Choosing your webhost isn’t as straight-forward as we’d all like. There are thousands upon thousands of webhosting companies out there all competing to get your business. Luckily this has advantages as well, and you as a customer should ensure you make a careful and deliberate choice based on factors that are of most importance to your business. This article will go deeper into some of these factors and make some very general recommendations on what you should be looking for.
Factors to consider when choosing your webhost
There are a lot of factors you should consider when choosing a webhost. It doesn’t matter whether or not you are looking at a local host, since the same basic principles apply. The order these factors are in depends on your business. A small business might place priority on price while a large online business will place a high priority on reliability.
-Price – Does the webhost offer competitive pricing? You often get what you pay for but it’s not necessarily true that the most expensive host is the best.
-Service & Reliability – Ideally the host should guarantee its uptime (the time the server is functional and reachable). You should look for an absolute minimum uptime of 99%. A lot of hosts will make all sorts of false claims regarding this uptime; the most important aspect is actually that you are entitled to a refund if the uptime falls below this figure.
The main idea here is to ensure your host has some sort of incentive to keep things running. Bear in mind that you need to see this in relation to the price. If you are paying very little for your hosting, you will receive a very small refund for even a few days of downtime and this clause actually doesn’t mean all that much in practice.
With a bit of research you can find a lot of information about downtime, complaints from customers, etc. Finding information about a host having downtime is not always a bad thing. Was it the host who shared the information or a complaint from a customer? A host that is proactive in sharing this sort of information can be a sign of a good service level.
-Speed – Try to find some websites hosted on servers from the host, and find out what networks and connections they have. Do some tests; ensure they have the capacity you need.
-Disk Space – There are quite a few hosts which shout about ‘unlimited space’ or large figures such as 500 MB. Bear in mind this is mostly a marketing ploy. Most sites don’t require anywhere near that amount of web space, so ensure you don’t let this put too much weight on your decision when comparing one host to another.
-Bandwidth – Bandwidth, or traffic, is the amount of data transferred to and from your site to visitors when they browse your site. Bandwidth is actually one of the most significant recurring costs for a web host so take extra care when reviewing how much bandwidth you are allowed.
It is very unpleasant to get an extremely high and unexpected bill at the end of the month because you exceeded your bandwidth quota and got charged £0.50 per 100 MB. If the host offers huge amounts of bandwidth at a seemingly small charge, ensure you read the rest of their policy. Likely they place limitations on CPU cycles or memory use. You’d reach those limits far before you will hit the bandwidth limit, so don’t be swayed by these promises. Read the fine print!
Bear in mind your bandwidth requirements will change over time, especially if you are doing a good job on the SEO side of things. Don’t enter into an arrangement where you have enough bandwidth now but end up paying through the roof for additional bandwidth once you need it.
-Features – Ensure your host at the very least offers: PHP5, MySQL, SSH, FTP, crontabs, SSL.
You’d be surprised how often cheaper hosts don’t include some of the basic features at all. You can end up in a situation where your technical team isn’t able to create functionality on your website because your host does not support it. Ensure the host covers all your needs before you buy any web space from them.
-E-mail – Most businesses will want to have their own e-mail address with their domain. As example: support@yourdomain.com or sales@yourdomain.com. Does this come with your hosting package? Does the host provide auto responders and catch-all e-mail addresses? Will you be able to use your e-mail software with the host? (Outlook for most businesses) Do you need forwarders? Consider these questions and ensure you know the answer beforehand.
-Server/OS – You really need to know what you’re going to host on your web space in order to answer this question but it’s very important. The choice between a Windows or Linux based server, and which exact operating system it runs has a huge impact on the type of applications and content management systems you can run on the server.
-Do they own the server – A lot of web hosts rent their web servers from other hosting companies. There are disadvantages associated to dealing with a reseller, since support can be affected by the delay between your host and their supplier. Some resellers are actually very good, but ensure you research who and what you are dealing with. If your host is a reseller, ensure you research both your host and their supplier!
-Reviews – There are many websites out there which deal with web hosts and feedback from customers. One example of these is WebHostingTalk, but there are many others. Ensure you do some research. (This is a recurring theme throughout this article.)
-Number of Domains – How many domains can you host on your hosting package? Some hosts charge extra per domain, others don’t impose any limits. Ensure you know how many domains and sub domains you are likely to need and your web hosting covers this need.
-Hosting Control Panel – Unless you don’t mind going through support every time you want to make the smallest change, add a domain or make some sort of other change, you will want a control panel. Ensure you know what panel your host offers and decide if you are comfortable with this option. There are many panels out there – including custom ones by some hosts and not all of them allow you to do everything you would like. Some can be quite complicated which isn’t great for a novice in hosting. Make some searches in Google for the panel in question and see what other people think. Even a quick search on YouTube could provide you with exactly the information you need.
-Support – What level of support does the host offer? Do you only get e-mail support with a 72 hour response period or can you call them if you have a serious problem? Having to pay extra for telephone support is not always a bad thing; you might never need it. Carefully consider what level of support you would expect and want from your host, and ensure the host you consider offers this level.
-Payment – A lot of hosts offer a substantial discount if you pay on an annual basis. However, if you have never used the host before you might not be comfortable in paying that much money upfront. Bear these payment methods in mind when comparing prices, as the advertised monthly price is often based on annual payments.
If your host is situated abroad, ensure you have an easy method of paying them. Paypal is often a great solution, but you might prefer to pay by debit or credit card. Some businesses prefer to only deal with bank transfers, so ensure your host offers the option you require.
Can you recommend any hosts?
Yes and no. As much as I would like to recommend one specific host, this wouldn’t be the right thing to do. Your specific business needs have a huge influence on what host is suitable for you and your website(s). I can however give you a few pointers and share my personal experiences.
-Price – Generally speaking, look in the USA if price is your main concern. Bandwidth is much cheaper and there are some excellent connections with mainland Europe. Obviously if you are targeting Asia, this is not really an option.
-Service & Reliability – Look at forum such as WebHostingTalk mentioned earlier and make a few searches in Google for the name of the webhost you are considering. Before my current host, I’ve been with several hosts in the UK and US which were absolutely dreadful. Promises and claims mean very little in the hosting industry. When price is your main concern the service and reliability often suffer as a result. There are however very good hosts with more than reasonable prices out there, as long as you are willing to put time into finding them.
-Speed – This one might surprise you, but if you are from the UK a server in the UK is not always the fastest solution. Unfortunately the internet infrastructure in the UK is a fair bit behind on their Scandinavian and Dutch neighbors. If you want to observe this for yourself, hop over to Speedtest.net and run a few tests. Bear in mind these tests are from your physical location, so if this isn’t where your target customers are you need to bear that in mind. If you have the option, try to host locally. A local host is NOT always the fastest hosting solution, so again research is key.
What host do you use?
I personally use DreamHost in the US as their service level has been absolutely superb. Bear in mind that support is obviously best during US office hours. I highly recommend them for smaller businesses that are looking for an affordable, reliable solution.
DreamHost offers a referral program which would forever entitle me to 10% of what you spent with them if you signup through one of my links. You can however confirm I am, and have been, a customer by doing a Whois check. I am not affiliated with them in any way; this referrer option is available to all their customers.
For medium to large businesses, I would look at a solution that offers a much higher level of support. Some thorough research will be required based on the factors described above. You might be able to get international hosting through your SEO agency, if they offer such services. This is worth considering, especially if you already buy other services from them. This can lead to advantages, such as them being able to implement their suggestions for you rather than leaving this up to your technical team.
Larger business will want to strongly consider a dedicated server, rather than shared hosting. You might even require multiple servers, depending on the size of your website(s).
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