Thursday, October 30, 2008

Choosing a Web Hosting Provider - 6 Important Factors You Need to Know

By Jason Chao

When you are looking for a web hosting provider, there are many things need to weigh up. The following 6 factors are most important.

1. Price: when you open the home pages of a web hosting website, the most conspicuous item impacts you is the price. They put the lowest price to attract visitors. Normally, there is a little * mark following the big price number. Now you need to find out what conditions this little * will tell you. Look at the bottom of the page, you will see something like, *Applies to new accounts only, Conditions Apply, or * $x.xx /month pricing is available with a 24 month prepaid billing cycle.

2. Money back policy: some web hosting companies offer 30 days money back guarantee, you need to find out and understand full money back policy. The setup fee and domain registration fee (if applicable) are not refundable. Usually there is certain process to cancel your account, like: "you must contact xxxxxxxxx Customer Team, Monday through Friday, 9:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. or via email at moneyback@xxxxxxxx.com".

3. Hosting features: going through the entire hosting feature list, to be sure listed hosting features are good enough for your website. Sometimes the hosting feature is not defined clearly; you need to check out with the web host. If you need to run a software that is not listed, ask the web host if they have the software included in the hosting package and if you are allowed to use it.

4. Customer support: there are ways to test how good the customer support is. Talking with representatives of the web hosting provider is the best way; making a phone call, chatting online, or sending an email. The direct communication always helps you to make a judgment. Many web hosting providers provide support center or help center on their website to help you find most answers.

5. Free domain name: all top 10 cheap hosting providers offer you free domain with their hosting plans. Some web hosts offer free domain for life or free domain forever services that mean you get free domain registration as long as you keep your hosting account with the host. Some hosts offer free domain registration only for first year or initial contract period. When your contract is renewed, you need to pay your domain registration fee.

6. Bandwidth usage: there are some restrictions on bandwidth usage, even some hosting companies offer unlimited bandwidth. Usually they put this condition in "terms of service" section of their website. If you have a high bandwidth usage site, like e commerce site, gaming site, or downloading site, it maybe better to go to dedicated server or VPS hosting.

It is very important to put above 6 items into your web hosting check list. What you eyes tells you is not always truth, because sometimes the truth is hidden somewhere you need to find out.


Jason Chao is an expert in cheap web hosting field and manage a content-rich website of http://cheaphostingchoice.com/

0 comments:

 

GooContents | Jump to TOP