Web Hosting - How to select a company
Before
you decide which web hosting service you want to use, you
will want to know how to choose the right web hosting company to
meet your business needs. Choosing the right company for the web hosting that you need can be
confusing. Here are some tips to find the best web hosting services:
A simple checklist
- The first impression of their web site is a good start. Is it well structured do you find clear messages? But of course there are some other hard facts that you have to take care when it comes to web hosting.
- Check out the average downtime of the web hosting service
- Is there technical support per telephone? When is it available? Any other terms and conditions about when is someone available to help you? .
- Web hosting is nothing without a proper backup stategy. Check which tools the company provides and what happends in case of an emergency.
- Are the web services expandable i.e., will you be able to add databases? Will the company charge later for additional services such as e-commerce, emails, bandwidth and more web space?
- Does the potential web hoster provide additional features? HTML templates, pre-installation of a contet management system to start with?
- If you are thinking about using free webhosting services, always choose the best hosting services that will meet your business needs and are expandable to your business needs in the future.
- Usually not every company offers dedicated server hosting, because in most of the cases you do not need it. A dedicated server is a server that serves only your domain and noone else. Shared hosting (the opposite of dedicated) is much cheaper, but you share the "machine" with other hundreds of domains. Unless you are planning something realy big, you should go for the shared solution.
Dedicated web hosting
Use this check list, select several companies and contact them. Do not pick the first one. Compare the offers and then decide.