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Web Hosting Guide: How To Choose The Right Provider

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Are you currently looking for a web host provider? Considering the many hosting companies available, it can be quite confusing to pick just one. It holds true that choosing the right web host for your website can be a daunting process; hence, you should not take it lightly.

With the right strategies, you can find your way towards a hosting company that can meet your demands. As such, remember to use the following tips to help you pick the best web host for your upcoming web project.

#1. Read Reviews

This is definitely the very first thing that you need to do. Forget about the prices and features for now – and just focus on what other people are saying about a hosting provider. Reading reviews will give you concrete knowledge about how well a company is in terms of providing its services. After all, these reviews are written by clients who subscribed to their service.

Let’s say you are more interested in a company’s VPS hosting service than its shared hosting. You should read VPS hosting reviews by users, so you will know which one is right for you. At the same time, doing so will enable you to understand what exactly you should look for in the best VPS hosts.

#2. Consider Your Specific Needs

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By now you already know that choosing a web host is not as easy as picking one from a list. That is because everyone’s idea of “best” vary greatly and, more importantly, will depend on their own unique needs. For instance, you are planning to run an e-commerce site. Obviously, you need to have a provider that can accommodate the e-commerce software you want to utilize.

This is where you need to consider your specific needs. What type of site are you going to build? Are you planning to build two or more sites? How much traffic are you expecting on a monthly basis? How much is your monthly budget? These are just some of the many questions that you need to ask yourself in order to determine what your specific needs are.

#3. Remember Reliability and Speed

When choosing a hosting provider, the company’s reliability and uptime scores should always be considered. You basically want your site to be operating as often as possible. Even a few seconds of downtime can prove detrimental to the success of your website.

But you have to consider the fact that no host is capable of guaranteeing their servers to be 100 percent active. At some point, they will face issues concerning reliability and speed, thus affecting your site.

So how are you going to tackle this one?

Your best course of action is to look at a provider’s website and check its reliability and speed stats. More importantly, you need to scour through different online reviews, so you can get a feel for how customers’ websites have performed with that hosting provider.

#4. Always Know Your Upgrade Options

A general rule of thumb is to go with shared web hosting. After all, it has always been a good place to start because it is cheap. But understand that as your website grows, so does your needs. You might find yourself need more email storage, bandwidth, and other resources.

So, as much as possible, you should not be easily tempted by unlimited or unmetered offers. In most cases, your service agreement will allow your hosting provider to throttle your site’s performance after a certain amount of use. In other words, your website’s speed is significantly reduced. There are even agreements that allow providers to completely shut down a website if too many resources are being utilized.

That is why you need to look for a provider that offers you room to grow. Sure, you can always start on a shared hosting service, but remember to pick a provider that can allow you to upgrade to a dedicated server if you find the need to.

#5. Explore Security Features

Another important area that you need to carefully consider is the security features of a hosting provider. This is especially true if you are going to run a site that collects, stores, and/or transports sensitive data (e.g. credit card numbers, address, phone, etc.).

Start by finding at if a provider runs firewalls and even malware detection on its servers. Ask the company as well if it can monitor their servers for any unusual activity. Look for a web host that can offer you SSL certificates, as this makes sure that data sent over your website is decrypted and secure.

Finally, you need to know if a provider is capable of offering frequent site backups. Despite having a wide range of security measures, it can never be a guarantee that your website is invulnerable to attacks or hacks. As long as your host has a backup service or feature enabled, you should be able to restore your site with ease.

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