Searching for your first internet website hosting company may be a frightening project given the endless alternatives obtainable. Knowing exactly what you want and what to look for can help you make the proper decision with a great deal less wasted time.
The following are some of the most not unusual questions that customers ask or must ask, earlier than purchasing an internet hosting plan. We’ll try to provide the most beneficial answer and advice to every of these questions.
Common Web Hosting Pre-sale Questions and Answers
Q1. Which Operating System Do I Need?
You essentially have two selections when it comes to server running device: Linux (with its different distributions) and Windows.
Unless your website uses ASP.NET, MS SQL or any other Windows-only application, Linux-based hosting is what most experts would recommend. It’s more widely used and supported and is often cheaper than Windows-based hosting because it requires no/low license fees.
Q2. How Much Space and Bandwidth Do I Need?
You need to roughly know how much disk space and monthly bandwidth you require before choosing your plan. If your website is already up and running, this can be easily done by checking your usage statistics at your current host. However, if you are launching a brand new website and have no idea how it’ll go, then you can start out with a plan that has at least 5 GB of disk space and 20 GB of monthly bandwidth.
Having a precise estimate of the amount of space and data transfer you’ll need can massively lower your hosting bill. Ordering a hosting package with ten times the space or bandwidth your website uses means you’re throwing money away, which can be better used to promote your website. Likewise, underestimating your requirements means you may have to order extra GBs of space and/or bandwidth later on, which is usually more costly.
Q3. What Are My Website’s Software Requirements?
Make sure that the server supports the programming language(s) your website’s software uses; e.g. PHP, Java, Perl, etc. Another important feature you need to pay attention to is the type, number and maximum size of databases included in the plan.
If your website requires special server software configurations; for example, certain PHP functions or Apache modules to be enabled/disabled, then you need to check that with technical support before signing up.
Q4. Is VPS Hosting Faster Than Shared Hosting?
VPS is short for a virtual private server, that is a mid-tier website hosting answer that combines numerous suitable capabilities of both shared hosting and dedicated servers. A VPS offers you a positive amount of server sources (CPU, RAM and disk area) which are dedicated in your website(s) and now not shared with every other websites. Having your own devoted resources can indeed improve performance and processing speed, specially for websites with excessive CPU and/or reminiscence workloads.
Another advantage of VPS hosting is that you can fully customize the server’s software and install any application since the software environment is completely isolated and private. So, for example, you can choose to install the LiteSpeed web server instead of the traditional Apache, which should make your website noticeably faster since LiteSpeed is better optimized for demanding websites.
VPS hosting is more powerful and customizable than regular shared hosting. If properly fine-tuned, a VPS provides better performance and speed for high-traffic websites that make heavy use of server resources.
Q5. How Easily Can I Scale Up?
If you’re continuously hitting or nearing the boundaries set to your modern-day plan, upgrading to a greater advanced plan is probably past due.
In the case of shared hosting, you must be capable of quickly upgrade to the subsequent tier plan, but most effective if there may be one. If you are already the usage of the very best tier plan, then you’ll need to don’t forget upgrading to either a VPS or a dedicated server. Both of those options will likely require migrating your account to some other server, which might also cause enormous downtime. The maximum handy sort of internet hosting when it comes to scaling up is cloud hosting.
Q6. Where is The Server Located?
The location of the server (data center) where your website will be hosted will have a considerable effect on how fast it loads for users. The closer the server is to the user location, the quicker the website’s pages and files load. So, if your main audience is US citizens/customers it wouldn’t make sense to host your website at a Japanese provider.
Q7. What Technical Support Channels Are Offered?
The maximum important aspect that could make or damage an internet web hosting organization is its aid provider.
Sales and billing assist is usually presented for the duration of work hours, even as maximum hosts try to provide 24/7 technical help. Things can cross incorrect and your internet site can cross down at any time of the day, and also you need to rest confident that a expert is to be had around-the-clock to monitor offerings and troubleshoot troubles if and after they arise.
A proper internet host that cares about its customers might have an in-residence (rather than outsourced) guide group of professional professionals/technicians providing assist via distinctive way which includes cellphone, electronic mail and live chat.
Q8. What Billing Terms and Offers Are Available?
The most common billing terms for hosting services are: Monthly, semi-annually (6 months), annually (12 months) and biennially (24 months). A longer billing term usually comes at a lower, discounted price and saves you money.
You should also pay close attention to any limited special offers, one-time coupons, or discounted initial term prices. These can be misleading to many customers as they do not reflect the normal price that you’ll have to pay when renewing the service. Take some time to carefully read the terms of any special/conditional offer and find out what the plan’s renewal cost will be.
Q9. What Payment Methods Are Available?
Credit and debit playing cards are a widespread payment option that almost all web hosts accept. In addition to credit score cards, many companies also accept tests, cash orders, wire transfers, PayPal, Skrill and/or other virtual currencies.
Having opportunity ways to pay your invoice can prevent lots of hassle, solicitude, and feasible interruption of service if your number one fee method fails.
Q10. Is There a Money-Back Guarantee?
Offering a cash-back assure is a common exercise of net hosting vendors, maximum of which have a 30-day assure on their plans. However, not all hosts offer a a hundred% money-returned assure; which means that some expenses (like domain registration value and setup prices) will no longer be refunded.
Read the situations of the enterprise’s guarantee and refund policy to get a clear concept of ways it works and what regulations can also practice.
Q11. Does My Website Comply With The Terms of Service?
While maximum web sites don’t need to worry about this, it’d be profitable to check the provider’s phrases of provider (AKA terms of use or service agreement) just to make sure that your internet site received’t violate any of the phrases.
Shared web hosting plans commonly have a few restrictions on the quantity of site visitors and server assets used, as well as the sort of web sites they permit; for example, they will now not permit proxy websites, document website hosting tools, bulk emailing, and many others. Such restrictions should be distinctive inside the terms of service statement.
Q12. Is There Uptime Stats and/or Guarantee?
Keeping your website up and running (online) is what web hosting is all about. It’s of no use if a company offers the best features, tools and prices, but cannot maintain a solid uptime record. A service uptime guarantee (known as a service-level agreement, or SLA) is a good sign of reliability and means that the company is confident about the technology they operate. Some hosts also provide public uptime statistics as an extra assurance of service quality.
Conclusion
I desire that this publish helped you in making an informed selection. If you’re searching out a dependable internet website hosting company, check out the exceptional plans web web hosting businesses provide. All web hosting plans include capabilities like one-click software installation, backup and restore offerings, 24/7 customer support and so forth. So in case you are nevertheless pressured about which plan is great in your commercial enterprise, sense free to touch us anytime.
