Technical Fundas

The Process of selecting a web hosting provider

1. Knowledge of your hosting needs

First, think about what you need. You have to ask these questions

1. What kind of site I am building?

2. How much website traffic the site will attract?

3. Does the site need any special software for maintenance?

These are some basic questions. Then picture in mind roughly two years ahead, what kind of state the site will be. For people just starting a shared hosting will be good. Shared Hosting providers are cheap and easy to maintain and give decent performance. 

Remember that you can always upgrade to a VPS or dedicated hosting in the future. Therefore, look for hosting companies that have easy up gradation facilities. Problem with some companies is they provide either shared hosting or dedicated hosting. In that scenario, you will have to shift your hosting provider. Therefore, look for companies that provide shared as well as dedicated hosting so that when the time comes you can upgrade without changing the hosting company.

2. Up-time Scores

It is important for you to select a web host that has a reputation of great up time. You will need a web-host which is stable in terms of server reliability and network connections.  See that the web hosting is up at least 99% of the time. You can check server up-time by reading reviews or by checking it by tools manually using ping mechanism.

3. See that your host allows multiple domains

You should have the flexibility to add a domain name to the site as per need. Most host providers allow hosting of 1 domain in their basic package. However, if you upgrade it you can host more than one domain.

4. Sign Up and Renewal Price

Most of the hosting companies are setting very low Sign Up prices but when you renew it the price is much higher.  Therefore compare Sign Up Vs Renewal Price. If renewal price is too high you need to think twice.

5. Refund Policy

Should you wish to cancel your hosting plan within the trial period what is the exact policy ?. What is the hosting company’s refund policy after the trial period has ended?  What are the cancellation fees? For example, Blue Host provides 30-day money back guarantee only on web hosting but not on the adds on.  Similarly, certain providers give 45 days money back guarantee.

6. Check Essential Features

While choosing a web host you need to check certain features. These are some of the essential features you need to check for.

1. 1. One-Click Installer. For example, are there One-Click Installers available for Joomla, WordPress and other CMS Systems

FTP/SFTP Access: Is there FTP/SFTP access ? This is something which is very important.

1. htaccess File Access: The .htaccess file can help create site wide administrative changes.

2. E-Commerce Features: If you are running an E-commerce website check that you have sufficient e-commerce features like SSL certification, dedicated IP, Shopping cart installation etc.  

7. Great Control Panel

If the web host provides a great control panel, it is great. A great control panel allows you to navigate everything easily and helps to perform website operations with ease.

8. Site Backup

Computer crashes, database corruption, etc. are facts of life. Therefore, it is so much necessary to have these backups. Some of the important things before choosing a hosting

1. Does the web host provide site backups on a daily basis?

2. Does the web host support team restore the site back when it is affected?

This is something very important if you are embarking on a business site.

9. 24 by 7 by 365 Support

Once you register with your webhost there will be issues. Therefore, it is necessary that the webhost has certain features like 24 by 7 support both by chat and telephone. It becomes so much easy when you a company giving great support even on holidays.

10. Market Place

This is something additional which I want to include.  Do question whether the Web Host Provider has a market place. The hosting provider often gives some good suggestions to buy or install new premium plugins or features. And these additional plugins or feature impact the way you operate your website.

Analyzing these 10 factors will help you get the right hosting provider. Even if one or two features are missing that’s fine. But make sure that you have at least  7 out of the 10 features.