9 Factors to Consider When Choosing a Web Hosting Service

Choosing the right web hosting service to use can be a difficult task. Most web hosting companies promise to deliver a lot of benefits such as uninterrupted uptime, unlimited storage, proper customer care, and technical support. It can be difficult to know if all these companies do what they claim and if they provide a service that will benefit your company.

Of course, you can always look at web hosting service review sites to see what others have said about the hosting companies you're looking at. Since everyone has different needs, it's important to understand features you want to host your website. When you're reviewing web hosting services, here are a few qualities you should consider to determine the best one for you.

Price

This is the first factor most people look at when looking for a web hosting service and with good reason. If a service is expensive, you will not afford it, hence it makes sense to first look at the price. Hosting services come in different prices for different needs. For example, corporate websites would require more technical support and storage, hence their services are more expensive. If you're looking for basic web hosting services for your business, look closely to see what offers are made for the specific price ranges.

There are many cheap alternatives that have come up to support small and medium sized online businesses or individual sites. You should, however, ensure that any low priced service that you pay for provides all the benefits you need, such as unlimited storage space. The price you pay should also be driven by what you want to do with your site. If your site is the backbone of your business, you might want to pay more if it will guarantee you dedicated full-time technical support. However, if you just want to host a blog to share your views and interact with others, you don’t have to be so particular on service.

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Specialties

Different web hosts have different areas of focus. There are some that are focused on enterprise solutions and these would be the right fit for you if you intend to create a successful online business. Enterprise-focused host services also have better storage capabilities and are good for big data.

You should avoid web hosting services that don’t support many features found on eCommerce sites if you're hoping to sell products on your website. It's critical to ensure that the web hosting supports the ability to have transactions through your site.

Technical Specifications

Some web hosting services might prove inadequate features, depending on what you want your site to accomplish. Technical specifications such as RAM, disk storage space, and processing capabilities are important if your site will be dealing with big data, which tends to need a lot of space and processing power. Ecommerce sites and sites with video content also require a hosting service with higher technical specifications.

If it means having to spend more to get higher specifications, you should do so. This, however, may not be necessary as there are some low cost services that give you unlimited storage and processing capabilities to deal with your big data needs.

Support

The biggest and most important consideration for a good web hosting service is technical support. Technology cannot always be relied on to do what it’s expected to do and when issues occur, it would feel better to know that there are very qualified people to deal with your problem.

The last thing you want is for your site to be down for days on end as this will undo all the marketing efforts that you have put into the site. There’s also no telling how much current and future revenue you will lose when customers look for your site only to find it is down.

It will be beneficial to find a web hosting service that can provide email and phone support. Ensure that the company is skilled to provide relevant and useful support.

Add-Ons

An added factor to consider is the number of add-ons you will get by subscribing for a web hosting service. Social media integration is one such benefit and it’s extremely valuable, especially to an ecommerce site. These adds on help to enhance the hosting experience. The more benefits and add-ons you get, the more abilities your site will have.

Hardware

Hardware has a lot to do with how seamlessly your site will run. Your hosting company should use the latest and best servers in the market. Old machines are likely to break down if they have been in use for a number of years. This is due to heating and accumulation of elements such as dust. The processing ability also starts to diminish as the number of hosted websites increases.

Working with rich content and big data requires a lot of processing capability, which only improves with newer processor models. If the hosting servers are old and congested, your clients will have to wait a long time to get results on your web pages. Inquire from the hosting company about the make and model of their servers, and the ability of their processors, to determine whether it’s safe to work with them.

Reputation

You can judge the reputation of a company based on what others are saying about it. Perform an online search on a hosting company to see what other users of the service are saying. Social media is also useful with reviews. Find out for instance:

• About the effectiveness of the add-ons. Do they do what they are expected to do?
• How easy is it to contact a company?
• Does their live chat service work?
• How does the company go about fixing problems and resolving downtime?
• How often do websites experience issues with their hosting service?

User Interface

The user interface should be easy to use and support you in the tasks that you need to perform on your own. Setting up email, for instance, should be easy to do without having to call your web-hosting service provider. If you can’t figure out the UI from the get go, avoid using that service as you will only have more problems in the future.

Keep in mind that these web hosting services should be created for easy usage. That way, people who aren't web developers or tech-savvy in this field is able to use the interface without issues.

Scalability

You should also take your future needs into account when choosing the right web hosting service. As your business grows, your needs for space will get bigger. For a company dealing with big data, it might be necessary for you to get a dedicated service just for you. If a company can accommodate such growth, they are the right fit for you.

Those are some of the improtant factors you should consider when hosting your web services. What are some other things you consider when choosing a web hosting service? Let me know in the comments below.