Choosing Your Web Host

Choosing Your Web Host

It isn’t easy trying to choose the best web hosting plan to best suit your needs. Even though there are so many web hosting companies out there, some thought and careful consideration should be implemented because —

• You don’t want to end up having to pay for extra features that you realize afterwards you didn’t needed;
  
• You don’t want your sites not showing up due to excessive downtime by your web hosting provider’s servers.

So, when choosing your web hosting provider, you need to consider your requirements:

• How many websites will you need?
• How much disk space and bandwidth do you need?
• What extras will you need, for e.g., email with auto-responders included?
• How much do you want to spend on web hosting?

You should compare at least five web hosting providers before choosing your web host to see what they are offering. Here’s what you should look for:

• A reasonable price for your needs - usually a monthly fee.
• Disk space and bandwidth allowance – is your site or sites going to have audio, video, or downloadable material?
• Good number of sub domains – look for unlimited.
• Built-in website builder? Comes in very handy if you don’t know much about building websites.
• At least a 99.5% uptime – 99.9% is best
• Free set-up – no hidden charges.
• Unlimited email accounts allowed.
• Auto-responders included – you don’t want to pay extra to add on an auto-responder later.

Compare all other special features of web hosts even though you believe you may not need them like:

• CGI
• Streaming Audio and Video
• Hotlink protection
• Web stats.