If you want to start a website, you need a hosting plan. There are a lot of providers in the world, but what should you look for when choosing a suitable hosting provider or plan?
In this article, I list the most important factors in hosting provider choice.
Before I come to the factors yet another hint. Generalization is also problematic with the hosting plan because different website projects have different requirements.
Therefore, you should first of all deal with the requirements (now and in the future) of your own website. This includes the planned CMS, the expected number of visitors, special functions and more.
Then you can make the right decision.
Below I introduce 6 areas in which the hosting rates of a provider and of course different providers differ.
Among the features are the very important things without which your own website would not run at all. So the scripting language PHP and at least one MySQL database should be present in the most recent versions. If you want to create several small websites, then, of course, you should make sure that multiple databases are possible
The features also include traffic restrictions, if any, and disk space. At least a few gigabytes should be.
Very important is also the memory, which should not fall below certain sizes depending on the CMS (in WordPress, for example, I recommend 128 MB).
For newcomers also interesting is the ability to install common content management system and other software with one click. Many hosting providers now offer this.
Performance is also important, as the site is meant to load quickly, and when there are more visitors to the site, it should not collapse immediately.
Very important here is, for example, the server location. This should be in the US so that the data does not have to be sent halfway around the world.
The already mentioned memory also plays a role, especially if you have more visitors than usual.
In general, you should do a bit of research and use a test account, if possible, to get a better idea of the performance.
I always book the domains at the hosting provider and have not had any problems with that. But that only applies to good US hosting providers. Some other hosting providers do not register the domain in the name of the customer but in the name of the host. Then, of course, you have bad cards, if you want to change to another hosting provider.
In addition, the web hosting rates offer a different number of inclusive domains. If you need more domains beyond that, more or less high costs.
It is difficult to judge the technology of a hosting provider, but you should simply compare different possible plans.
So many hosting providers give technical details about the server and, most importantly, how many other customers you share a server with. The lesser, the better.
Failures should not occur, but a high availability should be guaranteed.
Technical services such as regular backups or low-cost SSL encryption are also important selection factors.
Especially for beginners, the support is very important. Quick one has problems and needs help. It is important that the support reacts quickly and competently. Here you should look at, among other things, the "opening hours" of the support and sometimes perform a test call with a question.
Support is also important when it comes to moving to a different rate later, which is usually necessary when visitor numbers increase significantly. Here good hosting providers offer the complete move to a higher plan without additional costs.
The topic of money also plays a role, but should not be the only main criterion. Quality also costs something, although hosting has become very cheap in the US.
In any case, you should check the price/performance ratio and look at the terms and conditions. How long are you bound to the hosting provider and what additional costs may be incurred?
Some hosting providers also have quite high setup fees, which are incurred once.
