I’ve been involved with the designing, hosting and management of web sites since 1995, and so I’ve had a fair bit of time to learn how to see through the myths about website hosting, and to spot the pitfalls marketers hide in the small print.
I know by writing this article I am never going to stop all instances of malpractice but I hope at least it will help those who read it make an informed decision.
1) Hidden or not so obvious charges
Unfortunately in some cases your initial annual or monthly payment may not be the only fee you end up paying. As long as the web host makes you aware of these before you sign up and you agree to them, then this is a perfectly acceptable procedure.
However, the fees that are stuck away deep down in their terms and conditions are the ones to be careful about. These hidden or ‘not so obvious’ charges, will often include, FrontPage Extensions; Anti-Spam and Anti-Virus; Transfer to and away charges; Setup fees; Email and Web forwarding; Mysql databases; Comprehensive web site statistics; and Backups.
Be sure to read the promotional literature clearly, so the website hosting plan you sign up for includes all the features you require, and will not require you to pay extra or upgrade your plan to get them.
2) Free Web Hosting and Website Hosting Trial Periods
Beware too of deals for Free Web Hosting as a way of enticing you to upgrade to a more expensive plan, or a free Trial Period on the plan you actually want. This is almost standard practice today and can be misleading.
In the case of free web hosting often certain features are disabled, or will only include very small amounts of bandwidth – which determines how many site visitors the server can simultaneously accommodate. This can result in your site being suspended prematurely because you have exceeded the bandwidth limit, and all your hard work in creating the site will go to waste.
In the case of free trial periods, after the trial has expired and especially if you have already given your credit card details, you may be swapped over to a different, much more expensive web hosting plan.
3) The myth of unlimited bandwidth and 100% uptime guarantees.
Are offers offering unlimited disk space and bandwidth really legitimate or marketing gimmicks? To find out, make sure you read their terms and conditions in full because in a lot of cases they will have strict controls over these unlimited offers. Be sure, therefore, not to rush in and sign up for an ‘Unlimited’ offer, especially when you will never be able to fully use the ‘bandwidth’ and ‘storage space’ on offer.
At Compila we only offer one unlimited disk space package our Reseller Hosting Pro account. This is a specialist package for web designers, tailored to their specific needs. We have adopted this policy because we want to supply customers with exactly what they buy and not have to remove or suspend them for over using resources.
By the same token, it’s only in very exceptional circumstances a website host can deliver a 100% uptime guarantee. There are just too many factors that can affect this, such as power outages, human errors, server or network failure, upstream provider problems, software errors etc.
If this is something of high importance to your business and you choose a website host because they are claiming a 100% uptime guarantee, please make sure you talk to them first and investigate all of their potential points of failure.
A little patience now will serve you in the long-term.
The truth is that it’s never going to be possible to meet the service requirements of everyone, and yet in a crowded marketplace, it’s natural for website hosting companies to aggressively market themselves, as a way of standing out, and getting noticed.
There will always be special offers, and often special offers can save you lots of money. However it’s important to remember that if something sounds too good to be true it probably is.
So, before clicking Yes, make sure you know what type of website hosting you require, which hosting plan you are really signing up for or will eventually be on after any promotional offer has expired. A little patience now, may ultimately serve you in the long term.
I would love to hear your thoughts, tips and advice for anyone buying website hosting. Please add them to the comments section below. Thank you.
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