subject: Which host should I host my website with? [print this page] Which host should I host my website with?
This is the question many of you webmasters are asking yourselves every day, in this article I will be showing a few tips on how to find out whether the host you have found is really what it cracks up to be.
Now of course what I will be showing you is something that needs to be done when you are looking for a host, of course there are the big guys like Hostgator and Godaddy, but sometimes you want to go with a quiet host, a host that is dedicated on bringing you the cheapest and reliable hosting in the market.
Right, so find your host you want to research and then type that host into Google, type something like "yourhost review" this will then pull up the reviews of customers that have used that host in the past, now be realistic if it's a popular host then there is going to be one person that is unsatisfied because there always is, but look at the majority of reviews and then decide.
Sometimes you will be faced with no reviews at all, this means that the host is either new or hasn't got many customers, or has been unfortunate
not to receive a review yet. Usually you will get reviews depending on how long you have been around.
Now, let's do the domain check, this is where you go to a "who is" website put in the domain and then check their name servers, if their name servers, if they show up as ns1.anotherhost.com, ns2.anotherhost.com then that means they haven't got a dedicated IP, which means they are just a reseller, now of course some resellers have bought dedicated IP, but resellers are not too bad to go with, as long as they are decent and reliable and not owned by some kid in the backstreet.
Ok, so already we have got an idea whether the host is good or not, now this is what I call "engaging with the host" this is where you go onto their live chat system or e-mail them whichever you prefer and ask them questions about their server, where they are based and how long they have been around etc.
What I forgot to mention which I should've on the domain check is also check which year the domain was registered, that usually gives an idea of how long they have been around, but even if you know the answer, test the support guys, test if they lie or not, remember if they don't know how to deal with your questions, why would you trust them hosting your website?
There are lots of things that can determine whether a webhost is reliable or not, remember to look at their design as well, I mean whether the design is modern/professional or boring and old, but the design is a matter of opinion, so I wouldn't dwell on that too much.
So in this article we have learned that always search Google or Yahoo or Bing whichever you prefer for reviews, then do a domain check, check the age of the domain and the name servers it is currently registered with, and then engage with the host, test them at their own game.
