What Makes a Good Web Hosting Provider? (Jeffrey Fang)
Apr 6, 2009
If you're planning to start up a website to establish your online presence, choosing a good web hosting provider can be one of the most important decisions you'll have to make. Obviously, there are many choices available so finding the right one for you can be such a challenge!
Unless you're totally new in the internet, you probably know that there are such things as free web hosts and commercial web hosts. So, how do you know which one to use? To help you make the right decision, carefully consider these questions:
What is the purpose of your website? Are you simply putting up a personal website to share with your family and friends? Or are you planning to make some money online? Free web hosts may do just fine if your site is more on the personal and non-commercial side of things. But it's a different thing altogether if you have plans to monetize it.
Have you considered your future needs? If you're preparing to launch a successful online business, you need to make some careful assumptions before choosing where your site (or sites) will be hosted.
Does your chosen web host guarantee an uptime of 99.5% or better? Does it offer a shopping cart or a secure server (SSL) that will allow you to accept payments on your website? Does it have autoresponder and email functionalities? How about a free site builder for those who don't know any programming skills? For sure you will need these features if you're going to do some serious business in the internet.
Don't put much weight on offers of "unlimited bandwidth" (the amount of bytes transferred as visitors view your site) or "unlimited disk space". These are mainly used by web hosting companies to lure you into buying your hosting accounts from them. Let me tell you, there are no such things as "unlimited bandwidth" and "unlimited disk space".
Does the web hosting company offer quality support? Have a quick look at the company's website. Does it have an intensive FAQ page? Does it offer a technical support feature? Does it list a toll-free number that you can call 24/7 for support? Always remember that a good web hosting company takes good care of its customers, no matter what time or day it is!
Does it come highly recommended by other web owners? Perhaps the best indication of a good web host is what other users are telling about it. So, feel free to visit review sites and related forums.
About the AuthorJeffrey Fang writes for http://snoobhosting.net - web hosting Philippines. A company that provides reliable web hosting in the Philippines..