Hosting Now

Our Web Hosting Tips

There is a lot to learn when trying to choose a hosting company. There are so many hosting companies now and the prices seem to keep going lower, but there are some things to think about before signing up with the “best deal” hosting company.

1. Many shared web hosting companies offer similar plans but the fine print is what matters. Read the terms of service and any user agreements. Mostly focus on the sections about refund policy, domain transfer charges, approved sites(many don’t allow gambling, sexual, music downloads,etc….), and bandwidth-storage-inode limits. (see other article about that)
2. Personally, the biggest differentiator for shared web hosting is SERVICE / SUPPORT. Do they provide you phone and instant chat support or just email support ? Do they offer 24/7 support ? Is the support outsourced overseas or local ? Is the quality of support good ? Seriously, DON’T OVERLOOK THIS ASPECT of hosting. Many people just focus on the price but when they have technical problems and have wasted entire days troubleshooting a problem or waiting for support to answer you, then you will wish you paid the extra couple bucks for hosting with a reputable provider.
3. Understand what software you will need or application you will be using BEFORE SIGNING UP. For example wordpress is now widely used(what this website uses) and you need to make sure that hosting company provides the necessary software to run it. Wordpress works best on Linux not Microsoft based servers and uses MySQL databases with PHP Scripts,etc….So if you have a specific software you will be using don’t be afraid to call the sales support of the hosting company and ask prior to signing up(it will be a good way to test how decent the support is)
4. Go with a hosting company that uses CPANEL for your files/site management. It is the most common industry standard and makes it much easier to transfer to a different host when you are moving CPANEL to CPANEL hosts.
5. Many shared hosts advertise a free domain with sign up. It is ok to take advantage of that but understand that when you buy a domain there is a registrar that the domains is kept at so if you have a bad experience with a hosting company then if might be difficult or more expensive to transfer that domain to a new registrar. You can always just redirect that website domain easily but when if comes time to renew the domain, that hosting company registrar that gave you the free domain might be very expensive. The best way to buy your domains at a domain registrar like Godaddy.com and just keep your domains there and redirect the domains to your hosting company(don’t use GoDaddy Hosting). Essentially use the companies that are best at what they do. Hosting companies for hosting and domain registrars for domains names.

Hope this helped. It can be overwhelming searching/comparing different hosts and reviews,etc…but if you want our opinion(based on our experiences and colleagues experiences), we would just go with Hostgator for shared web hosting (Hostgator Shared Baby Plan is most common for multiple domains and Hatchling Plan if you only have 1 site.) Hostgator has the best service, support and quality for the price that we have experienced.