xpl0iter
Mythical member
If you're looking forward to start your very first website, the primary and very crucial choice is to select the right host. Here I am going to help you out by writing some guidelines on choosing the right hosting for your website!
The Hosting Specifications:
Avoiding too much thinking, you're better choosing an unlimited hosting provider. Unlimited Bandwidth, Unlimited Disk Space, Unlimited Databases etc. The beauty of unlimited hosting is, it provides you with the freedom to extend your services e.g. you may want to add anotehr domain, or a subdomain to your hosting package. But, be careful, before selecting a host which offers unlimited bandwidth- be sure to read their entire Terms of Service. Some hosts say that they are offering you unlimited bandwidth and hosting space, when in reality there is a limit which is hidden only in their terms of service which you will be accepting when you sign up with them. So be careful about that. Remember that no hosting is truly unlimited. They will force you to upgrade to a VPS or Dedicated server eventually, usually if you're using too much server resources. Make sure their offers are not marketing gimmicks!
If you would rather avoid an unlimited service (as you want to know the exact resources you can use), be sure to plan ahead. Otherwise you will have to change the hosts every now and again. This is not an easy task on a shared server, especially if the control panel is not cPanel.
(We will discuss about control panels in this article, so read on)! Also, you're facing hours of downtime when switching hosts- so it's best to plan in advance!
Hosting Platform:
There is no many things to consider for making your choice on server platform. If you're planning on making a website which uses windows products like ms-sql or you want to use asp, the of-course you will need a windows platform. Any other case, just select a linux platform. Most of the websites are hosted on linux platform jsut because of the tools available and the easy management. Linux platform has lots of features and easy to configure. The best thing is, its very easy to get help on the configurations if needed.
Control Panel:
If you're new to the hosting and webmaster scene, the best choice is cPanel. Of-course there are a lot of different control panels available, and yes cPanel hosting is not on the cheaper side (although nowadays there is little difference). But CPanel has its advantages. Easy management, feature rich, support for lots of applications, best in the business backup/restore system, the list goes on and on. Just select cPanel, if you have choice! Not all hosts provide you cPanel. Some hosts have their own in-house Control Panels, which might be good. But generally speaking cPanel is the best. If you're in doubt, you can ask the hosting sales support before you make the decision to buy their services.
Hosting Features:
There are lot of features to look out for, to make the management of your website as easy as possible. Almost all hosting companies provide you with a demo for their control panel. Here I will write a few of these features to look for in the hosting control panel.
Support:
Before selecting a host, you should check the response time and quality of the support team. If the hosting provider is great in all aspects except their support team, that host is useless for all but experienced webmaster. A host is only good if their support team is excellent. Otherwise you will end up having lots of downtime and have no-one to get support from. Check for the availability of Chat Support, if it is 24x7, that's very good. That means, whenever you have any problems or have doubts, you can simply ask their support team in real time and they can actually solve it. While ticket support system is good, its not great nor as fast as real time Chat Support.
Hosting Provider Reputation:
And, finally, before making your decision final- just do a search for reviews about the selected host. You will find lots of reviews on a specific host by just doing a Google search. Also you can ask for personal opinions in webmaster forums like WebGuruBB - http://www.webgurubb.com. You will get the answers and other recommendations from these forums.
Trying out before actually buying:
Lots of Hosts actually has a money back guarantee. So make use of that, don't buy a hosting for 1 whole year, if you haven't tried their service before. Buy for one month and try it out, if you like it then continue with their service. Otherwise ask for your money back and proceed with finding another host. The reason to not buy for a whole year at first is simple: 1. You're locked in for a whole year, you've already paid. 2. Hosts are less likely to give an annual payment back in full.
So I wish you all the best on finding a web host to suit your needs!
The Hosting Specifications:
Avoiding too much thinking, you're better choosing an unlimited hosting provider. Unlimited Bandwidth, Unlimited Disk Space, Unlimited Databases etc. The beauty of unlimited hosting is, it provides you with the freedom to extend your services e.g. you may want to add anotehr domain, or a subdomain to your hosting package. But, be careful, before selecting a host which offers unlimited bandwidth- be sure to read their entire Terms of Service. Some hosts say that they are offering you unlimited bandwidth and hosting space, when in reality there is a limit which is hidden only in their terms of service which you will be accepting when you sign up with them. So be careful about that. Remember that no hosting is truly unlimited. They will force you to upgrade to a VPS or Dedicated server eventually, usually if you're using too much server resources. Make sure their offers are not marketing gimmicks!
If you would rather avoid an unlimited service (as you want to know the exact resources you can use), be sure to plan ahead. Otherwise you will have to change the hosts every now and again. This is not an easy task on a shared server, especially if the control panel is not cPanel.
(We will discuss about control panels in this article, so read on)! Also, you're facing hours of downtime when switching hosts- so it's best to plan in advance!
Hosting Platform:
There is no many things to consider for making your choice on server platform. If you're planning on making a website which uses windows products like ms-sql or you want to use asp, the of-course you will need a windows platform. Any other case, just select a linux platform. Most of the websites are hosted on linux platform jsut because of the tools available and the easy management. Linux platform has lots of features and easy to configure. The best thing is, its very easy to get help on the configurations if needed.
Control Panel:
If you're new to the hosting and webmaster scene, the best choice is cPanel. Of-course there are a lot of different control panels available, and yes cPanel hosting is not on the cheaper side (although nowadays there is little difference). But CPanel has its advantages. Easy management, feature rich, support for lots of applications, best in the business backup/restore system, the list goes on and on. Just select cPanel, if you have choice! Not all hosts provide you cPanel. Some hosts have their own in-house Control Panels, which might be good. But generally speaking cPanel is the best. If you're in doubt, you can ask the hosting sales support before you make the decision to buy their services.
Hosting Features:
There are lot of features to look out for, to make the management of your website as easy as possible. Almost all hosting companies provide you with a demo for their control panel. Here I will write a few of these features to look for in the hosting control panel.
Website Creation Tools:
If you're not planning to use any scripts(CMS) for your website like wordpress, joomla etc., or planning to make a static website, make sure you have website creation tools on your control panel. Almost all good hosting companies provide you with some tools for this, or at least a few templates to work with. Using these kinds of tools, you can simply create your own websites in no time without any help from people.
Instant Backups and Restore:
Make sure your hosting provider gives you an option to backup your website and restore from the backup. If they do not provide this, it's best to avoid buying their service. For example in cPanel, the backup tool is so easy that just one click is needed to create the entire website's backup!
Automatic Script Installation Utility:
Well, not all people need this tool- but it's create for newer webmaster. Basically this tool will allow you to installs scripts like wordpress, phpbb, joomla, drupal, mybb, etc with just one click. No configurations/setup are needed. So people who are new to these kind of stuffs, may find it extremely easy to do the work. So make sure you check this before buying the service. From experience Softaculous is the best 1 click installer, with the scripts always being up-to-date.
FTP Server:
While most of the hosting providers gives you this, some do not. Without ftp access, you are basically stuck with their control panel and trust me, its not a good thing. FTP is easy fast and efficient while uploading/downloading the files on your webserver. Bypass any host which is not providing ftp access.
SSH:
SSH access is a very good thing to have especially if you have 2 or more websites, hosted on different servers. But its not a must and not all hosts provide you this.
Perl/PHP/Ruby/Python etc.
Be sure to check for the programming language support. This choice will change according to each user. So best idea is to contact the support team and tell them about your website contents. And buy from them only if they say they provide it. For example, if you're planning on running a wordpress website, and your host does not support PHP, then that host is useless to you. Php is the most common scripting language, so most hosts support this. But, if you plan to run anything else- be sure to ask your host.
Cron:
Cron is basically a scheduler. You can carry out different tasks at a particular time or interval using this. Your best bet is to buy a hosting which provides this. You will never know when you will be needing this. It's fantastic for automatic backups and a lot of web scripts use this.
CGI Bin Access:
Lots of applications use CGI to work. So make sure you have this on your server. Basically this is a temporary folder where scripts are run from.
Analytics Tool:
You must have an analytics tool on your webhost for you to get an idea about the visitors. One of the best is AWStats. However, it is not completely necessary to get a host with a stats program. Google Analytics is known to be excellent when determining stats and is considered more accurate than anything your host can offer.
Support:
Before selecting a host, you should check the response time and quality of the support team. If the hosting provider is great in all aspects except their support team, that host is useless for all but experienced webmaster. A host is only good if their support team is excellent. Otherwise you will end up having lots of downtime and have no-one to get support from. Check for the availability of Chat Support, if it is 24x7, that's very good. That means, whenever you have any problems or have doubts, you can simply ask their support team in real time and they can actually solve it. While ticket support system is good, its not great nor as fast as real time Chat Support.
Hosting Provider Reputation:
And, finally, before making your decision final- just do a search for reviews about the selected host. You will find lots of reviews on a specific host by just doing a Google search. Also you can ask for personal opinions in webmaster forums like WebGuruBB - http://www.webgurubb.com. You will get the answers and other recommendations from these forums.
Trying out before actually buying:
Lots of Hosts actually has a money back guarantee. So make use of that, don't buy a hosting for 1 whole year, if you haven't tried their service before. Buy for one month and try it out, if you like it then continue with their service. Otherwise ask for your money back and proceed with finding another host. The reason to not buy for a whole year at first is simple: 1. You're locked in for a whole year, you've already paid. 2. Hosts are less likely to give an annual payment back in full.
So I wish you all the best on finding a web host to suit your needs!
Written By:
Edited By:
Sam
