The first thing most people consider when looking for a web hosting service is price. Everyone wants a bargain but the old adage that you get what you pay for is so often true with web hosting as in most things in life.
If you are considering a new website for your business, would you consider a hosting package where support is poor, bandwidth is low, reliability is unacceptable. Not if you want your business to succeed and grow. There is no substitute for a good web hosting service for your small business website.
The things to consider before you decide should include security, connection speed, support, uptime, management and contract conditions. What happens if you wish to stop or cease your contract with a hosting company, are you penalised? After you are happy with these, then consider the price.
Online forums and web hosting reviews are also a good source of information to help you decide. I also prefer local web hosting companies. Even though these are not always the cheapest, I find they are easy to contact when support is needed. There is usually no difficulty in dealing with overseas support, poor telephone quality and language barriers.
Web hosting is really quite cheap for a good service, don’t skimp on this as it may cost you more in the long run. We find that a hosting plan of about $100 per year is often good enough for a lot of the small business websites that we design. If the website outgrows the plan then we can easily upgrade/downgrade without penalty.
The above are some of the main considerations you should give before deciding on a web hosting plan/service. There are other factors to consider also and if you are not prepared or have difficulty in understanding your needs and requirements then ask your web designer before you commit yourself to any contracts. All web designers will have their preferred web hosting providers and based on their experience, they will help you decide on what is best for you and when you have all the facts, then you can make a much better decision.
– Peter
