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Web Hosting Criteria

Shared Web Hosting varies greatly in the features that company provides. Before reading the features below though be aware to READ THE FINE PRINT for any shared web hosting company because despite claiming unlimited storage,etc….you will usually max out on bandwidth or Server CPU usage which are NOT unlimited.

Our shared web hosting company of choice(after dealing with lots of bad hosts) is Hostgator. Hands down we have found that they surpass other shared hosts in regards to all the criteria listed below and their support software/platform is by far the best. Honestly, Hostgator’s support system is amazing compared to other hosts I have dealt with.

In fact I have 5 accounts at Hostgator right now. When it comes to shared web hosting, the following features are the things you should be aware of:

1. Total web space provided.
Web space corresponds to the amount of files you can upload to the server. Of course, the bigger the web space provided the more sites and sub-domains you can host. You can also install many applications, as space is not going to be a problem. Be aware that many hosting companies may advertise unlimited storage but they limit the number of INODES, which is the number of files(which can add up quickly if you are adding content to your site constantly with images, videos,etc…..Some hosts limit it at 50,000 inodes and some at 250,000, so be aware of that.

2. Total amount of traffic allowed.
Many shared web hosting services will advertise UNLIMITED BANDWIDTH. When it comes to this aspect, understand that you if you have large amount of traffic the server will probably be bogged down or if lots of different users are causing lots of processes to run when they click on posts with images or videos,etc…then you will hit the CPU limits. There really is no such thing as unlimited bandwidth unless you keep upgrading your account to bigger and better servers…….and shared web hosting companies would just lose money giving unlimited bandwidth so generally its limited to what is provided by the server and when you are sharing a server with hundreds of other websites you site will probably load very slow or timeout if you start getting a lot of traffic/bandwidth usage.
3. Server uptime.
Obviously you want your website up 100% of the time, if possible but that isn’t always the case. This feature is usually dependent on the servers of your web-hosting provider. You have to make sure that you go with the company that is totally reliable. Go with a reputable provider and generally you should not have too many problems with downtime, but honestly when you see unlimited hosting with unlimited storage/bandwidth/# of domains/etc….for less than $5 then understand that you might have some downtime because I have found those services to be less quality or overloaded servers so your sites are really slow. Not always the case but it does happen.

4. Software, applications and bundles included.
Software can be a differentiator between shared hosts. The control panel/account management software than is the most common is called CPANEL. Some hosting companies use a different control panel software or their own. I would avoid those because if you need to transfer your account then CPANEL is easier to transfer especially if upgrading to a reseller or VPS account that uses WHM software. Many hosting companies provide free web design software or free website templates. There are a lot of web hosting services that offer application installation support. The most common web hosting scripts and programs today are Java, Php, and Frontpage. Try to find out which of these are supported by your web hosting provider to determine if your web page will work for them or not.

The performance of your website relies on your web hosting service. Make sure you trust your website only to the experts. Go with the company that understands the needs of their clients when it comes to uptime and functionality(PERSONALLY I WOULD MAKE SURE THE HOSTING SUPPORT IS IN YOUR LOCAL COUNTRY TOO).

If you are intending to use a specific software then make sure it will be supported. Generally if the hosting provider is well known and you are using a common software then you should have to worry about it for shared hosting. If you plan on using Wordpress then go with Linux Servers and make sure they provide MySql databases and Latest PHP scripts. Also many provide autoinstallers like Fantastico which is great for wordpress installations.

Hope this helped.

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