web host web hosting

Factors to Consider When Choosing a Web Host

Like every other purchase, you need some research if you want to make a great decision. For hosting, the first thing to do is to know the types of packages available and their cost. For instance, web hosts like Verpex offer hosting packages that are as low as $3.99 per month and for some others, it can be higher. Hurry now to learn about the various types of hosting out there before proceeding any further.

So, let’s assume you have read about and bow know the types of hosting available in the industry. The next step would be to carefully take note of the following factors and see how they align with your needs and budget.

What You Can Afford

While price should never be the major factor that influences all your purchases, you need to consider it every time. Some stuff away cheap and not worth it while some others are expensive but valuable. However, some services or products are moderately priced or even cheap yet very effective. Now this is what you should ideally look out for.

What You Need from Your Hosting Provider

You will know what you need when you figure out the kind of website you want to host online. If it’s a basic blog or a lightweight portfolio website, you won’t be needing too much web resources. But if you’re looking at hosting a big e-commerce website, a search engine, a repository or a download website, you will need a lot of web space and bandwidth.

Availability of Tech Support

This is just nonnegotiable. It’s the internet that you’ll be dealing with and no one knows it all. From time to time, you will encounter bugs and challenges which your web host will ideally help you fix or guide you in the least.

So, go to Reddit, Quora, Trustpilot and as many review sites as you can find. Read customer reviews about their support. If it’s unreliable, nothing else matters. Ideally, a decent customer support system should immediately acknowledge the reception of your query. This response could be automated. That’s fine. But they must start attending to your query between minutes to a maximum of 24 hours after you send it in. In the best-case scenario, 24/7 customer support is what they should offer.

Server Reliability and Backups

It’s a great feeling when you know that your website is always online just as it was designed to be. Servers that do not or at least hardly ever crash should be your prime target. That way, you prevent loss of traffic and business.

On the other hand, you need to be sure your data is safe and properly backed up. This is 2020 and there are way more cyber security attacks now than there ever was in the history of humanity. No one wants to wake up one morning and realise that their website data have been compromised.

You also need to make sure your hosting company is one that will provide you a regular web data backup to mitigate against security breaches. Cloud based cyber security technology currently shows promises of improving web security in the future. But until that technology is perfected, you should ideally choose a hosting provider that is reputable for topnotch security.

Easy Control Panel / User Interface

This is certainly not the most important factor to consider as you can always hire an expert to help you when you’re stuck. But if a web host can provide an interface so simple that you do not need anyone’s help to use it effectively, then it’s a good one. Overall, you can avoid these complications from the very beginning by choosing a web host that has a user-friendly interface.

Conclusion

In this Forbes article, Steve Olenski, a former contributor on the publication explains just how much your website’s marketing depends on choosing “the right web host”. But beyond the need for proper marketing; security, cost and ease of use, are pretty important aspects you must consider.

Now there’s another one most people either don’t talk about or just don’t talk about enough. It’s customer care. As real as this can be put, businesses whose customer care department is deaf to user queries isn’t worth your dollar. Don’t forget this. It doesn’t matter how awesome their packages are. If they snub customers, it’s a solid red flag. Keep in mind that no matter how smoothly things run, a day comes when you’ll need assistance from your web host. You wouldn’t want to be stranded.

Scroll to Top