| ign="center"> | | | | your website was up and running. All the hosting |
| If you are looking for a web hosting provider to host | | | | companies goes down for different reasons such as |
| your personal or business website, you need to look | | | | maintenance or hackers. Don't get fooled by a 99% |
| at couple of things. I've done a list of the most | | | | uptime guarantee because it is not that much. You |
| important things you should always consider when | | | | should search for at least 99.5% up to 99.9% uptime |
| choosing your web host to help you make the best | | | | guarantee which is becoming the standard in the |
| decision possible. | | | | industry. I've never seen a 100% uptime guarantee |
| 1 - Bandwidth | | | | so if you see one, I would like you to e-mail me! |
| For theses who don't know what it is, the bandwidth | | | | 5 - Support |
| is the quantity of data your website can download | | | | The customer support is really important especially if |
| upload per month. This is important because when | | | | you are pretty new in this business. They don't only |
| your website will grow in popularity, it will use more | | | | need to answer your questions quick but also give |
| and more bandwidth. You have to know that every | | | | you valuable information. Don't only check if they |
| time a user load one of your web pages, even if | | | | provide phone, e-mail, ticket and chat support but |
| they don't download anything, it takes some | | | | also look if they have knowledge-base, forums, FAQ |
| bandwidth. The day your web site's bandwidth will | | | | library or even step-by-step tutorials. These |
| reach the maximum allocation, no more visitors will be | | | | information sources can respond to your question |
| able to enter your website until the next month. It | | | | quicker than having to wait for your response. Even |
| can result in the lost of your most faithful visitors or | | | | if you are a very experienced web-master, |
| potential customers for your e-commerce website. If | | | | sometimes you don't have the choice to contact |
| you can, try to choose a hosting provider that offers | | | | them to make some changes or to fix some bugs. |
| you unlimited bandwidth so you won't have to bother | | | | The best advise I can give you is to test them by |
| about that anymore. | | | | asking a question before signing up. See if they meet |
| 2 - Disk Space | | | | their claims. |
| The disk space is the quantity of data the server let | | | | 6 - Price |
| you store for your website. This depends of your | | | | For most people, the price is the most important |
| goals with your website. If you don't plan to put a lot | | | | factor. If you just want a personal website, the |
| of media (like photos, videos, music, ...), most of the | | | | cheapest should be fine but if you want a more |
| web hosting packages will provide you with enough | | | | professional website, you should not be too cheap. |
| disk space. Otherwise, you should consider, like for | | | | Sometimes it is much better to pay a little more to |
| the bandwidth, choosing a hosting provider that | | | | have everything you'll need and a really great service. |
| offers you unlimited disk space and simply forget | | | | That doesn't mean that the cheapest hosting |
| about it. | | | | providers can't match your needs but remember that |
| 3 - Features | | | | it is more important to have everything you need |
| If you already know exactly what are the features | | | | with a good service than to have only the better |
| you will need to build your website, you simply have | | | | price. Also, something you should consider when |
| to look at the feature list that is always provided by | | | | looking at the price is: does the price includes the |
| any hosting company. (If they don't provide their | | | | setup fees and the domain name? With a minimum |
| features list, I don't think you should go with them! ;) | | | | of a one year subscription plan, lots of companies |
| ) The most important feature to look at is: do they | | | | offer a free setup and a free domain name. Some |
| support the coding language you want to use? You'll | | | | even offer you a free domain name for life (as long |
| also want to know if they have mailing list, databases | | | | as you stay with them, of course!). |
| and email forwarding services. Except that, like most | | | | 7 - Money-Back Guarantee |
| of people you don't know every little things that | | | | Not so many people think about the money-back |
| you'll need. That is why I always recommend to | | | | guarantee but I think it is pretty important. If you |
| choose the web hosting provider that gives you the | | | | don't like your new host for any reasons, you'll have |
| most features. You never know if you'll need them | | | | a chance to be refunded. Most of them offer a 30 |
| someday and that day, you'll be very happy to have | | | | days money back guarantee but some even offer an |
| them because you won't have to change your host. | | | | anytime money-back guarantee! Don't forget to think |
| 4 - Server Uptime | | | | about this! |
| The server uptime represent the amount of time | | | | I hope this will help you and I wish you the best luck! |