When you embark on the endeavor of creating a website, at some point, you have to opt for a hosting provider. There are so many options, so the choice can be very difficult for someone who has no prior knowledge of the subject.
First of all, it is necessary to determine the objectives to achieve with the web and the level of traffic that is expected to be achieved. For a small business website seeking to maintain an active Internet presence, it is likely that it is not projected to get a lot of traffic, while for an online sales platform the site is expected to be visited by thousands of users every day. This factor is extremely important in determining bandwidth and the most convenient type of service.
Choosing the type of hosting service
There are different types of services aimed at the needs of each project. Thus, the shared hosting service is the cheapest of all since it offers accommodation for different web pages from the same server. With this option, the performance of the site will depend, to a large extent, on the load of the other sites and the additional services that are contracted. Shared hosting services are the most used by small websites due to their low cost and ease of implementation.
For its part, the hosting services offered through Virtual Private Servers – VPS allow to obtain a performance far superior to that of shared hosting and a higher level of independence. With a VPS server, the user has an exclusive virtual server, with its own resources of RAM, disk, CPU, etc., without the need to share it with other users. This type of service is usually offered in both managed and unmanaged modes, aimed at more experienced users. If you are looking for a great hosting provider that offers VPS plans, go to this site and start your search.
There are other options for web hosting such as dedicated servers or cloud servers, which offer specific configurations for each project. The main advantage of these alternatives is that the characteristics of the servers can be increased according to the level of traffic that is obtained.
Factors to consider before you choose
Space
We start from the basics. You need to know how much space your website will take up and thus sign the appropriate contract with the provider. Or at least leave open the possibility that you can upgrade to a larger space in case you need it.
Bandwidth
Equally important as the space we mentioned. It is the amount of data flow that can be performed at the same time. This data flow occurs between the server and the computer of the user accessing your website. Depending on your needs and the expected number of visits, you can choose between limited and unlimited bandwidth.
Like storage, many providers offer unlimited traffic, but it is important to clarify what it consists of many times. If it is used excessively, it is possible to generate overloads in your account, or directly slow down your website until the level of your bandwidth returns to zero.
The latter is more linked to those products that do set a numerical limit and is exceeded a few days after the end of the month. In these cases, it would be advisable to scale the product towards one that offers more capacity.
Price
And this certainly plays an important role in your decision. Since you rarely have an unlimited budget, you need to take care of the price. The price must be in line with your budget and what you expect to earn after you launch on the Internet. Also keep track of discounts so you can save extra. The ideal time of year for this is holidays like Independence Day or Thanksgiving. Also, if you don’t have time, there are professionals, such as Webpage Scientist, who have researched all hosting providers for you. They did all the hard work, you just need to check their reviews.
Reliability
When you look for this feature in the hosting plans of several companies, it can be indicated as “guaranteed uptime” or with the Anglo-Saxon term “uptime”.
This uptime refers mostly to the ability of each company’s servers to be active and give access to their customers. They do not cover other aspects related to a website (scripting, malware, etc.) that could bring down your business. When choosing a provider, take a good look at the guarantees they offer in the event of a server outage.
Security
Another functionality that any company that works in the world of web hosting must have enabled is the security of each of its clients. Any vulnerability on your page, such as malware or other viruses, can make Google try to remove traffic by sending warnings that they are facing a dangerous web page for having malicious content. If you go to this extreme, your SEO level will be affected.
If you see that in some company nothing is said explicitly about the safety of their products, do not stay with the doubt, ask them. If this is still not enough, you may be interested in increasing your level of web security with an additional product.
Backups
Even though you think you have secured enough of all your data and that you have made enough backup copies, you can never be sure enough. It will be safest for you that your provider also backs up everything you post on your web site. In case they do not offer this option, you can use some of the most famous clouds and thus be one hundred percent sure that nothing will be lost in case of failure.
7. 24/7 technical support
Although we put it as the last place on our list, it is very important. Problems with sites are common occurrence, and you don’t want your website to be offline for many hours or even days. That is why it is necessary to ask in advance how their tehnical support works and whether they will be available to solve the problem at any time of the day, week or year.
Conclusion
While we know this is likely to give you a headache, we hope our tips and things to consider have made the whole process much easier.
