subject: How To Choose A Web Host [print this page] So, you are ready to jump into hosting your own website online. You'll need to find a hosting company to store and serve your websites files to the world wide web. A quick search for "web hosting", and you are sure to be overwhelmed with a plethora of hosting companies to choose from. Here are some tips to help you decide which hosting company will best work for you:
Things to consider:
Do you only need hosting for one website, or multiple sites?
If you plan on creating multiple websites in the near future, you should definitely look for a host that allows additional domains to be added and hosted without extra fees.
Pricing: The average basic hosting plan aimed at individual webmasters ranges from a few dollars to $30-ish a month. If you are on a shoestring budget, there are many hosts that offer huge discounts for the first year, then about $10/month.
However, bargain hosts can offer these prices because they host your website on the same server as thousands of other customer sites. This is called shared hosting -- and one of it's pitfalls is that a rogue website can take down a whole server's worth of sites. Almost always expect occasional downtime with budget hosts.
Backups: One day you will need a backup of a website -- as a webmaster, it's inevitable. You need to make your own backups if your host doesn't provide them automatically. A host with a good backup system installed is one of my main criteria for choosing a host.
Customer support: If you don't like communicating online, and prefer using the phone -- you should check out potential host's customer support plans. Often phone support is not available without additional costs.
Server specs: If you are going to be running certain web applications such as blogging software, forums, galleries, etc -- you should have a list of requirements for your chosen software and make sure your host supports those features.
For instance: if you wanted to install Wordpress blogging software you should make sure your host supports PHP, and that you have a mySQL database available on your account. Most large hosts will have all the features an average webmaster needs, but if you are using a local mom-and-pop host you may have a harder time getting all
Read the hosting reviews, but with caution: If you look up the name of a potential web host, you are sure to find customer reviews of that host. These are a good way to judge a host, but remember anyone friends or enemy of a hosting company can post shrill reviews -- so take them with a grain of salt.
Overall, my biggest tip is to call or email a host with any questions & concerns you have before you commit to buying a hosting plan -- this also gives you the opportunity to observe their customer support.
