When you planning to select a web host for your website, it is better to have a clear understanding about what you should consider before selecting a website hosting company. Most of the companies will offer you unlimited disk space or unlimited bandwidth and free email. Therefore, it is necessary that you get a clear understanding about the services provided by the website hosting company, before you finalise one.
Factors which you need to consider when selecting a Web Host are:
1. Price
Though you may be looking for an affordable hosting provider, you also need to check the reliability of the provider. It is rightly said, that we will get what we pay for. Hence you need to determine what services and features are being offered to you for a specific price. While comparing the price of the web hosting services, choose a price which offers the best services but a lower price. Things like whether the support department is in house or outsourced, the quality of the hardware used, all these factors should be considered when evaluating the price. Compare all the features provided by different web hosts along with their fees before taking your final decision.
2. Meeting the requirements
Before choosing your web host, it is important you understand your needs and requirements. Each company or person’s needs will differ depending on whether it is full-fledged established business or a growing enterprise or just a simple blog website. It is essential that you are aware about your current and future requirements, to take the right decision in choosing a web host provider.
3. Features and Limitations
It is important that you determine what you expect from the website, for example a simple blog website will require fewer features as compared to an e-commerce website. Some websites may need plenty of RAM along with sufficient processing power, to function efficiently. Most of the cheaper web hosts will not be able to provide you these features. Chooser a provider which can deliver to your expectations and can also grow with you and incorporate the growing requirements over the years.
4. Technical Support
Technical support is a very important feature, ensure that the web host has a good name and review for their support department. They should be offering a 24/7 support, and not an automated computerised support. They should be able to offer different kinds of support, like email support, toll-free phone support, live chat support etc. Also try to choose a web host , who has an in house support department and not an outsourced one.
5. Quality of Hardware
You need to gather some information on the hardware which is used by the potential hosting services provider. They should have good quality servers which are designed to work in collaboration.
6. Customer Reviews
Search and check reviews and feedbacks about each provider you are considering. Check on social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and Google etc. The search will help you know what their current or previous users and clients feel about their services. Read about the issues faced by them or how the company responded to the complaints.
7. Control Panel and User Interface
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All business owners cannot be expected to be tech savvy, and you surely would not want to keep calling the customer support for the smallest of issues. The control panel and user interface of the web host should be user friendly. Even non-technical persons should be able to easily update and modify the website without much hassles.