Many times beginning webmasters or marketers make the mistake of thinking that price is a determining factor in deciding which web host to sign up with. While it’s very smart to consider price, particularly when you are or plan to host a large number of domains, to be snared into thinking that saving a dollar a month will help make you more profitable isn’t wise.
There is far more that goes into a web host working well for you, and it’s not the difference between $6.95 and $7.95 a month! There are a few web hosting companies out there that are dirt cheap, and deliver rock bottom service to match! You want to stay as far away from these guys as humanly possible. It’s far too much trouble and work to move your site or sites to another host, especially because you didn’t take the time and effort in the beginning to check out the host properly.
There are many items I look for before price. First and foremost is a great support team, with a reputation for timeliness and a drive to help you when things go wrong. If you’ve ever had your ecommerce site go down on a Friday afternoon just before a long weekend you understand the type of panic that can set in. Downtime is lost money, and if you can’t reach your web hosting company, or worse they are unable to do anything for you, you know the feeling.
Another major concern is security. If you are on a shared server, this is of particular importance to you. If your site is hacked, there are innumerable bad things that can come of it. You need a web host that takes site and server security seriously, and is always making sure updates are performed, and security patches deployed.
Drive Space is another concern. Sure, you can find a free web host, and get your site up in a matter of minutes, but chances are you will be extremely limited in not only space and bandwidth, but also likely support and features. You do get what you pay for in web hosting.
Related to this issue is how many sites are on servers, and how do they handle bandwidth hogs. Too any sites sharing a server can not only bring the server to a crawl, but also invite more security concerns. Ask the questions before you run into these problems, as they are difficult to resolve after the fact.
Speaking of features, this is one of the areas that web hosting companies are very competitive in these days. It seems like he who has the most features wins. Take this with a grain of salt, however, as the great majority of these items you will never use in your hosting anyway. Still, sometimes it’s nice to have a fantastic suite that will allow you to set up a blog with just a few clicks.
While price shouldn’t be the most important factor, it does matter. Just be sure to weigh the things that are really important against that price, and see if it truly is a bargain!
