What to Consider when Choosing Your Web Hosting Provider

Setting up a website is not an issue nowadays but choosing a good web hosting provider is in fact vital. Web hosting services are getting cheaper each day with some provider charging a mere $0.85 cents for their hosting services. Though you will not get a fantastic package, but paying $0.85 cents for a web host is simply unbelievable.

Try putting these factors into consideration when picking your web hosting provider:

Reliable and secure

Don't choose a shoddy web hosting provider as chances of them packing their bags and closing their business are quite high. You can always look at the quality of their site's web page. Those that are poorly done are the ones that you should avoid.

99% or 99.9% uptime

Uptime is very important for your website. Consider this, 99% uptime means that it is highly possible that the server would be down for 3.65 days in a year. If you are an online business owner, this means a loss in revenue for almost 4 days in your business. If the web hosting provider guarantees 99.9% uptime this means that a server downtime is highly unlikely. It also signifies that the web hosting provider is well equipped.

Competitive pricing

Some web hosting provider charges as low as $0.85 cents a month. However, you will need to pay for their service for at least a year as stated in the contract. On the other hand, cheap hosting services might charge you a setup fee. Try getting a hosting provider that charges above $1 per month for their service. It would be much more reliable. 1and1.com is charging $1.50 per month and you will even get a free domain. Terms are you will need to subscribe their service for 6 months minimum.

Free domain

Get a hosting provider that gives you a free domain. A domain name would make your website much more professional. If the hosting provider does not provide a free domain, try getting one for under $10.

Disk space provided

Your web hosting package should at least provide you with a minimum of 5GB of web space. Try not to get anything under 1GB of web space. It would be even better if you get a 50GB web hosting package. This would enable you to even build an online community.

Monthly bandwidth allocated

Bandwidth is crucial especially for your online business. Having sufficient bandwidth would help you avoid unnecessary interruption to your service. Try getting at least 10GB of bandwidth if possible. Personally I would prefer those that provide 250GB of bandwidth per month.

Available database

Check whether the web hosting provider includes a database into your package. For Microsoft web hosting package, you will most likely get Microsoft Access or MS SQL. For Linux it is common to get MySQL.

Free software and incentives

Finally, check for any free software provided by your web hosting provider. You can use your own software to develop your website, but it is even better if you get free software from your hosting provider. Check whether they provide you with WordPress, Joomla! or Mambo, Picture Gallery, Website Statistics and osCommerce. As for incentives, some even give a Google Adwords coupon.

As a conclusion, choose your web hosting plan wisely as you will be subscribing to the service for a long time. Try checking 1and1.com, WebsitePalace and GoDaddy. These are good web hosting providers.