How To Choose Web Hosting Provider
Let discuss today about how to choose web hosting provider for your personal web site, small business web site or a commercial high-traffic site.
A web hosting provider renders space to their clients on a server they own, which allows the client, individual or organization, to make their own websites accessible via the World Wide Web.
Choosing a perfect web hosting provider needs lot of things to be considered. Though price and affordability is what many people look after, but the search for a proper web hosting provider never ends with money. Some parameters to be considered while looking for a perfect web host are:-
1. Bandwidth – It is the data transmission rate, the maximum amount of information (bits/seconds) that can be transmitted along a channel. The web hosting providers offer bandwidth of varying degree as per the need of the consumer/client. Any personal web site / small business site may not require more than 200 GB of data transfer / bandwidth per month considering dalily 5000 visitors to the web site. A commercial site/ high traffic site will require around 1000 GB to 2000 GB data transfer per month.
(Note: On this Internet, there is no such unlimited bandwidth/ unlimited data transfer concept. It’s virtually impossible to give unlimited bandwidth/data transfer as the web hosting provider has to buy this services from ISP. More over, web hosting provider cannot as a FIXED price (hosting plan price) for something he is giving “unlimited”. So stay back from such web hosting provider who advertise unlimited bandwidth/data transfers - read there terms and conditions and fine print before signing up. You will come to know that they impose some restrictions on uploads/downloads and other technical stuff.)
2. Web Hosting Space - It is the web space on the hard-disk of the web hosting provider company. For a personal web site / small business site a customer will not require more than 3 GB to 4 GB web space. For a site with flash, videos, photo galleries, you may require around 100 GB of web space. For more commercial / high traffic web sites they can purchase extra disk space or buy virtual dedicated servers or dedicated servers.
(Note: No web hosting provider can charge a fiexd price for unlimited web space. If he is having unlimited web space then why he is asking for the price? Remember, hosting is done on a hard disk and we have limited space on each hard disk, more over, the web hosting company has to buy this disk. So it involves cost and that’s why he cant offer unlimited web space.)
3. Email space - Do you know that over 99% of web hosting providers on the Internet fool their customers by advertising ‘unlimited email accounts’ with web hosting plans! In return such unlimited email accounts will consume the same web space that you bought as a web hosting plan. (Example: You purchased 100 GB web hosting plan - you may think the 100% of 100 GB is reserved for your web site hosting. Then this is wrong. The more email accounts you will create the more space will be decreased from your 100 GB quota.)
But few professional web hosting providers like Hosting3i.com gives SPERATE SERVER SPACE for email hosting accounts and web site hosting. That means, if you purchase 100 GB space web hosting plan, then 100% of it will be reserved for web iste hosting. Another sperate email server will be provided to you for hosting your email accounts. This ensures the maximum utilization of your web space at most cheaper price than other hosting providers.
4. Server speed or Processor speed - An important factor associated with hosting is speed i.e., how quickly a server can receive or send back a small piece of data. A server is a home of many sites, and when these sites are operated simultaneously, the server speed may get bogged down. Sometimes certain sites make greater demands on the hosting provider’s server and thus will run slower, slowing down every other site on that particular server. “Pinging’ is a simple process to test the speed of a server.
5. Uptime - It is a measure of the total time when your site will be ‘up’, running and operational. Different web hosting providers offer different uptime server speed. Most professional web hosting providers like Hosting3i.com assures 99.9% uptime guarantee on web hosting.
6. Security - Protecting a site and its data from various hacks and cracks and unwanted intrusions is what is expected from the web hosting provider, and so a host’s security protocol should be outlined. Choose such a web hosting provider who offers free firewall support and fraud, spam and virus-protected email accounts. Long with it a web hosting provider has to offer daily/weekly back ups of your web site data along with data restore facility - free of cost.
7. Server software - LINUX and WINDOWS are the most common server software environments. Some of the web hosting providers does not offer options. But few web host companies proudly provide both and you need to choose the particular software environment which would best suit your requirement.
8. Customer service - When you pay, customer service also becomes an important aspect. Web hosting providers vary in a great degree regarding this aspect. Always choose such web hosting company which has 24/7 phone support, email support. Also, remember to view the postal/company address of the web hosting provider. A legimate web hosting company will provide its head office / reginoal office address on the home page of the website. Confirm, that this address is not a P.O. box address. Ensure you are paying to the safe hands.
9. Hidden costs - A careful survey about any hidden cost is a must before you choose your host. The permission to use certain scripting languages and databases is restricted by some web hosting provider and when you need these, you actually end up paying the same amount or even more for the web space which seemed cheaper to you at the beginning.
10. Reliability - Reliability is the most important factor while choosing a perfect web hosting provider. Some hosts would promise things on which they cannot stand.