It was earlier this morning I got an email form one web hosting company asking me to recommend their company for my blog readers. But the first thing that cut through my mind is, are they truly reliable as what they claim to be in the email? What if I recommend them and they fail, won't I blame for recommending such company? I need to be sure of the product am recommending. Then I step further in making research about the hosting company and later found out that, they are just a new up-coming company trying to market their service and they are not as reliable as what they claim.
Their marketing officer even go to an extent of increasing the benefits they are offering by 80%, but does the benefits have more value than RealcomBiz readers safety? Absolutely not.
Every business owner who needs an online presence for their business needs to be very careful when selecting a web hosting company. Finding a reliable host might be a daunty task, just type "web host" in any search engine and watch millions of results that will appear. Luckily the top hosts in the search results might be a reliable one, but how sure are you?
If one of the leading blogs recommend any host, product or service, that doesn't guaranty that the product worth it, because they are paid for what they advertised. It's now upto you to do your homework, research and find out more about the recommended host or product before you go for it. Without an excellent hosting company to make sure your online presence is always there for all to be seen, you undoubtedly be missing out on all sorts of contact, marketing and sales opportunities.
There are literally thousands of web hosting companies available in the market, all with different plans and goals. So how do you cut through the jargon and make an informed decision?
Understanding the web host that will fit your business
If you plan to run a personal blog or your site is just representing your existing offline business, you don't really need to spend big bucks on hosting. But if your business is depending on the internet and if your revenue is directly linked to the number of visitors your website gets, your website needs to stay on the premium servers.
Most good web host will offer different packages depending on what you intend to use your site for. The requirement for a personal blog is less than that of a blog that sell multiple product online. There will be option for a personal blog or small scale business having title like "personal plan" or "expert plan." Likewise, there will be option for larger businesses, commercial blogs or content based site, which are dependent on online advertising revenue, those ones might have titles like "unlimited pro" or "business plan."
After detecting a web host that offer a plan that fit your site requirement, then you should research if there is any lapses by following the below guidelines.
1. How Good, Fast and Reliable is Their Technical Support?
When my site, for some unknown reason, goes down, can I call up and get a real live person on the phone? Can they find out what’s wrong and fix it, or at least tell me what I need to do to get my site back online? Does its technical support offers different support mediums like email, telephone or livechat and does it function 24/7? These are questions you need to ask yourself before selecting any web host.
Just because a host advertises that it has 24/7 support does not necessarily mean that it really has that kind of support. Test them out at midnight, weekends, and during holidays. You shouldn't accept any excuses if they failed to render support during this inconvenient time, because that's what they advertised. Find out the structure of their support department, how fast do they reply your ticket, how lengthy you continued on hold or awaiting help over the telephone, and assess the understanding degree of the support staff. Am sure you wouldn't want to sign up for a host that is run by a bunch of salesmen who only know how to sell and not fix problems.
2. Don't Make Price Your Only Priority
You want the best deal at the best price. Sounds good, but don't let price dictate the entire decision. It’s always tempting to pick the least expensive thing. However, when it comes to choosing your web hosting package, choosing free or low cost web host isn’t always the best deal for you. if you suddenly find that you need support or new hardware, and your hosting doesn't cover it. You'll end up paying more money down this road. Remember the old adage "you get what you pay for."
When you over-prioritize price, you run the risk of ending up with a host that will provide you with a connection to the internet and little else in terms of support.
3. Make Sure The Host Can Offer Redundant Bandwidth
This is the amount of actual data that can be transferred from the web server that hold your website, to the browser of people who visit your website. If your site is receiving a huge some of traffic that your purchased bandwidth cannot handle, then either your site is unavailable or you are charge for an extra fee.
Bandwidth is always stated as a monthly limit in either MB or GB. In order to be able to choose the most comprehensive hosting package for your website, you need to consider exactly what you are going to be using your site for, and to what extent. Most average site like personal blogs, text-based websites, small business sites, affiliate sales sites and many more will be using less than 2GB per month. While high-level site like user-submitted content site, social networking site, large forums, video or audio site and flash gaming site will require a hefty amount of bandwidth, maybe 50-100GB.
In addition, most, if not all of the larger web hosting companies claim to offer "unlimited" disk space and bandwidth. But remember, everything under the sky is limited.
These unlimited promises are based on the assumption that the websites hosted on any of their server will not use more than a stipulated percentage of the resources. I personally always stay clear of any host that advertises "unlimited transfer", even if the exact amount is specified somewhere else (sometimes buried in their policy statements). you will find that they redefine "unlimited" to be limited in some way.
4. How Much Diskspace?
After bandwidth, the next factor you should consider is diskspace. This is the amount of actual space available to you for storing your website files on the web server harddrive.
You should always search for a web host that provides you with optimum amount of disk space. But you shouldn't over-buy and don't be trick with all these "unlimited diskspace" or "unlimited bandwidth" scheme. The hosting companies are also aware that you won't be using too much space, so they will be so eager to offer a lot of space on their server.
An average site will be using less than 20MB, while an e-commerce site that is going to have hundreds of product pages, including quality images and video content to really sell what they have to offer will require a plenty of disk space.
The more diskspace and bandwidth your site has from its hosting, the less time you're going to have trying to figure out why your site is down or why the pages are slow as hell to load.
5. User-friendly Interface/Control Panel
A user-friendly interface will allow quick and easy access to a wide variety of features your host supports. It’s therefore, important that you find a service provider that have a simple, flexible, and user-friendly interface. Every good web host company has a video of its control panel readily available on its site. Test-drive the demo CP to see if it’s easy to use.
Many control panels are now a GUI (graphical user interface) that grants access to email management, web site statistics, database administration and more. There are different
control panels available for different website, among the best are:
- cPanel: This is the most widely used control panel. It's suitable for users with limited web hosting experience because of the easy to use interface. It lets you create or delete new accounts, tweak site and user settings, check the server status and resource usages, reboot the server, and perform dozens of other functions. Don't ever sign-up for a host that you have to go through their support system before you make minor changes like changing password or deleting an email account.
- Plesk: This is another budget solution for webmasters to try out. Plesk has a history of being very stable. It runs on Linux and Windows-based servers - it's also popular especially with web hosts that run their servers on Windows.
6. Find Out What Their Former/Current Clients Say About Them
When you compare a couple of hosting providers that meet your budget and tech requirements, go and check for customer feedback. But when i say check for customer feedback, i don't mean any web host with a negative review is bad. You have to be aware that not everyone will have the same experience with each web host. One person may have a horror story with a host, and another may have a glowing report. There are many factors that come into play. If you happen to get placed on a very overcrowded server, you might have a horrible experience (with a slow site, frequent outages, and more reasons to contact customer support). But if you get placed on a fairly empty server, you might not ever have any problems.
Unfortunately, some dishonorable hosts have a bad practice by writing rave reviews for themselves – or worse, write negative reviews against their biggest competitors. That’s the truth. But please be aware that a host with a great amount of negative reviews may be a bad one. So, try to deal with a host by someone’s honest recommendation or after your own accurate checkup.
7. Server Uptime and Downtime
Another key factor that are to be considered while selecting a web host is the service uptime. You need to search for a web host that can keep your site up and running. Every minute of downtime means you are loosing lots of business opportunities. Your site needs to be accessible to your customers at all times if you need that edge over the competition. But the simple fact is that server downtime cannot be avoided completely.
If there should be any downtime the host should provide some sort of refund or discount if it falls below the promised uptime. Without a guarantee, the web host will have little incentive to ensure that its servers are running all the time.
Basically, most web host promises 99.9% uptime, but 99.99% is perfect. Here is a chart:
- 99.99% uptime - 52.33 minutes per year of downtime
- 99.97% uptime - 2.63 hours per year of downtime
- 99.95% uptime - 4.38 hours per year of downtime
- 99.9% uptime - 8.76 hours per year of downtime
- 99.7% uptime - 26.30 hours per year of downtime
- 99.5% uptime - 43.8 hours per year of downtime
- 99% uptime - 87.6 hours per year of downtime
8. Make Sure The Host Has Fully Redundant Data Center
The main goal of any good web hosting data center is to provide continuous service. Likewise the goal of every website owner is to keep their site up and running 24/7 with no downtime. To achieve this, every single component of a hosting facility must be redundant, eliminating every single points of failure entirely.
For example, a web hosting data center requires routers on the edge of the network to enable connection to the Internet. If a router breaks down, there is no way your visitors can connect to your website. In a redundant data center, this is not an issue, since additional routers step into action when primary hardware fails.
There are many reasons for an hardware devices in a network server to stop working. Sometimes, primary hardware needs to be taken offline for updates, patches, and general maintenance. Do they have enough reserved hardware that can spring into action without interrupting the server?
Also, there are some people who attempt to breach server security. Some people are looking for confidential data, while others simply want to cause trouble with malicious attack. What sort of security measures do the host have in place for the network?
For every power source, switch, router and firewall, there should be another identical piece of equipment sitting idle within the host facility. Now find out if the host have:
- Top-quality server hardware
- Dependable connections to the Internet
- Suitable power and adequate cooling.
9. If Your Site Gets Really Big, Can The Host Accommodate It?
If your site is using more bandwidth than you've been contracted for - you'll assuredly get an immediate email from the hosting company. In these cases, you'll have to either ignore the issue (which is usually impossible to do), or be forced to upgrade your hosting plan to the next tier.
As a website owner you should always have your eye on growth, so if a hosting company might have difficulty accommodating that growth, it could pose an issue. Does the host have VPS or Dedicated Server solutions? Will they be able to easily upgrade your account? And how much does it cost? These are questions you need to ask yourself. Compare the price of each hosting plan, find out it they include extra charges for upgrading and see if you will be able to afford it when you have to. While it is possible to transfer your site to another provider, it is often time consuming and requires additional effort from you.
With all been said, getting a reliable hosting for your next project shouldn't be difficult, and in most cases, choosing a web host will depend on your hosting requirement, you can select from unlimited web hosting options available online.
Personally, i doubt that there are any perfect web hosting companies around. Even if you are prepared to pay a huge price for your hosting needs, it does not guarantee that your host is any good. But one thing you can probably be sure of is that you will not get top-notched support if you only pay less than $5 a month. At that price, which company can afford to hire enough good help to cater to all its users? Now it's up to you.
*Please confirm the email sent to your inbox after clicking "Sign Up!".
You are welcome Arslan! Glad that you like it ;)
ReplyDeleteI was so excited to sign up with Acorn. Their customer service is very responsive. However, my company experienced so much downtime- as much as an hour a day when our website didn't work and our entire company would lose email messages for several hours a time. garcinia supplements
ReplyDeleteThanks
ReplyDeleteThanks for your useful information. I am before very confused how to choose a good web hosting provider. After i read your articles i got idea to choose a good web hosting . I have followed your steps then hosted my sites at Tucktail.com
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI am very impressed with this article, it clears every doubt that comes in mind when we plan to choose a web hosting provider for our website. There are thousands of web hosting provider but very few are providing a genuine service. So it must be check all the details and reviews of that web hosting company before purchasing their hosting service.
ReplyDeleteI am currently using Fat cow hosting, who provide hosting service at affordable price. check here full review of them
http://www.thewebrating.com/fat-cow-hosting-reviews
It seems like there are a million web hosting companies out here. I don't know which ones to choose. Could you share any experiences you may have with your web hosting companies? I'm trying to build a couple of websites to support my business, and I want to get the hosting right the first time around. anonymous web hosting
ReplyDeleteYes really thanks for the post, I agree with your post, I am working with WordPress open source and your post teach me lots of new things about WordPress hosting that helps me a lot in my work. Website Design Company
ReplyDeletenice article
ReplyDeleteWaooow!! Nice blog, this will be greatly helpful. two-factor authentication
ReplyDeleteWow, Excellent post. This article is really very interesting and effective. I think its must be helpful for us. Thanks for sharing your informative.
ReplyDeleteI am All Social Service provider . I am selling those service on, please take a look Buy Fast Like
I will prefer this blog because it has much more informative stuff.www.incredibledreammachinesbonus.net
ReplyDeleteThis is surely a very good blog, thanks a lot for sharing such nice information here.white label seo
ReplyDeleteIt was superb post with nice content as well as important tips. Thank you for your all efforts.
ReplyDeleteBuy Crazy Bulk | Crazy Bulk Reviews
Crazy Bulk is 100% safe and legal steroids available in market. There are several products crazy bulk is offering in which dianabol, anavar, testosterone max, winstrol are some of the most popular products among bodybuilders. You can get your supply today at
ReplyDeleteCrazy Bulk Reviews and Offers - Blog
Buy Crazy Bulk 100% Safe and Legal Steroids
ANADROLE (ANADROL): matttanner
ISSUU - Anvarol (Anavar) P-Var by Matt Tanner
I will prefer this blog because it has much more informative stuff. In-Depth Rich Jerk Review
ReplyDeleteI have checked this link this is really important for the people to get benefit from.online website builder
ReplyDeleteI'm using 1and1, is this a good hosting?
ReplyDeletePhenQ 357 Discounts
Thank you for your great tips. I've learnt some important things from your post. Hope you will post some related articles soon.
ReplyDeleteBrestrogen, Breast Enlargement
Hmm!! This blog is really cool, I’m so lucky that I have reached here and got this awesome information.
ReplyDeletewhole life insurance
Great article. I always look for this kind of articles. Really it was useful.
ReplyDeletehttp://buymuscletronic.blogspot.com/2016/01/muscletronic-ingredients-that-give-shin.html
This blog post is really great; the standard stuff of the post is genuinely amazing.
ReplyDeletehttp://the100kfactory.net/
Aside from bookmarking your blog, I also want to receive updates from you. I want to know the latest news about those topics mentioned above.
ReplyDeleteAmazing Course Of Action For Novice Body Builders
Hi I was searching for the blogs for many times, now I have reached at the right place.
ReplyDeleteMake A Website Hub
This is really amazing weblog to study, Thanks for obtaining an outstanding record for us. I am always looking for such useful things. Remain us discovered like this. smar7bundlereview.com
ReplyDeleteI might want to thank for imparting such an awesome rundown to us here. Messenger Contact Review
ReplyDeleteI truly liked looking over this submit, I ended up being just wanting to know would you trade included blogs. Thanks pertaining to expressing your website with other folks. You really share precious information.Video Calls App
ReplyDeleteWith regards to weight reduction, everybody appears to have some counsel. Be that as it may, how would you isolate truth from fiction? Viral Loop Review
ReplyDeleteI really thank the author of this article, the article has great significance for me, it just leads me to do better things for this life. Very meaningful, thank you very much, wish you happy.viral loop review best viral theme tool
ReplyDeleteI must say i liked overlooking this submit, I finished up being just curious about would you trade included blogs. Thanks a lot regarding conveying your site with other people. You truly share precious info. Affiliate Trax Review
ReplyDeleteSimply needed to say thank you for this! I'm not extraordinary at so much html stuff but rather this made it so natural and looks incredible. MaticPress Review
ReplyDeleteHi there We were looking for the sites for most times, now I've reached at the proper place. AdBridger
ReplyDeleteMany thanks intended for the great hints. I've learned some considerations from your own content. Wish you will post some related content articles soon. Live Leap Review
ReplyDeleteA good blog. Thanks for sharing the information. It is very useful for my future. keep sharing
ReplyDeleteduck life 3 | Slither io |Red Ball 3 |
I am as of now utilizing Fat dairy animals facilitating, who give facilitating administration at reasonable cost. check here full audit of them Viddyoze 2.0 Review
ReplyDeleteViddyoze 2.0 Bonus
propelled the new activity bundles devoted to site proprietors who need to set up a customary focused on movement stream to their locales. The colossal favorable position of our administration is the nature of the activity which only comes through terminated area names VidCurator Review
ReplyDeleteThis treadmill model on events, infers open air physical exercises, to reinforce the entryway not without further ado in The far east, The Japanese Isalnds or South Korea the more youthful era trade together with accord, utilizing the methodology proficient mountain, energize the people attention to science security. Bay Profits Academy Review
ReplyDeleteA debt of gratitude is in order for your radiant posting! I very delighted in understanding it, you happen to be an extraordinary creator. I will recollect to bookmark your website and will in the long run return soon. Go to best social arrangement for get more related theme. Have a pleasant night! Octosuite Review
ReplyDeleteI have spent a lot of the time in different blogs but this is really a unique blog for me ChatResponse Review
ReplyDeleteAny ideas on where I can get info to do this? I read one tutorial, but it was pretty heavy duty html foreign language stuff. I'd appreciate any suggestions. Smart Ads Builder Review
ReplyDeleteThis is awesome and entirely instructive web journal I have learnt such a large number of things from here. http://videowavereviewbonus.com
ReplyDeleteAn abundance of thanks expected for the immense indications. I've taken in a few contemplations from your own substance. Wish you will post some related substance articles soon Tube Amplify Bonus
ReplyDeleteI really thank the author of this article, the article has great significance for me, it just leads me to do better things for this life.
ReplyDeleteVid Reaper Review l Vid Reaper l Video Instafolio Review l Moto Theme Review
Very meaningful, thank you very much, wish you happy.
ReplyDeleteCheck It Now l Video Instafolio Demo l Home Page Now l Vid Reaper Demo l Azon Bundle Team
I truly thank the writer of this article, the article has awesome centrality for me, it just leads me to improve things for this life. See more at: Instaeasy Bonus
ReplyDeleteA company may use social networking to demonstrate its customer service level and enrich its relationships with consumers.
ReplyDeleteViral Loop 2.0 Review
I choosed the best hosting i think..
ReplyDeleteThanks for you suggestions.
https://listacademyanik.com/100k-factory-revolution-review-bonus/
I got lot's of new info about Hosting. Its really a valuable Blog.
ReplyDeletehttps://listacademyanik.com/100k-factory-revolution-review-bonus/
thank for the author , very greate article . New tool datajeo review .
ReplyDeleteThis is an awesome post. Really very informative and creative contents. These concept is a good way to enhance the knowledge. Excellent post.
ReplyDeleteOur Digital Marketing Training is tailored for beginners who want to learn how to stand out digitally, whether it is for their own business or a personal brand.
Digital Marketing Training in Chennai
Digital Marketing Course in Chennai
Digital Marketing Courses in Chennai
SEO Training in Chennai
What is Digital Marketing
Digital Marketing
SEO Services in India
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeletePush connect notify Works on PC, Mac, & Android Phones!
ReplyDeleteUnlimited Campaigns with Unlimited Messaging
Push Connect Notify Helps Build Your Email List (9 Autoresponders Integrated)
This is an awesome post. Really very informative and creative contents. These concept is a good way to enhance the knowledge. Excellent post.
ReplyDeleteSent from Best Jvzoo Review Site
This is an awesome post. Really very informative and creative contents. These concept is a good way to enhance the knowledge. Excellent post.
ReplyDeleteOur Digital Marketing Training is tailored for beginners who want to learn how to stand out digitally, whether it is for their own business or a personal brand. aGB Review
JVZoo Academy Review
JVZoo Academy Review Demo
This is an awesome post. Really very informative and creative contents. These concept is a good way to enhance the knowledge. Excellent post.
ReplyDeleteSent fromJVZoo Academy Review Demo
JVZoo Academy Review Demo
JVZoo Academy Review
Unlimited Campaigns with Unlimited Messaging
ReplyDeletePush Connect Notify Helps Build Your Email List (9 Autoresponders Integrated)JVZoo Academy Review Demo
JVZoo Academy Review Demo
This is an awesome post. Really very informative and creative contents. These concept is a good way to enhance the knowledge. Excellent post.
ReplyDeleteSent from aGB Review
aGB Review
Decinema Review
Decinema Review
Unlimited Campaigns with Unlimited Messaging
ReplyDeletexe banh mi tho nhi ky
This is a great post. Truly exceptionally useful and inventive substance. These idea is a decent approach to improve the information. Superb post.
ReplyDeleteSent from Smart Solar Box Review
Smart Solar Box Review
Smart Solar Box Review
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete>>>>>>>>Viddyoze Live Action (commercial) <<<<<<<<<
ReplyDeleteViddyoze Live Action Review – Why You Truly Need It ?