Essential Guide To Choosing a Hosting Provider

With literally thousands of hosts out there it's a complete mine field when trying to decide which one to place your business with. This post is meant to help you recognise the popular pitfalls and the rare good bits to look out for when choosing a hosting provider.

Please feel free to add anything extra you think I’ve missed or in general you think would be useful

Avoid:

1. Unmetered Bandwidth- It’s simply impossible to provide such a thing. The catch is and has always been that once you exceed your allocated Resource limit, which is usually around 2%, then your site will be taken down or you will be asked to move to a dedicated box or even to a different host. The concept behind the word "Unlimited" is that the hosting company 'hope' that you will not use more than a few GB. So, the host might have perhaps 10 Terabyte of bandwidth available on the server they have placed you on but that has to be spread between perhaps 3000 users and the minute you start using too much then you’re in trouble. It’s not rare that these hosts will simply terminate your account and unless you have a backup then you've lost everything!
2. Unmetered Disk Space – Exactly the same as above but this time it’s about disk space. Now if you truly had Unlimited Disk space then the whole server could be taken up by your files and yet they’re only going to charge you $5.99 for it? Think about it for a second Once again the host knows that it would be virtually impossible for you to use so much space so once again they ‘over sell’ the space knowing that no one can use that amount. The likelihood is more like if use as much as 10GB, which in itself is enormous and would hold something like a billion or more web pages with highly detailed images but even trying to use that amount will get you in to trouble.
3. Resouce Limits - As above really. All large hosts have a set resource limit. As mentioned already, this is usually around 2% so if you have a forum for example that has say 1000 members, 8000 posts, 100 people online at any one time, then you'll soon reach that limit and a nice message will take the place of your website, saying something like "Your account has exceeded your allotted allowences, please contact support". That looks really professional!
4. Email Sending Limits - I have yet to find a large host that lets you send much more than around 200 emails per hour. What happens when you reach that limit? All those extra emails get bounced back and looks really professional!
5. Locked Community Forums – This should tell you a great deal about the host you are considering. If they only allow their customers to view their forums then how can possibly gage any understanding on how the company operates and how they treat their customers? A host with an open forum means that they are happy for you to see the good and bad and are confident enough to let you make your own informed decision based on the input from their customers.
6. Paying yearly – This one should be pretty obvious. While there is no doubt that you will get a discount against a monthly price plan by paying yearly it also means that once you’ve paid up you are stuck. Let’s say a couple of weeks down the line you find the host’s uptime is terrible as is their support. What do you do? You’ve just paid out all your money and you’re not likely to get a penny of it back. If you can, only pay monthly. Try and use a PayPal account or your Credit Card so that if after month one you are not happy you can cancel and you’ve only lost a few pounds. Paying by Credit Card or PayPal means also that if your host attempts to continue to charge you after you’ve cancelled then you can claim your money back because the transaction was not authorised by you. Try to avoid paying by Switch, Solo or any other ‘instant payment’ card because these cards take the money directly from your bank account and there is no recourse if the host continues to charge you because you originally authorised the transaction. However, if you have cancelled your account which should always be done in writing, then you should be able to provide this as proof to your card issuer who may then reimburse you and stop the payments.
7. Contracts – Any reputable hosting provider will not tie you into a contract unless you have paid yearly. If you are paying monthly then your contract is on a month by month basis which means if you wish to cancel then you should submit your cancellation at least one week before your next payment is due. Check the host’s TOS for details and if this is not covered then ask! If on the other hand you are purchasing a custom design along with the hosting then a contract is to be expected.

What you should do

1. Research, Research, Research - Before choosing your host you must research them! WebHostingTalk is an essential guide where you will find hundreds of reviews of hosting providers, however these reviews usually only cover the big boys, the ones that are offering you all this Unlimited stuff for a few pound. Google is your best friend here too; simply search for any information regarding the host you are considering.
2. Client Comments - If the host has a Testimonials page then be sure to read it and if it’s possible then contact some of these people personally and ask for their opinion.
3. Forethought - Think of lots of questions you would like answered and shoot them off to your potential host and see what their responses are like. How long did they take to respond? Were their responses professional? Were their responses grammatically correct, (this determines whether you are dealing with a teenager working from his bedroom!) (Yes I know my use of symbols in that statement are incorrect but used to stress the point If you know you are likely to be receiving 10,000 hits a day then be realistic and understand that a Shared account is not really suitable but tell the potential host this first! Most hosts will recommend you start off on a Shared account until your website becomes too heavy and then you can move to a VPS or Dedicated box.

So who do you choose in the end? As a relatively small provider myself i am bound to tell you to look at the smaller providers but i can assure you that in doing so is not for self promotion.

• Smaller providers and local providers will offer realistic packages with realistic prices to go with them.
• Small and local providers don't try to entice you in by claiming to give you unrealistic resources and then turn off your site because you've actually used what you have paid for. For local companies you, the customer are their 'bread & butter'.
• You will usually find that they will build a friendly relationship with you rather than treating you like another pay cheque.
• You will usually find that they don't oversell their servers which means less people per server which results in better response times for your website.
• You will usually find they are more lenient about the kind of content you can host on their servers, such as adult content although obviously no illegal content.
• You will usually find that they don't hold you to a rediculous hourly email limit or resource limits.
• You will usually find that they will work with you and be there for you when you are stuck with simple questions such as simple html etc.

The general focus for local companies is that keeping you happy is their number one priority and i know from many moons ago, long before i decided to enter this profession, when i was seeking a host that these very simple things make all the difference.

Here’s hoping this helps some people out