Web Hosting Reviews

There are no words that can describe how important the Internet has become in the last decade. If you are the owner of any kind of business, no matter the size or whether you are providing goods or services, you are nobody if you don’t have a website. Whenever someone learns of a business, the first thing they do is to check it online. If you have a good website that actually works, potential customers will be able to find out more about what you do and what advantages you bring to the table.

In order for your website to work properly, you will absolutely need to find the proper web hosting service. However, doing that is not as easy as it seems, as hundreds of web hosting companies fight for customer attention and it is not always easy to tell which is good and which you should avoid. But if you have some knowledge about what you should receive, things become a lot simpler. Here are the main factors you need to take into account when choosing a web hosting service:

• Allocated bandwidth
• Disk space provided
• Website uptime and maintenance
• Full time web hosting service monitoring

Bandwidth

The bandwidth will determine how many people can access your website at the same time and how fast your website will work. You are going to need as much bandwidth as possible. Well, if you plan on having a popular website that is. If your pages will be slow to load or users would be blocked from accessing your website because of bandwidth, it will hurt what you are trying to do.

Disk Space

The disk space will determine how much content you will be able to put up. Just like with bandwidth, you are going to want as much as possible. But be careful about this one, as you don’t want to pay for more than you need. Assess your own needs, than see which web hosting service can satisfy them without charging too much.

Website uptime and maintenance

Any computer in this world crashes sometimes. That means that no website can be up forever and ever, without any maintenance work. A good web hosting service will make sure that the maintenance work is never done during times when website traffic is high, while making sure that the site stays up 97 percent of the time. Also, you should make sure that your contract is rock solid. If something happens and the hosting service crashes, make sure the provider will refund you at least part of the money. After all, if you are paying for something, it is only fair to receive it and providers should assume responsibility for their services.

Web hosting service monitoring

This one is actually extremely important as it is one of the main factors why you should hire a web hosting provider in the first place. Someone needs to keep an eye on your website 24/7 and make sure any glitch is fixed as fast as possible. If you remember to take all of these factors into account, you really should find what you need.

We are living in times of economical recession, so each and every one of us is trying to find bargains whenever possible. When it comes to web hosting, a quick search will reveal the fact that there are many brands out there that sport very low prices, and you might think you will get more than you are paying for (in the good way). Well, things are not always like that, as those who rush to buy a bargain quickly find out that the web hosting service they purchased is just not enough to satisfy their needs.

Doing it yourself

If you are thinking about setting up your own hosting machine and taking care of your website by yourself, you should first consider the advantages and disadvantages. First, you would have to buy your own server machine. These don’t come cheap as a server requires a lot of stability. Intel Xeon processors, at least 8 GB of DDR3 and a fast Hard Disk Drive are just some of the parts you would have to purchase. Also, your internet connection must be EXTREMELY fast and reliable. If your internet goes down, your web site will go down as well. Also, you will want your connection to support as many users as possible, so it might cost you more than you are willing to pay. Another major disadvantage is the fact that you would have to take care of everything yourself. The website’s security and maintenance works will have to be performed by you, so you will probably have no social life left as these things require around the clock attention.

The problems with cheap web hosting services

What any potential customer needs to understand is that those who offer very cheap web hosting services are not suited for a long term business relationship. The low price means their investment in the infrastructure was also low, so the quality of service will probably be lacking. A good idea would be to find a new company that actually has serious plans and is only sporting low prices to attract new customers. However, it is very hard to trust a new company, as most of them just start the business, make a quick buck and disappear in a few months.

Advantages of cheap web hosting services

The first and most obvious thing we can mention is the pricing. It is difficult for anyone to run a business and costs have to be cut at every turn. Cheap web hosting would definitely reduce some of the costs, but you have to be careful about it. Notify your company that you will not tolerate any problems or slow repairs and even threaten them with a lawsuit if you find it necessary. Don’t worry about being too short tempered with them as they need you more than you need them. Web hosting is a very competitive domain, so you could find another provider in mere minutes. What you need to understand is that you should never ever put the price ahead of the quality. Choose a cheap provider ONLY if they also offer quality services.

VPS (Virtual Private Server) hosting is the only one out there which could match the quality of a dedicated hosting service. Shared web hosting can’t even compare with VPS, simply because it’s just not able to offer you as much resources. We will now give you a guide on VPS hosting and its major advantages.

Safety

To understand why VPS hosting is safe, you need to understand what it is. Basically, just like with shared hosting, a group of users are hosted on a single physical server machine. However, each user will have their own virtual machine, which would act just like a separate physical server. Nobody else would be able to see the data on your virtual machine. Because of the way in which the virtual machines work, your data is much more secure.

Value for money

VPS hosting will not require you to purchase or rent a server machine all by yourself. That means it is cheaper than dedicated hosting, while offering some of the same features. It is not quite as cheap as shared hosting, but the quality offered by VPS is far beyond whatever shared hosting could offer you, and that makes for good value for money.

Increased resources

A dynamic VPS server, also called a cloud server, will give you all the resources you could ever need. That is because it will use hardware from other servers or computers, combine all of that power and grant it to whoever needs it. If you acquire this type of web hosting service, there is virtually no limit to the amount of resources you could use. That means that if your business starts to grow exponentially, the server hardware will be able to handle it. On the other hand, shared hosting can offer you none of that (even if their ads say differently). Once enough users are hosted on the same machine, they will start fighting for resources and all of them will have to lose. Their websites could lag, or even crash, and that only leads to unhappy visitors.

Great for databases

Website hosting is not the only thing VPS is good for. You could also use your virtual machine for other things like FTP servers, hosting email servers, backup and database storage. All of these things become very important the moment your business grows large enough. If you offer goods or services, you will need customer support. Your customer support department will need its own email if it wants to look good and so on and so forth.

More and more people are turning toward VPS hosting and we can’t say that’s a big shocker. We live in a world where value for money is practically everything, and VPS hosting really does give you quite a bit for your money. But that doesn’t mean you should just pack your website bags and move to a VPS server right away. We recommend doing it only if your website or website network truly needs it.

Shared web hosting services are usually based on plans, which allocate a predefined percentage of resources to every customer. The problem comes when your needs go beyond your shared hosting plan. As your needs grow, your share of the server resources will no longer be able to satisfy them. This will undoubtedly lead to terrible web performance and even down time. Most beginners in the art of “webmastering” go for cheaper shared hosting plans. Sure, it may seem like a good idea at the time, but once your network grows, you will start feeling like your old web hosting plan is just holding you back. We will now tell you how to determine when you should switch to a stronger shared hosting plan or even VPS or dedicated hosting.

Domain Network Growth

Many shared hosting providers permit you an unlimited of very high number of domains. However, there are also many of them who make you pay a lot more if you want to increase your domain number. Once you know you will need to host multiple domains, it would be a good idea to check with your provider, see how much they charge and look elsewhere if their service plan will no longer satisfy you. Also, apart from extra fees, your new domains will have to split disk and bandwidth usage, which will cause, as we mentioned before, poor web performance and even down time. It would be easier for you if you upgrade before you set up the new web sites.

Terrible Loading Time

Even if you don’t plan on adding new domains, if your website is continuously growing, the web server resources you can now use will no longer be enough. Also, the server may just be too weak to handle your needs, and that will undoubtedly lead to terrible page loading time. Many of your visitors will be quick to get angry and you will lose a big percentage of your web traffic. If it happens just once, it could just be a glitch in the server. But if it goes on and on, you should stop wasting your time and upgrade to a stronger web hosting service. The money you’ll save from keeping your web traffic will make up for the few bucks you spend on a dedicated server.

Spikes in Web Traffic

It often happens that websites become popular overnight, and web traffic surges upwards. If you have the kind of website that you continuously update and more and more people start visiting it, you should get out of shared hosting right away. VPS and dedicated hosting are much more recommendable solutions for websites which are actually successful. If your website becomes even more popular, you will undoubtedly need the resources only a dedicated server can provide. Also, it will ensure that the spikes in web traffic don’t crash your website and the loading time stays low. When either of these situations ensues, you will know that the time has come to put shared hosting behind you.