When you have to set up a website, you need a web hosting service. This service will basically offer you a space to put your website online and charge you accordingly. Think of it like paying line rent on your Call Spectrum connection. There are a number of hosting services out there, with a wide price range. However, not all of them are built the same.
Some web hosting services might be easy to use, while others may require some technical expertise. In addition, as the market is so huge, there may obviously be some scams and fraudulent behavior. Therefore, you need to be vigilant and choose a service very carefully. Do your research thoroughly, and consider a number of factors when making your decision. Here are some of these considerations which should be in your mind.
Look Up Hosting Service Reviews
First of all, check online reviews to see which web hosting services are rated the best. Don’t just look at their websites, but also check peer-to-peer review platforms like G2 and Capterra. They’ll have accurate reviews from actual users and are quite transparent when it comes to paid reviews.
Check these platforms and social media for customer feedback for these hosting services. See which ones have the most positive reviews, and what aspects these reviews cover. Then, you can shortlist a few options for further investigation.
Consider What Services You Need
Web hosting can actually cover an array of services. These may include security, domain hosting, blogs, and other such aspects. When you’re looking up hosting providers, see what services they have to offer. Check if they have the features you need, and whether you have the option to opt-out of features you don’t want.
Create a list of your must-have features, and then match them up with the shortlist you made after checking reviews. This will help you narrow down your options much further. Then, you can move on to more technical and specific considerations.
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See How User-Friendly Services Are
Of course, you may not have the capabilities and technical expertise required to host a website and run it efficiently. This is the very reason you’re looking for a web hosting service. As this is not your specialization, you don’t really want to put too much effort and resources into learning a new tool.
Therefore, you should check how user-friendly different web hosting services are. See whether you can add pages, upload media, and host blogs easily. Also, you should be able to access data analytics and be able to translate them without any hassle. It’s a good idea to ask your shortlisted companies for a demo to figure these things out yourself.
Check Server Types
You should know that there are multiple types of servers in the market. All of these have different factors you need to consider. Here are the few basic types of servers you’ll see:
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Shared Hosting:
These servers host hundreds of websites in one box. This option may be the cheapest, but your website performance depends on the load the other websites are putting on the server. It also limits your access to the server, so it is not a good option if you want complete control.
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Virtual Private Server:
These are a step above shared servers and offer you more freedom and independence. A VPS is basically a simulated computer on a box, and you need to have someone familiar with server maintenance and management on board. While multiple VPS instances can run on one box, the performance is still significantly better than with shared servers.
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Cloud Servers:
These might be one of the best options in this day and age. Cloud servers run on enormous public clouds, such as Amazon Web Services. These are extremely customizable and do not come with huge boxes you have to find room for. If you want to expand your services, you just have to pay your provider extra money, and not have to think of rebuilding and reconfiguration. Most newer websites use these servers.
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Check for Reliable Customer Support
As web hosting is quite a volatile business, and you may face issues at any point, you need to make sure you can get in touch with customer support as fast as possible. So, you should do a test run on your shortlist and see how much time it takes for your shortlisted services to respond to queries and complaints.
You can also gauge their level of customer support by looking for customer feedback in this regard. Review websites often have separate ratings for customer services, and you should go through these to get a better idea.
In conclusion, you need to choose the right web hosting service to get the best experience. If you do your research thoroughly, you can easily find the right hosting service for you.
Would you like to read more about web hosting service-related articles? If so, we invite you to take a look at our other tech topics before you leave!
