When you have three, you have three. When you have two, you have two. But when you have one, you have none! Guess what is that?
Yes, you are right – Choices!
These days we are spoilt for choices – be it choices in clothing to choices in Smartphone, we have like hundreds of options to choose from! It totally depends on our needs what we are looking for. Same is the case with web hosting. When we are looking for a web host to host our website, today there are numerous options we have. It is our choice – our need – and our decision what we are looking for in a web host, and the web host we choose should fulfill all our requirements.
But then comes a very important question – what things should be considered when choosing a web host?
Let me guide you with the seven most important things I would consider when zeroing on a hosting provider –
1. Money matters – One of the aspects to choose a provider is definitely the money at which they are offering their services, not a deciding one though! You might question – these days there are so many free hosting providers as well, why to pay? But then, I feel – you always get what you pay for! There are many hosting providers who offer good hosting services at very cheap prices.
2. Area of Expertise – Not all apples are same, and in the same way, each hosting company is different. Some may be good at providing shared hosting, whereas some maybe good as resellers. Research carefully, look into the company’s area of expertise before you decide to go ahead and buy hosting from that company.
3. Know your hosting needs – The point where most people make mistake is this. If you are confused about what you need for your website, you will end up being with the wrong provider, with the wrong type of hosting! If you are having a video-hosting website, or a website with a large number of visitors or an online shopping portal, and not sure what you want, ask the teams there! Check with other providers as well and then decide.
4. Tech Support – The most important aspect I consider is this! The tech support is the team that is going to assist me in case of any problems I face. So I would not opt for a hosting provider who has an outsourced support team, or who does not provide me 24×7 support!
The team should be available 24×7 and should be knowledgeable enough to get me through any doubts or issues I have! Check the reputation of the tech support teams of the hosting providers you think you may land up with. This will surely help you eliminate many options you might have decided on and get you the right one!
5. Add-Ons – The question to ask is what makes this hosting provider stand out from the rest? What are the additional features provided? A business email, secure connection, protection from spam, etc – what are the add-ons provided. Research properly on this.
6. Customer Reviews – Some more work from your end will be needed for this one though, but this is where you will know what the customers of a hosting provider think about the provider – their services, their support and help you get the real picture. Check out social media – Facebook, Twitter or Quora to know about them. Check out the reviewing sites as well –
Hostadvice – Hostadvice brings together thousands of webmasters from around the world, each contributing with their own experience with different web hosting companies.
Serchen – With the help of the growing online community of reviewers and service providers, they aim to make discovering and comparing the services as easy as possible.
7. The User Interface – What is the use of choosing a provider whose interface is not good? If you are not able to do simple tasks on your own and need to contact the support team for those tasks, it becomes tedious as well as frustrating. Choose a host who may be using cPanel or Plesk – easy to use and clean UI.
Well, many-a-times choosing a web host won’t be that tough and depending upon your hosting requirement, you can select from unlimited web hosting options available online, provided you are clear with what you want!
Do let us know what points do you consider before selecting your next web hosting company?
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