How to choose the best web hosting for your website?

In spite of the fact that web hosting is the most vital step to be taken before launching a website, one always finds it really difficult to choose the right one. If some people make this happens in a hurry, they find themselves facing several issues while accessing their web pages. Hence the website has to be properly maintained with a good quality hosting plan.

Now, here come the steps to be followed before choosing an ideal web hosting plan:

• One should first understand the need to choose a perfect Web Hosting.
• Choose a reliable company that gives a proper guarantee.
• Make a read of all the hosting features as per your requirement.
• Review the upgrading option of Web Hosting.
• Make a list of prices for both signup & renewal.
• Check Hosting Control Panel or cPanel as it’s very important.
• Get a look into the company’s terms of service to acquire details about server usage policy & account suspension.
• Last but not list additional features (User-friendliness, Site backup, etc).

How to analyze the hosting needs?

One must aware of his/her necessities before even thinking for web hosting.

• Which sort of website are you making?
• You want to use WordPress or Drupal or Joomla for building your website (Word Press by far the best most used)?
• Which platform do you want to use (like Php, Java, .Net, etc)?
• Any kind of special software your site needs?
• Do you want to use windows application?
• Finally, traffic volume or web traffic.

For a beginner, it will better to go for shared web hosting at a minimum cost. In the future, you can upgrade to a VPS or dedicated server when your site becomes popular and require more resource.

Things to look at while choosing a shared web hosting plan:

1. Server reliability:

It is the most important aspect of any hosting plan in a practical means. For a successful business & client communication, you definitely want a website responsive 24×7. So a powerful server & stable network connection is vital with not less than 99.9% uptime.

2. Server Upgrading Option:

Nowadays, shared web hosts are really powerful & responsive. A shared hosting account can be fruitful to support a well-optimized WordPress blog with nearly 40000 visitors monthly. So, it’s better to start with shared web hosting. However, there should be provision for upgrading to a VPS and dedicated server later on.

3. Multiple Add-on Domains:

This is a really impressive feature now being proving by most of the shared web hosting companies & they are now allowing almost unlimited addon domain with their hosting plans.

4. Pricing (Sign Up & Renewal):

General, it’s really economical & reasonable in case of shared web hosting in comparison with dedicated web hosting. The pricing even starts at its low with ₹50 per month. It varies with hosting companies & the hosting plan.

5. Refund Policy:

It all depends upon the respective company policies. Some hosting company provides a free trial, 30days money-back guarantee and some company also giving the anytime money-back guarantee.

6. Cron Jobs, Auto Script Installer, and .htaccess :

These are basic hosting features & needs to be offered by the hosting companies. Cron for day-in-day-out operations, Auto Script Installer (like Fantastico, Simple Scripts, Quick Installer, Softaculous, Installatron, and so on) for easy web apps installations and updates, .htaccess access for security/page redirects/etc purposes, Server Side Include (SSI) for easier site maintenance (especially when you are building a static site), and FTP access for easy file transfer.

7. Disk space & Data transfer capacity:

Most companies will show you to offer unlimited disk space storage & data transfer just for their marketing. Since it is shared web hosting you shouldn’t worry about disk space & data transfer as it hardly matters these days for an average website owner because of online cloud storage facilities.

8. E-commerce features:
If you are starting an E-commerce website it is essential to choose a web host with sufficient features (SSL certification, dedicated IP, one-click install of Magento, open cart or PrestaShop, etc.).

9. cPanel:
cPanel is the most widely used and easiest control panel, which will help you manage your web hosting account through a web interface instead of a console. With cPanel hosting you’ll be able to manage your website files, folders, databases, emails, and other necessary operations.

10. Account Suspension:
You must follow the rules to avoid untimely account suspension by the hosting service provider. You must limit the use of CPU power.

11. Eco-Friendly Hosting:
It’s certainly a very interesting & useful one to look at. In recent, it is found a web server on an average produces 630kg of CO2 (It’s damn too high) and consumes 1,000 kWh of energy annually whereas a green web host theoretically produces zero CO2. Hence choice is yours.

12. [email protected]:
It is also an important feature by most of the hosting companies. I think it is better to use Google email apps to make your own [email protected]

13. Subscription Period:
Don’t go for more than two years with the same hosting company unless they are giving you any time money-back guarantee.

14. Site backup:
It is completely up to the web host. If your hosting provider is doing site backups regularly then nothing to worry about site crash, hack or site down or anything else.

15. 24/7 Live Chat Support:
It is again really very important to get in touch with the hosting company for necessary support whether through online chat through your website or through telephonic support.