How to Choose a Good Web Host
How to choose a web host
A web host is a company that provides space on a server leased for use by clients. How do you know which web host to choose? How do you decide a web host is good? These are some of the questions that we ask ourselves. In this article we will look at some of the things you should consider in order to answer these questions.
1. Know your Host needs
Before you get to choose a web host, you must thoroughly think about what you need. What kind of a website are you creating? What amount of traffic can your web accumulate? Do you need special software for your web? These questions will help you identify the things to look for in a web host.
2. Investigate and know the reliability of the host.
A web host should be reliable 24/7 and should operate on a stable and powerful server. You can also track your web host to know its uptime score to evaluate its reliability.
3. Study the upgrading options of the server.
If you are new, a shared hosting account is ideal but if you intend to grow your website in future you need to find a web host that can provide more disk space, better security features and more processing power.
4. Allowance for multiple domain names.
You need to choose a web host that provides for add on domain names where you can add several domain names on the web host if you like.
5. Pricing of hosting sign up and renewal
Before choosing a web host, you should read the terms of service part in order to see their policy and the price for renewal. This will help you to see if it’s something you can tolerate and afford before you sign up with the web host.
6. Refund policy
You need to study the refund policy of the web host of your choice to know how they deal with refunding their customers if a customer decides to change the web host. You should avoid web hosts that charge huge cancellation amounts to avoid losing a lot of money if you decide to cancel your sign up.
7. Check whether the web host offers FTP, Auto Installer, Cron and htaccess
You should not settle down on a web host that does not offer these features. FTP is for easy file transfer, Cron for day to day operations, htaccess to help you set up security measures and for page redirects purposes while Auto Installer is for installation and upgrade of web apps.
8. Control panel
You should choose a web host that has a control panel and one that is easy to use so that you do not have to rely on their technical team when you need to make changes such as changing your passwords or adding an email account.
9. Email and mail forwarding
If you need to add your email account on the web, then you should go with the web host that allows that. This will allow for mails to be forwarded to your current email address.
10. Site backup
Sometimes the sites crashes. The web host provider should be able to provide site backup and restore your site as soon as possible. You need to ask questions such as can you create your own backup or do the restoring yourself without relying on the provider to do so.
11. Live chat support
If you want to respond to your customers immediately, then you should choose a web host that provides live chat.
In a nutshell, all am saying is that when choosing a web host, your needs should guide you. It’s not about choosing the best web host provider but the right one for your needs.
