if the hosting company doesn't offer this guarantee. Remember, the purpose of a website's existence is to be seen. Montastic.com is a free tool that allows you to check your website and report any problems to your hosting company.

Addon Domains

If you have multiple websites, adding domains can be useful. This is unnecessary if you have only one website. If you have multiple websites, you should check to see how many add-on domains you are allowed and what their costs.

Private SSL

Is your website able to transmit personal/private information? It is possible to get a dedicated IP address and a private SSL certificate. Although many shared hosting plans offer a Shared SSL, we recommend that you do not use it. Your users will see a notice on your website saying something like "This link is not trusted... " or a security alert. This is the fastest way for a user to leave your website. A dedicated IP address is required for private SSL certificates. This can be included in certain hosting plans, while others may charge as much as $10 per month.

Customer Support

Poor customer service is one of the best ways to ruin a hosting company. Even if your hosting company is great, you will still need to reach out to them at some point. Unfortunately, we have seen hosting companies take up to two weeks to finish a task that should have taken less than two hours. This was due to poor customer service. Contacting Technical Support (not sales) is a good way to verify the customer support of a hosting company. Ask questions about FTP, scripting languages, hardware and more. You can judge the quality of the service by how fast they respond and how willing they are to help you.

There are many factors to consider when choosing the right host company. Every situation is unique, but this should give you an idea of how to make a better decision.