How to Choose a right Web Host

[seminyak]

What are some of the things i should look for when choosing a web host?
- criteria for choosing a commercial web hosting ,blog solution :???:

[abeltenny0210]

Choose the stable and question answered faster hosting is important.

[cleanweb]

1)How long they have been around
2)How is they support
3)They TOS
4)They reputation

[speed]

In no particular order:

Location, if your target is US citizens then there's little point having a server in Australia the user experience will not be as good as using a US host.
Do they backup your data, if so at what frequency, how long are backups retained and do they backup off server. How much it matters to you will depend on your site and business, but if you have a busy e-commerce site or forum then a host offering hourly backups will be better than one backing up once a week as there's a lot less data loss should the worst happen.
Do they have a sensible pricing structure, a host promising you the world for $10 p/year probably won't be around that long or if they are performance is likely to be variable. If they claim unlimited disk space, bandwidth etc read their terms very carefully and find out what they do limit you on and make sure that isn't going to be an issue. If they don't limit you on anything move on as they are not being realistic.
Terms that outline what you can and can't do, if anything goes do you really want to be associated with them? In my book a host is supposed to put in some rules to ensure that all the sites sharing a server run as optimally as possible.
Check how they deal with bandwidth overages, do they just shut off your site or do they bill you for the excess and at what rate. It's your choice if you can live with this or not.
Check their time in business, a host that's been about for 10+ years is probably going to still be there in a few months where as a host only a couple of months old is more unknown.
Check the servers run on redundant disk arrays, if they don't then a disk failure will always require a restore from backups which will mean the site is down significantly longer then when just replacing a failed drive in a RAID array. Might not matter to you.
Can they give you a path to maybe a VPS or dedicated server should your site outgrow shared hosting. How will they deal with it will they just pull the plug on your site until you move?
Does their site load quickly for you or is it painfully slow.
Check they support all the features you need e.g. curl some hosts compile PHP without it, the list will depend on your application.
I'd also look for a host that has multiple bandwidth providers then when one fails for whatever reason data can be carried on the remaining providers. These days most use multiple carriers.


Hope that gives you some help.

[kgun]

Here is my experience.


I have used many hosters. The best I have had outside Norway is http://www.a2hosting.com/

They have:



Their own forums. (http://forums.a2hosting.com/)
Their own blog (http://www.a2hosting.com/blog/)
Their own Wiki. (http://wiki.a2hosting.com/index.php/Main_Page)
Can be flollowed on Twitter. (http://twitter.com/a2hosting)


and support both MySQL and PostGreSQL and will install http://elgg.org/ freely for you (at last they offered it when I signed up for their three year hosting periode).

By clicking a radio button in their cPanel, you can choose which default version of PHP you will use (PHP 6.0.0 - dev is supported). You can even select PHP version at the folder level independent of the default selection by some simple .htaccess statements.

Most importantly they offer:

"Offering full service Linux shared and reseller hosting plans, as well as dedicated, semi-dedicated, and VPS server solutions".

If you email them a problem, it can take a day or two before you get a professional answer. Personally I prefer that to a rudimentary fast answer. I have not paid for any email question so long.

Excellent hosting and service so long.

Note: I am not affiliated with the company and this information may slow down my sites, since more webmasters will sign up:roll:

As far as I have experienced they set a new standard in webhosting.

Source: Canonical URL problem. (http://www.webproworld.com/webmaster-forum/threads/101464-Canonical-URL-Problem?p=514115&viewfull=1#post514115)

[claybutler]

I'm a huge fan of www.bluehost.com (http://www.bluehost.com) for your meat and potatoes hosting on shared servers. Their 24/7 phone tech support is excellent and their Cpanel is fully loaded. Been with them for years and host about 25 domains with them.

For hosting a Magento Shopping cart I like http://www.nexcess.net/mag-sip/

If you need a VPS and want to build/run your own apps I like http://www.slicehost.com/

I agree with Speed's suggestions. All good points. However all hosting is a gamble. You do your homework and hope they are telling the truth. That's it. For me 24/7 phone tech support by USA based techies is a must. No offshore call centers and no low level sales people answering the phone. I want someone who knows what they are doing right from the beginning. If it's a difficult issue then we can escalate it. This is why someone like godaddy, while a good registrar, is a terrible host. Lots of restrictions and less than savy tech support. They won't even let you upload an htaccess file. Unbelievable!

I like bluehost because it's run by techies and they basically have no sales force. It's like they don't even want my business and there's no upselling bullshit. For me that's perfect. I don't want a hosting for dummies environment where every turn leads to another obstacle or another sales person trying to sell me junk upgrades.

[safarivillageonline]

check the reviews of the following companies, compare their features apple to apple basis then make your decision.

powweb
fatcow
bluehost
ipage

But note that a high price does not necessarily yield quality hosting and support.

[slimwoman]

I recommend GVO. The owners have been in business over 12 years now. They are located in San Antonio, Texas which is a tech friendly area as far as broadband. There are 77 staff members keeping all of the new servers in top shape. Not only do you get unlimited hosting, you also get the following:
1. Up to 20,000 eresponder subscriber list and unlimited eresponder campaigns
2. Unlimited video production with Easy Video Producer. You can also create capture pages and embed the videos on those pages.
3. 10 seat conference room with Hot Conference.com
4. GVO Academy training to teach how to use these features. There are videos on every step of the process from registering a domain all the way to how to use each tool.
5. Prospecting System
6 Downtime Witness which allows you to be notified if your site goes down and you can watch your competitors sites also.

Try GVO out for 14 days for just $1 and tell me if you can find all of the above for the reasonable monthly fee of $44.95. It is really neat to have my complete marketing system in one place.

Skype Username is slimwoman

[MayaLocke]

With page load time being a factor in Google ranking, the speed or the amount of activity on a hosts servers may be one factor. Another to consider is their "up time", being down costs you money, its worth paying more for reliability. Also their support response (and hours of support) should be considered.

[slimwoman]

Up time is all the reason I highly recommend GVO. Look at my post in Permalink #8. Support is phenomenal. I can actually pick up the phone and talk to someone during business hours and then the support ticket is answered 24 hours a day. I even get a downtime witness that tells me if my site or your competitor's site went down included in my monthly hosting package price. GVO is located down in the bandwidth mecca of San Antonio. I rarely get downtime messages.

[kgun]

Personally, I was not so impressed by your marketing in this

Need cheap video hosting... (http://www.webproworld.com/webmaster-forum/threads/95224-Need-cheap-video-hosting...?p=488954&viewfull=1#post488954)

thread. So you should give better information than you have given so long.

[MayaLocke]

I'm a firm believer that you get what you pay for. You want reliability, keep in mind being down typically costs money. Also, look at their support hours is it 24/7 the Internet doesn't take days off.

[SuperMan]

Never look at price as the deciding factor. Instead, break the price down into ranges - Under $10 per month , $10 - $25 per month , $25+ per month. Under $10 per month is a great starting point for a new website, but the more you use shared web hosting, and as your site grows, you will look for more advanced options like VPS and Dedicated.

Server Uptime, Fast hosting environment and Customer Service are the 3 most important things for me...