Choosing a web hosting provider can be a duanting task as there are literally thousands of companies out there offering web hosting and the list is endless.
You should go with a company that can answer your questions without any hesitation and you should be comfortable and confident in the way that they are responded to.
There are hundreds of questions you can ask and we have summed up the top 10 here.
If you would like to ask us any questions about OUR web hosting service, please do not hesitate to ask us!
1. Server Reliability- How reliable are the servers?
Ensure your web hosting provider runs reliable servers. Before choosing a web hosting provider, you may wish to see how reliable it is.
There is no use in spending money on a web hosting provider if it is constantly going offline, as a downed website can result in lost business!
To help determine a web hosting provider's uptime, consider visiting the NetCraft website athttp://www.netcraft.com.
2. Check Bandwidth Charges-Are there any hidden costs?
Ensure your web hosting provider doesn't surprise you with excess fees for extra bandwidth. Before choosing a web hosting provider, be sure to carefully read all of the bandwidth charges that come with your account!
Even if a web hosting provider claims to offer "unlimited bandwidth", sometimes that comes with stipulations; if you want to host files or multimedia on your account, you have to pay for extra bandwidth, etc.
Many web hosting providers have plans where you can pay for a specified amount of bandwidth per month and then pay for extra bandwidth used over the maximum.
Take care when choosing a plan, as the wrong one could either cost you in paying for too much bandwidth, or paying for extra bandwidth over the normal plan allotment.
3. Is there Someone to Call?-can I get support when I need it?
Technical support may cost, but it may be helpful if you're in a crunch. It can be very tempting to pay the least amount of money possible and get a bargain-basement web hosting provider.
While choosing a cheap web hosting provider may seem like a wise investment, consider this: If your website goes down at 3a or, worse yet, in the middle of the day when it should be hosting dozens (hundreds) of visitors, is there someone at technical support you can call? Or can you only contact someone by e-mail and hope they respond within a few hours, days, or ever?
Sometimes the added cost of certain web hosting providers covers technical support where you can talk to people instead of playing e-mail tag.
When you are choosing providers, you may even want to try contacting the technical support numbers first to see if the companies of which you will be choosing handle calls quickly, correctly, and professionally.
4. Log File Access-do I have access to logs?
Why accessing your website log files is essential. Ensure your web hosting provider offers them. Viewing your website's log files can be vital for many reasons:
- Error logs can determine if visitors access pages that don't exist (404 errors), showing you where errors may occur in your links.
- Referrer logs show how people are finding your website, providing ideas on how to maximize your marketing efforts.
- Access logs state your most popular files, which can provide you with marketing ideas, website re-design ideas to focus on popular sections, and more.
- User Agent logs can show the operating systems and browsers used by those visiting your site, in case you want to optimize your site or message towards particular groups of computer users.
When choosing a web hosting provider, make sure you can access at the very least website log reports, and, if possible, the raw log files so you can run your own reports. You should be able to find out how many people are coming to your site, from where, how they are accessing the site, and why they are visiting.
5. How much storage is needed?-can I upgrade when I need to?
When choosing a web hosting provider, you need to consider how much storage is really needed for your website, both now and in the future.
Even though you may start out with a small website, your storage needs may grow as your website grows. Graphics take up storage.
Dynamic scripts require hard drive space. Log files can eat up storage very fast if your website is popular. Planning on holding customer registration information? Those database tables can grow.
Make sure you purchase a plan that is flexible enough to let you add storage as your needs grow, yet not so expensive that you end up paying just for unused hard drive space.
6. Check the email policy-can I send out newsletters?
Sending e-mail from a web host? What is your web provider's policy on e-mail?
In this day and age, when choosing a web hosting provider, you need to check their policy on e-mail.
- Are they against unsolicited commercial mail, or SPAM? If so, what constitutes SPAM, and how can you defend yourself if you are accused of SPAM by sending out double opt-in newsletters that require confirmation before joining?
- How much e-mail can be sent and received in a given day, or is there a limit? If you plan on sending newsletters to confirmed recipients, this may be important.
- How much e-mail storage space is available? Is it dedicated space or shared with the rest of your storage needs (website HTML and graphics, log files, etc.)
7. Development Help Available?-is there some who can help me with a script?
Is there someone to turn to for PHP, ASP, ASP.NET questions? One question you should ask when choosing a web hosting provider is if development (programming) help is available.
Depending on your needs and your current knowledge base, you may need assistance in setting up shopping carts, using advanced web features, installing CGI scripts, etc.
Can your web hosting provider help with installing and configuring scripts, and, if needed, can it also be called upon to develop custom solutions?
Some web hosting providers can provide development assistance in the following popular languages, among others:
- C++
- HTML / CSS
- Java
- JavaScript
- Perl
- PHP
8. Are Website Statistics Available?-what web stats package is on offer?
Web visitor statistics are vital in your marketing efforts. Does your web hosting provider allow you access to server logs or statistical tools?
Before choosing a web hosting provider, unless you plan on developing a small site for a select group of colleagues or friends, you'll probably need to keep up with information about the site's visits. Useful information can include:
- How many page views does your site get per day?
- How many actual visitors view your site per day?
- Where are people coming from to visit your site?
- Is your website returning errors, possibly due to a malformed link?
To view this information you'll need the aid of a statistics package. Before choosing a web hosting provider, find out what statistics information is available:
- Can you view/download the raw server logs? If so, what kind of information is provided, and in what format? This way, you can download or purchase your own statistics analyzer package.
- If you can access the raw server logs, can you change what information is presented in the logs? You may want to view more information than what is normally presented to other websites by your web host.
- Even if you can access the raw server logs, does the web hosting provider provide statistics software you can try?
- If you can't access the raw server logs, does the web host provide a way you can view general statistics about the web site's visits? If you can't at least get how many page views the site received per day, which pages were the most popular, and statistics on how people found your site (search engines, reciprocal links, news articles, etc.), consider looking elsewhere for your web hosting needs.
9. How Many Mailboxes Do You Get?-can I mamage my own email accounts?
Do you get only one e-mail address with your web hosting provider or multiple?
One consideration in choosing a web hosting provider is finding out how many mailboxes your website can obtain. For example, if you want to run a website at address domain.com and have several employees working in the business, you may need the following e-mail addresses:
webmaster@domain.com
sales@domain.com
support@domain.com
Some web hosting providers put a limit on mailboxes, be it 1, 10, 25, 50, 100, or higher.
However, some web hosting providers allow a virtually limitless number of mailboxes, useful if you plan on running a community site and want each website user to have their own e-mail address.
10. What Operating System is the Server Running?-are the servers patched regularly?
Your web hosting provider's operating system may determine the types of scripts you can run and databases you can access.
Before choosing a web hosting provider, find out on what type of server the website will be operating. Normally this will be either:
- A flavor of UNIX such as Linux, BSD, or Solaris
- Windows 2000/2003
- Macintosh
For basic websites the operating system may not matter. However, if you plan on writing (or purchasing) software for your website such as search engines, blogs, community forums, etc., the operating system may directly affect the types of software you can write and/or use. It may also determine what database server types you can access (this is another good question to ask!). |
