11 Things to Check Prior to Getting Web Hosting

Posted by Thomas Shaw on September 7th, 2019

The web hosting industry is incredibly competitive due to the reality with the enormous development of the internet plus the truth that people choose to have their own website. Web hosts compete against one another by supplying additional disk space and bandwidth for cheaper prices or free domain names along with your obtain of a web hosting program. Several people get taken advantage of for the reason that they do not know what to look for in a web host to ensure that you are getting the most for your money. Get a lot more data about toronto website hosting



Lots of people fall victim because they do not do their right analysis of a web hosting provider prior to they make a buy. While the list below is just not a complete checklist it does cover several of the most simple points to check for when you are looking to obtain web hosting.



Contract Terms/Length



This is a biggie, specifically when it comes to those hosts supplying unlimited disk space or bandwidth. The fact on the matter is the fact that web hosting providers can not truly afford to offer you anything for free. There is certainly generally a catch as well as the catch is explained inside their Terms & Conditions. Yeah the big wall of text that you never read due to the fact of your length but that you just have to agree to. Read through the contract and you will find out just how limited your account really is and how much freedom you truly have.



Server Backups



Considering we are dealing with computers items can go wrong at any time. When they do go wrong it is usually far worse than expected and this is why you should have multiple backups of your files in different locations. Numerous with the larger web hosting companies offer multiple backups that are automatically done for you but you need to make sure of this beforehand. Just due to the fact a host doesn't give backups does not necessarily mean that you can't purchase from them, you just need to take extra measures to keep your files backed up in multiple locations.



Server Uptime



You have a website for the reason that most likely that you are trying to draw visitors to it in turn to make money. Having your web site go down can costs hundreds if not thousands of dollars of lost profits. Making sure that a web hosting provider has multiple options for power can decrease the chance that your server will go down. There are many sites dedicated to providing server uptime monitoring for web hosts scattered throughout the internet.



Negative Press/Reviews



No hosting provider is perfect and not every customer is going to enjoy their experience. Prior to you obtain hosting make sure to do a search for reviews in the web host. There are several sites online that provide you with honest reviews from web hosting customers. Make sure to read over the reviews carefully and to understand the negative reviews. Quite a few times people over exaggerate a situation that could have been simply solved by themselves.



Awards



As stated above, there are quite a few web hosting review sites out there. A number of them may also present awards to a particular web hosting for having essentially the most uptime or providing the best customer service. It is usually a good idea to investigation the awards that have been given to a web host. Some hosting providers like to prominently display the awards that have been given to them when others have the awards tucked away on a sub page on their site. However, just due to the fact a web host does not have an award does not make them any worse than a host that does.



Compare Rates



This is probably the most obvious point of this list. With the sector as competitive as it is, providers are often seeking for ways to provide you the most resources for as little as possible. One web host may provide 1000MB of storage and bandwidth for a month even though another may provide 5000MB of storage and bandwidth for only a month. Write down a list of what you need and when browsing for hosting plans write down the information and facts from every host. Then once you might be done, go over the list and make comparisons to see which host will give you by far the most for the money.



Look For Coupons



As stated above, the hosting industry is competitive and hosts constantly have to improve their services when keeping the price low. Numerous providers will offer you coupons that give you a free domain name, a discount on a yearly hosting package or a major discount on your first month of hosting. There are quite a few sites and forums on the internet that look for these coupons and provide lists so that consumers can save some extra money.



Programming Language Support



Depending upon your site, you will most likely need some kind of programming language. Most hosting providers nowadays provide PHP as a standard due to the fact it is widely used throughout the word. However, your site may require additional languages to be able to function so make sure that you are aware of what languages they do provide or what languages they can provide upon request.



Customer/Technical Support



When items go wrong you need somebody to talk to no matter what time it is. Most of the major hosting companies provide 24/7 phone, live chat and email support. Companies such as HostGator have a great reputation for their customer service and are very eager to go out of their way to help you. Though you may not need to contact support everyday, it is nice knowing that if you do ever need to there will be somebody on the other end of your line ready to assist you in any way possible.



Hosting Strategy Details



The 2 major details in a hosting plan are disk space and bandwidth. Disk space is the amount of files that your hosting program can support although bandwidth is the amount of traffic that your site can receive. Knowing beforehand what your site will require is essential in finding the best hosting plan for the situation. Most web hosting providers do provide extra features however they may not often display them on their main page. You might have to go digging deeper into their site to find out just what exactly they do provide with their hosting plans.



Cheapest Isn't Usually Best



Too many people get lured into big numbers for low prices. As the saying goes, "You get what you pay for". That works for both web hosting and anything else in life. Low cost hosting plans are almost always setup on a shared server which means that your site is shared with anywhere from 10 to 100 other websites. Meaning that you have to share the resources between all those sites. If one of your other sites starts using up too a lot of resources your site may experience slow load times or completely crash. It may be wise to spend a few extra dollars a month to ensure the quality of your web hosting service.



This list is by no means complete but it is often a great starting point and should be reference when making a decision to buy web hosting. Knowing the facts beforehand can save you both time and money in the long run when avoiding unneeded hassle.