What to consider when choosing a web host

How to choose the best web host

Penny Dower Hunt, 9 October 2020.

There are tons of tutorials on how to start your own website on the internet. These tutorials however do not show the rigors of having a website. Starting up without proper professional support could jeopardize the whole thing and you may have to start from scratch.

It is no surprise that some firms turn to the expertise of a good ecommerce development company or Magento Ecommerce Agency to take the stress of starting and maintaining a website from their list of things to do. We shall be going into the details of one of the processes of starting your first website. This is the stage of choosing a web host provider for your website.

What or who is a web host?

A web host provides storage space and access for websites. It can also be seen as a business that provides the technologies and services needed for the website or webpage to be viewed on the Internet. For a better understanding, web hosting is a service that allows organizations and individuals to post a website or web page onto the Internet. Websites are hosted (stored) on special computers called servers. When Internet users want to view your website, all they need to do is type your website address or domain into their browser. Their computer will then connect to your server and your webpages will be delivered to them via the web browser. The following are things you should consider when choosing a web hosting service.

What your proposed website needs

This is the basis for picking a suitable hosting service, one that provides a reliable and affordable service with ongoing support. You should ask yourself some basic questions such as:

1. What kind of website do you want to be hosted?
2. What features will be present on your website?
3. Will you need support for scripts like PHP?
4. How much traffic do you expect your website to attract? After asking yourself these basic questions, you have to match them against the features of the various packages provided by the web host.

Are the ‘best hosting packages’ best for you?

A lot of firms particularly larger and more established firms go for the packages that are tagged the "best packages". They tend to forget that the best package is not always the right package. Some think that the more pricey the package is, the better the features will be. Many small business owners think that picking shared hosting is the best way to save money, but even though the price tag is much smaller, you will likely experience slow website and email response time since you are sharing the same server with others who may be active at the same time as you, causing a traffic jam.

You should also enquire about the possibility of upgrading to a better but more expensive package or a less expensive package if the need arises. This is necessary to avoid getting stuck at the point when you are beginning to receive increased traffic or when you can no longer afford your current plan.

Are you getting timely tech support?

It will do you well to know when/if your web host provider is conducting maintenance on their servers or if your website will be running smoothly during that time.

What is their customer care support like? Will they be able to attend to you if your website crashes in the middle of the night? What about their customer service? Are they available on weekends, holidays and after working hours?

Maintaining a website is sometimes technical and when you experience problems that you are not able to solve or issues that need the attention of your web host company, can they be of help in that instance?

The Internet is filled with people who are criminally minded. You should therefor ensure your web host provider offers encrypted secure SSL hosting and provides adequate, regular back ups in case your website gets hacked or has some other technical failure.

Read what others say about web hosts

Google Search is a great place to find out what other people think about the host providers you are thinking of using. This can help you make an informed opinion before committing to an unsuitable web hosting provider or hosting package.