What Host?

Before You Pay for Web Hosting, Ask These Questions First

You will certainly need to use a web hosting provider if you want to set up a website and make it available for everyone.  A web host provides the space where your website will reside.  It has the infrastructure to store your web files. 

There are free hosting providers but if you want people to trust your website, then it is imperative to get your own web space and pay for hosting services.  However, before you pay for web hosting services, you should ask these questions first to determine if you are signing up with the right provider. 

Reliability Questions

You should ask the provider if it can give at least 99 percent site uptime. This is very important because site downtimes would be counterproductive for your website.  A webhost that can only guarantee below 99 percent uptime is not good enough.  Your site might experience constant interruptions which could cause you to lose valuable visitors. 

Security concerns are also part of reliability issues.  The provider should be able to guarantee that your web space will be protected from hacking.  Ask if it can provide double firewall protection for its servers.  You should also ask if it maintains redundant data centers and multiple servers.

Hosting Capabilities

Ask the hosting provider if there are restrictions to your available storage space and bandwidth.  You should specifically ask if there are extra charges if you exceed your bandwidth allocation. 

If you signed up for unlimited server space, you have to check if the provider has restrictions on the amount of files that you can upload each day.  Most unlimited plans will only allow you to upload a maximum of 5 MB per day.  Such hosting plans will limit your capability to upload video and audio files to your server space. 

Design Options

Ask the hosting service if it can offer web building tools and scripts.  You will need these tools if you are going to set up a website and for site management.  You should also ask if the hosting provider has a content management system which you can use for updating your website. 

If you are designing your website on your computer, make sure that the host offers FTP facilities so you can quickly transfer your files to the server. 

Most importantly, it is very important to determine if the web hosting service can provide solid customer support.  You should get 24/7 technical service.  The hosting service should also give a hotline where you can phone-in your concerns anytime.

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