Cheap Web Hosting
Web Hosting companies are numerous and there is a company to fit almost every need. Probably the most popular type is Cheap Web Hosting. Cheap Web Hosting companies host your web page on a shared server. Cheap Web Hosting generally starts at less than $10 per month and for a basic web page are usually more than adequate. Make sure to investigate the different packages offered by Web Hosting companies because they vary widely from company to company. Number of pages, amount of information, email, and interactivity (i.e. a shopping cart), are just some of the services that can vary from one Cheap Web Hosting company to the next. You want to make sure the company you choose can handle your page content if you later decide to expand it.
Finding a company to host your Web Page can seem like an easy enough task until you actually begin to try to find one. The vast number of companies along with the variety of services they offer can be somewhat daunting. There are many factors to consider when trying choosing a Web Hosting company. The order of importance of these factors should be adjusted to your personal standards. Take into consideration cost, downtime, services they offer (i.e. web page design domain name registration etc.), customer service, and reputation. Most Web Hosting companies have more than one hosting plan at different costs with different services. Make sure the companies you are considering have a telephone contact for customer service not just email. Finally research the company you are considering to determine if the pages they host are down frequently.
7 Key Points to Consider When Choosing a Web Host by Kyle Dusang
With literally thousands of web hosting companies in the
industry all vieing for your business, carefully consider these key points to
ensure you make the most well informed decision possible.
1. Server
Space
First, think about how much space your site will take up on a
server. Unless you are planning on running a software repository or an image
gallery, the files that make up your website will probably only use between 1
and 5 megabytes of disk space. Many companies will offer several hundreds of
megabytes of webspace for a very reasonable price in attempt to out perform
their competitors, but ask yourself "Do I really need that much space?". Though
it's true that you should allow your site "room to grow", don't opt for what
seems like a great deal on a massively sized account if you'll never use all of
the space offered. Chances are you'll find an even better deal on an amount of
space more suitable for your site size.
2. Data Transfer
Allowance
This decision should be based on the same principal as above.
Though you may be convinced that your site will be the next Amazon or Yahoo and
receive a gazillion visitors a day, you really shouldn't need an extremely high
data transfer allowance unless, as stated above, you're running a software
download site or a large image gallery. Even heavily trafficked normal HTML
sites usually only use a few gigabytes per month in bandwidth allowance. Don't
go overboard just because it seems like an awesome deal. You may also want to be
wary of companies who offer "unlimited" data transfer as there are usually some
fine-print stipulations that make this claim not entirely true. Be sure to read
their terms and conditions very carefully before opting for this type of
account. A five or ten gigabyte bandwidth allowance is usually plenty enough for
a small to medium sized business or personal site.
3. Technical
Support
A very important point to consider when choosing a web host is
the types of technical support offered by the company and how easy they are to
contact when you need them. Ideally, a company should offer 24/7 toll-free
telephone support and email. I have seen companies that do not even offer a
telephone number on their website. You should look for a company that is very
easily accessible in your time of need. Nothing is more frustrating than being
in the middle of working on your site and needing an important piece of
information to finish the job and not being able to contact your hosting company
to find it out.
4. CGI-Bin Access
No matter what type of site you
are planning on running, chances are you will eventually need to install some
type of CGI script. Whether it be a mailing list management script, contact form
processor, or maybe even a fancy credit card processing script, your hosting
account will need to allow you to install and run them. This requires access to
a special folder on your server called "CGI-Bin". Some hosting accounts will
only allow you to use "pre-installed" scripts as a security measure. These are
scripts that the owners of the company have installed and configured so that
they know that they will work properly and not adversely affect their server's
performance. That may be all you need, but if you have the knowledge, it's
always nice to have the ability to install your own scripts and configure them
to suit your individual needs. You should also be sure that the account you
choose supports the language in which your scripts are written, such as PHP,
Perl, etc.
5. Up-Time Guarantee
Another very important issue in
determining the value of a hosting company is how often and for how long their
servers "go down". No matter how good a deal you get on server space or
bandwidht allowance, or how wonderfully the company's tech support takes care of
you, your site can't receive visitors or produce revenue if the machine on which
it is hosted is not up and running. Naturally you want a company who can
guarantee the highest up-time percentage possible. Servers are taken down
briefly from time to time for maintenance or upgrading, so no company can ensure
100% up-time, but you want your site to be hosted on dependable, well managed
machines that are not constantly having problems which require them to be down
for long periods of time.
6. Email Accounts
Again, like data
transfer allowance and server space, some companies will offer you loads more
email accounts than you will ever use. Some offer hundreds or even unlimited
email accounts as a selling point. This is an important factor if you are Bill
Gates and have thousands of employees, each who need their own email box, but
not such a big deal if you're just one person or a small company. You should be
okay with 10 or 15.
7. Reputation
This is probably the most
important factor to consider when choosing a web host. Do your homework. Pay
attention to any negative feedback you may hear or read about a particular
hosting company. There are several sites arount the Web that feature discussion
forums that allow people to discuss and critique various hosting companies. Ask
specific questions about any company you might be interested in using to see if
anyone else has had any negative experiences with them. As a beginning
webmaster, I had initially contracted the services of a particular web hosting
company to host my first site, who promised very good, dependable service for a
very cheap price. Then one day, for no apparent reason, decided to delete my
entire site without warning or explanation. Only then did I visit some hosting
forums and find that many others had similar negative experiences with that
company. Don't make the same mistake I did, find out for sure from the start
that your hosting company is not going to let you down.
About the Author
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