With so many web hosting options available, often too much choice can be confusing. Making an informed choice, as ever, means not just being armed with the right information, but with the right questions to ask too.
By Harvey Raybould, MD, Compila Ltd.
So you know having a website can be a great asset for your business, non-profit organisation or even just for your personal interests, but with the huge choice available to you these days, how do you actually choose a hosting company that is best for you?
With few exceptions the majority of web hosting companies offer the same services, however, because they package their offerings slightly differently, it’s not always so easy to know which ones you can really rely on. The following series of questions are designed to help you tease out the information you need, to tell the good, from the average, the bad, and ugly.
1.) What kind of website do I really want?
Knowing what you actually need is a great starting point. For example, there is no point buying a plan with unlimited or a huge web space limit if your site is only going to require 1 or 2 mega bytes. So it’s important to really examine in detail what kind of website that you want.
What are you going to do with it? Are you going to sell from it? Is it just going to be an online brochure? Are you going to run a blog? What about forums or other pieces of software? How many email accounts are you going to need?
Top tip: Gather your answers into a checklist which you can cross reference against any web hosting plan on offer.
2.) How good is the web host’s customer support?
From ANY paid for hosting account you should expect quality technical support, period. While many hosts can offer the same technical specifications, not all hosts offer the same kind of reliability when it comes to the back up they offer their customers.
Be sure you know that you will be able to get hold of someone, whether by email, telephone or live chat to support you with any technical difficulties or general enquiries about how to get the most from your web hosting package. Make sure that the people you will be communicating with are both courteous, and know what they are talking about.
Wherever possible look for a company which offers email, telephone and live chat support, in addition to the more ubiquitous ‘Frequently Asked Questions’ help centre.
Top tip: Should you need advice relating to particular software programs you want to run, web design tips, programming advice etc look out for specific forums or Google and Yahoo groups online. These are where the experts in these fields hang out, enabling you to obtain more comprehensive answers, more quickly.
3.) How technically reliable will my web host be?
Reliability is essential to your website success and while it would be natural to opt for a web host who claims they can offer a 100% uptime guarantee, you should view such offers with caution. Nothing in life is truly perfect and history shows there are just too many things that can go wrong, so at some stage it is likely your web site will go down (meaning it will be temporarily unavailable).
In the majority of cases however, your web host should be able to obtain 99.9% uptime, so you should expect and accept nothing less. 99.9% uptime means your website is likely to be unavailable for less than 10 hours in any one year.
While, it’s important to know that there are likely to be 1 or 2 problems somewhere down the line, but what is more important is how well your web host deals with these problems. They should not be prolonged or excessive, and, if you have chosen a good host, they will know about the problem before you do, will already have people working on it, and will take the trouble to inform you.
Top tip: Look for a host who is honest and transparent about the reality of unexpected technical difficulties. In addition look for evidence of a high quality network and server monitoring systems, preferably more than one in different worldwide locations.
4.) What kind of features will my web host offer?
As well as the actual web space you are provided to store your web pages, today you should also receive a multitude of other features. As a starting point, these features should include an extensive online control panel (which aids with the management of your hosting plan); email facilities; databases; password protected directories; free software and scripts; free web site builder; FrontPage extensions; scripting facilities and lots, lots more.
Generally the more advanced the plans the more features are enabled, so please make sure you choose the plan that has all the features you need
Top Tip: Look out for web hosting packages which offer the ability to install and run different types of software to make it more interactive for visitors or easier to update. A good web host should provide you with the facility to easily install, manage and upgrade a number of software packages such as blogs, shopping carts or forums. Again as a general rule, the more advanced the hosting plan, the more scripts you will have available to you.
5.) Will I be able to upgrade my web hosting package at a later date?
As a general rule-of-thumb as your website grows, your hosting plan should have the ability to grow with you. As your website becomes more rich in content, receives more visitors or you require additional features, make sure you can upgrade easily and without excessive cost.
Top tip: Beware of web hosts who want you to buy the top plan first up.
6.) How much should I pay?
Most web hosting companies offer a tremendous service at a very fair price. Where else can you get a service that offers you so much, is available to you 24/7 365 days a year for around £13.99 ($20) per year? The key here is really to know what you are buying, who you are buying it from, why you have chosen them and how it is going to benefit you?
Top tip: Biggest is not always best, neither is the most expensive. You can get a much more personal service from a smaller host, especially when you can get to know some of their staff personally.
7.) Does the web host offer a money back guarantee?
A money back guarantee is an indication of how confident a web host is with its services. If the services are not up to standard then the host will end up having to make a lot of refunds, so avoid anyone without a money back guarantee or a very short one.
Top tip: Look for the longest money back guarantee available, although not to the exclusion of meeting the other criteria discussed above. As a minimum you should expect at least 30 days.
8.) What kind of business track record does the company have?
Where possible you should look for genuine customer testimonials. This should come in the form of customers' websites, which you can visit, as well as direct and referencable customer testimonials.
Top tip: Increasingly today, well established companies will declare their interest in choosing electricity from sustainable resources to run their servers on. Look out for some kind of environmental awareness from your host.
In conclusion
In conducting your research to answer the above questions, your first port of call should be to check out the search engines or Internet magazines for suitable hosting companies that match your requirements and budget.
Select a short list of 3 or 4 and then do some more research. This can be done in many ways, via their about us pages, customer testimonials, forums and hosting review sites. Then test them out by asking them questions based on the information above, and see how they respond. The one that responds in the most timely, courteous and informative manner, is likely to be the host you should choose.
If you are a beginner, then selecting your first web hosting supplier is never an easy task, particularly without a recommendation but this should not put you off. If you follow the guidelines set out here, do some research and testing, you will be able to make an informed choice.
Web Host Checklist
When evaluating web hosts this following checklist may come in useful.
- The Company – Do they have a proven track record, are they established and environmentally aware
- The People – All communications from the staff should be professional and knowledgeable.
- Reliability – As a minimum they should be able to prove a 99.9% uptime record.
- Redundancy – They should have minimal or no potential points of failure.
- The Future – Can you upgrade easily and in a cost effective manner.
- Infrastructure – Fast servers and networks, with expert staff and comprehensive monitoring facilities.
- Backups – Backups should be as often as possible and checked by the host on a regular basis.
- Technical Support – At a minimum email only, but preferably, email, online, live chat and telephone.
- Responses – Should be courteous, knowledgeable and received within a good timeframe.
- Fees – All fees should be made readily available to you, not hidden away in terms and conditions.
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