[Web Hosting Reviews at HosterTalk.com]
Whenever you start looking at web hosting companies, you’re gonna find that there are a multitude of different choices and they’ll all be making promises in an attempt to get your business. Depending on the needs of your business, the majority of these web hosting companies are going to provide at minimum an adequate level of service, but there are still a number of things that should be taken into consideration when trying to make the choice.
The majority of people who are starting website will get by just fine with many of the shared hosting plans, as they typically provide plenty of storage and bandwidth. The majority of these plans are can be basic in nature, and all of the companies are going to offer potential clients different features and incentives in order get them to sign up, but before you choose any particular hosting service, it’s important to take into consideration your current needs, and any potential needs for growth in the future. It really all depends on the type of site that you are going to the implementing, because if you take for example an e-commerce site, it’s going to need a lot more server resources than will somebody’s personal website or blog that they set up for a hobby or something. You also need to consider whether you’re going to be building multiple websites by using either individual domain names, or by using subdomains, and whether or not these add-ons are going to be free or if there will be additional charges for them.
Different web hosting companies are going to offer different plans and features, but some features you could look at would include your basic shopping cart, options for running different scripts, and an initial free domain registration. There are a lot more, and those are just a small sampling of what could be provided. The first thing you’re going to have to do however is figure out what type of hosting major website is actually gonna need, and what it will require as your business or website grows. If you find that a web hosting company is not meeting your needs, then it’s always possible to make switches in the future, but if you can find the right company said right from the start and save some hassle in the future.
When you are trying to determine the right choice between all of the different web hosting companies, there are several questions you should discover the answers for.
Does the company have any established history?
It’s important to find a company that has a minimum of 3 to 5 years of serving up webpages and hosting people sites. It’s also important to make sure that there is not only a phone number listed, but also a physical address clearly visible on the website. It’s a good idea to be wary about any hosting company that only has a point of contact that is an e-mail address. You should also try to find out how many domains the company is currently hosting. The minimum amount that any established web hosting company should have on the servers at any one time would be 50,000, and that is a low estimate.
Is customer service and server monitoring available 24/7?
Any quality web hosting company offering shared servers is going to be monitoring them 24 hours a day seven days a week, and there should always be somebody available to address issues if there is an emergency server failure that happens and your website goes down.
Does the company offer a moneyback guarantee on their services?
Many of the web hosting companies require you to pay for a full years worth of service if you want to get the best deal on the hosting plan, so it is important to make sure that the web hosting company will offer you a prorated refund on the service if you choose to seek out a different company in the future.
How much do additional services cost?
Sometimes you will get a spike in traffic that can cause you to go over your allotted bandwidth, or you could even go over on the amount of storage you are allotted. If this happens, it is important to know what those overages are going to cost, and how much it’s going to be to add these additional resources to your plan. For the majority of companies, it isn’t going to be too much, but there are others that will make it mandatory for you to buy any extra storage or bandwidth in large blocks which may be much more than what you need. Every company is different, as some will send you an e-mail alert that will tell you when you are getting close to your limits, but others will just simply shut down your website until you address the issue and bring the account current due to the excess usage.
Does the company have any testimonials posted?
Testimonials make a nice impression on first glance, but you should never put all of your trust on what is said, as they could well be fabricated. If any of the testimonials have a website listed, then make sure to visit the site and check it out. Make sure that the pages load very fast, and it remains responsive to all requests. Google gives a lot of favor in their rankings to page load times.
Is the sales team immediately available to address any of your questions?
Any decent webhosting company is going to not only have a toll free number that you can use to call their sales staff 24 hrs a day, but they will also have an option to click on that will allow you to chat with a member of their sales team. This gives you the opportunity to clear up any issues and have all of your questions answered in detail before you decide to buy their package.
After you have evaluated all of the other issues and made sure that they meet your needs, you need to make sure that the pricing of the package is going to fit in your budget. Try not to ever go with a seemingly shady hosting company just so that you can save yourself a few pennies, when you can spend those extra pennies and get a quality plan with a quality host. That doesn’t mean by any stretch that you should buy the most expensive either, especially when talking about shared hosting plans.
P.S. FatCow is the best web hosting according to HosterTalk.com review.
See also: HosterTalk.com Review Process
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