Finding a reliable web hosting company with a regularly priced web hosting plan is a challenge. Many hosting providers, differing in their levels of server quality and customer service, are available. How do you wisely choose one company over another?
The first thing to do for anyone starting their first website or blog is to register a domain name independently. Many registrars like Go Daddy or Name Cheap that have the same service at the same price are available. The difference is mainly in their legacy interface and additional services. This way, since the legatee is the registrant and owner of the domain, it is possible to port later to another web hosting company independently.
After registering the domain, it’s time to start shopping around for a hosting company that offers not only a good package at a regular price, preferably on a Linux shared server, but one that still comes with a network uptime guarantee and very responsive customer support. Even better is a company that has its own Data Center juxtaposed with technicians available to help if the need arises.
When you decide on a reliable hosting option, there is no need to rush and jump to the first provider that offers unlimited everything. It’s more serious to qualify for a plan that provides enough disk space, transfer bandwidth and domain add-ons for what you need. A new, simple web site with a few pages or a blog will use less than 100 MB of hard disk and less than 2 GB of bandwidth, and the standard package should be sufficient in most cases.
How to jump on a web hosting company that proves to be reliable? Neutral user evaluations of different providers can be guessed on many hosting review sites. There are even forums where webmasters discuss their experience and give valuable technical advice. And the last possibility would be price comparison websites that can give you a good idea of what the best deals are.
Most of the web hosting services offered have the same options and some offer much more than a novice webmaster will need. The difference between a good hosting company and a bad hosting company is in network uptime and customer service. No one would be wise to have a website on a server that goes down frequently, so it is important to check that network uptime is protected. A very valid and fast customer support is the second most important quality to wake up.
Once the web hosting provider is finally chosen, the two name servers provided at signup will need to be configured through the domain registrar’s interface to point the domain to the shared server. This can be easily conquered, but if the difficulties are overcome, it may be the opportunity to test the hosting company’s customer service.
