Shopping for a web hosting company can be frustrating and confusing, especially if you are new to the whole thing of web hosts, domain names and websites. Before you commit to any one host, below is a list of ten important issues you should consider:

1. Know what your needs are

How can you choose anything right, if you don’t know what you are going to need? Do you need a Windows server to host Microsoft specific applications, such as ASP and VBScript? Do you need to run Linux specific applications? Are you going to start a WordPress blog or maybe you will need a shopping cart application? How big or small is your site going to be? How much traffic will it attract (hopefully)?

These are some basic questions you need to to have answers for. If you don’t know what half of the words in the previous paragraph mean, don’t worry – you will find a lot more information to get you started on this website. If you are a complete beginner, visit our Step-By-Step tutorial here!

If you are a beginner, or a seasoned user, prepare at least a short plan for your website to figure out what functionality you will need at least within the first year.

Your plan, and the list of required features should be your ultimate guide for choosing the right host. If you don’t have one, do yourself a favour and draft one up RIGHT NOW! Then check out our web host listings and draft a short list of candidates. We offer extensive lists of hosting companies for specific needs, so you should find what you are looking for right here!

2. Research the host’s website

You should now have a shortlist of reputable hosts after finishing your plan in step 1 (you did do that, didn’t you ). Now go and browse around their websites and see how their website feels, how responsive it is, how professional it looks, etc.

There is nothing wrong with giving your gut feeling a bit of say – you are going to trust the chosen company with running your website, after all, so you the right to be comfortable how the company looks and feels.

Pay attention to outlandish claims and too much hype. Web hosting industry is extremely competitive, so every one of the websites you visit are likely to be packed with offers, specials and bonuses – that is completely OK – they are simply trying to provide as much value to their customers they can.

Read the user reviews if they are available, or Google them. There is no need to freak out if there are one or two negative comments, but if you see page after page of negative comments condemning the host, it might be a good time to quietly retreat and move to the next candidate.

3. Web server reliability and uptime

When you have a website, you want it to be up and working. All the time. There are a number of services that monitor the uptime record of hundreds of web hosts. BestHostRating.com (link opens in a new window) maintains a huge database of web uptime (the time the service runs uninterrupted), and the service is free.

Most hosts give a 99.99% uptime guarantee, and they are generally reasonably reliable (they wouldn’t be listed here if they were not!). If you are opting for a smaller hosting company, the uptime record is worth checking, though.

4. Future growth potential

It might be hard to see what your future need is, but it is a good idea to look for a web host that can allow you to grow. Changing hosts can be daunting, especially if you have huge databases to migrate, web applications to transfer, etc. If you think you might be needing more space, bandwidth (speed) or something else in the future, choose a host that will allow you to migrate from one hosting plan to another, or even a dedicated server.

For example, HostGator and iPage are two of my top rated hosting services, but it might be worthwhile considering other options if you are planning on building the new Amazon. HostGator might just cut it, though.

5. Technical support

If you know what you are doing, the importance of technical support is over-rated. I, for example, very seldom need to contact technical support, but it is good to know that the support is there, in case you need it. You can test this by asking a technical question (before signing up with them), and see how efficient and knowledgeable the support team appears to be. Note that the question has to be TECHNICAL, not pre-sale. Good questions to ask are about inodes usage, Secure Server Certificates, server technical specifications, and so on.

All mainstream hosts tend to cater for clients who are at least reasonably familiar with web hosting and websites. Their support departments are not geared to holding your hand if you have no idea whatsoever about what you are doing. If you are a beginner, I highly recommend choosing a solution that minimizes the need for any technical work, such as SiteBuildIt. See this page for possible candidates.

6. Price is not everything

Price is always important, but don’t let cheapness blind you. You DO get what you pay for. Most mainstream hosts offer comparable plans within a few dollars of each other per MONTH. If you pay, say $10.95 / month for a plan, and a much more suitable host would be $12.95/month, you would save $24 a year, and get a host that is unsuitable for you. That is false economy and should be avoided. Cheap things that are good don’t come by that often.

Web hosting is cheap anyway you look at it, and considering that your website will be your face in the cyberspace, it is worthwhile investing in the best possible hosting you can afford. I don’t mean to say that more expensive is always better, but going cheap, cheap, cheap has a good chance of costing you more in the long run.

After all my ranting, if you are looking for the cheapest hosting, read this post first. And don’t forget this WARNING here!

If you are thinking of free web hosting, I have only three words for you: DON’T DO IT!

7. Terms and conditions

As hosting gets cheaper, and the companies have to provide more and more to stay competitive, the Terms of Service agreements get increasingly complicated. Before signing up with anyone, it is important to ACTUALLY READ the agreement you are entering into.

Items that are good to keep in mind are (not an exhaustive list by any means):

• Limits on “unlimited” accounts: read my warning here
• Commitment periods: so hosts require you to commit to them for a period of time in order to give you a good price. Sometimes this can be YEARS. Stay out of these. I personally do not buy hosting anywhere, no matter what the price, if I have to commit to the company for a time I don’t consider being reasonable. I have noticed that the use of commitment periods has decreased of late – good riddance, too.
• Money back guarantee: This should be available, and at least 30 days in length.

8. Features and extras

Most hosts (but not all) provide a bucketful of extras with the hosting package you choose. Make sure that you get the features you have listed in step 1 (then plan you made, remember). Make sure that your host’s email servers support POP3 e-mail (that is required so you can use an e-mail client like Outlook or Mozilla Thunderbird to fetch and read your mail), web mail, mail forwarding and auto responders. Most of them do.

If you are a beginner and don’t want to take advantage of more expensive services such as SiteBuildIt, make sure that your host offers tutorials and other support material. Most also offer site builder wizards such as Site Builder or Site Studio, as well as website templates.

9. Unlimited add-on domains

This can be a real money-saver if you plan on having several websites with different domain names. Add-on domain means that you only need one hosting account, and you can host as many different domains on it (for no change in price) as you like.

I have one account I run FORTY domains on for $12.95 per month. Can’t beat that for value. Luckily most mainstream hosting companies now offer unlimited add-on domains.

10. Backup policy

Even though keeping data safe if the lifeblood of hosting companies, there are many variations of back-up policy. Questions to ask are: how often do they backup? How long is the backup kept? Do they backup databases as well? Do they stop backing up after your site reaches certain inode count? You get the drift…

WARNING: read this post about “unlimited” accounts and backup policy!