Choosing a good hosting provider is not always an easy task. Mostly people try to follow what top bloggers are recommending without understanding their hosting needs. In this article we will help you to choose a good web hosting provider by asking these 5 crucial questions.
1. How long in the business? Is your Web Hosting Provider reliable?
Reputation plays a very important role while choosing a web hosting company. There are many new and old players. Try to choose a web hosting company with good experience, have spent enough time in this business and have gained good authority.
The best way to identify a popular web hosting company is by following your competitors. Which hosting company do most people prefer? Try to check various web hosting Facebook groups and find what other people are recommending.
E.g. as per WordPress recommended hosting providers, top hosting companies are Bluehost, DreamHost and SiteGround. If you carefully notice what other bloggers are using, you will find these 3 are very popular and make sure your online business is on safe hands.
2. How good is the hosting company in terms of site-speed, security, Uptime
These technical stats are critical for any Web Hosting Provider. Generally, shared hosting plans don’t offer unlimited resources, although they mention the same. But, there are some good hosting companies, where you can get limitless resources, good uptime throughout the year. E.g. Hostgator, SiteGround, Bluehost are specialist in this category.
These days hosting companies also equip their packages with in-built cache system to provide good speed to hosted websites. In that regards, SiteGround is very popular for their in-built super cache plugin and Bluehost offers free Cloudflare integration. With that if you use either W3 Total cache or WP Super cache plug-in, you can make sure your website will load faster or delivery good performance.
3. How good is after sales service & technical support?
Whenever you buy something, you must be looking for a good after sales service so that you can solve your queries anytime. In case of web hosting, it is even more important.
As you never know, your website may go down any time or you may come up with some hosting configuration related issues. In that case, whatever the time it is, you need a quick solution and want to get back your website live.
Make sure your web hosting company offers good support. A 24×7 live chat support with less waiting time is a must have. Of course they should also have phone, email support with an expert and friendly technical support team.
4. User Friendly Control Panel
Basically, shared hosting plans are good for a beginner to start with. Make sure your web hosting company provides an easy to understand cPanel so that anyone without much technical knowledge can also handle regular hosting related staffs.
E.g. you may need to add a new domain to your hosting plan, install WordPress on any domain, create a sub-domain, create email account or renew your web hosting plan.
5. Authenticity of the Online Hosting Reviews
Mostly people try to read web hosting reviews online before buying any hosting plan. This is a very common practice. But have you ever tried to understand whether the review is genuine or not?
Many bloggers and affiliate marketers share hosting reviews even without using them for once. Try to understand the way the content is prepared and check if it is a genuine review or not and then only trust that.
6. How affordable is the hosting plan? What are the freebies included?
Every hosting company offers some great discounts on their initial plans to attract customers. You might have noticed that they offer 60% – 80% discount on their hosting plans for the first time buyers.
Another point here is that, some companies offer maximum discount on their longer duration hosting plans whereas, others share uniform discount. E.g. Bluehost offers maximum discount on their 36-month plan only, but you can enjoy 60% off SiteGround discount across their plans irrespective of the duration.
Regarding freebies, many Web Hosting Provider offer free domain name, free SSL certificate and many other free staffs that is very useful for a beginner to reduce hosting expenses in the initial years. Make sure you choose a reliable hosting company with such freebies to save more money.
7. Any Hidden charges, renewal fees and Set up fee?
Don’t get carried away with the heavy discounts offered by hosting companies. Try to find out whether there are any hidden charges or set up fees. E.g. if you want to transfer your website to a new host, whether you will get a free website migration or it is chargeable.
As soon as you are done with the initial duration of the offer, you have to renew your hosting plans with the actual price. So, make sure you are aware about the actual hosting charges so that you don’t get any shock while renewing your package in future.
8. What is the available hosting packages?
You should be aware about the different types of hosting plans the hosting company is offering. E.g. if you buy a Bluehost shared hosting PLUS plan with initial discount, you have to pay around $180 while renewing. At the same time Bluehost cloud hosting performance plan will cost you around $200, which is far better compared to a shared hosting plan. In that case, you can easily go for the upgrade.
So, you should understand what the available plans are and how easy it will be in case you plan to upgrade your web hosting plans.
Wrapping It Up
You should spend quality time before choosing a web hosting plan for your website. If you are a beginner, then it is better to choose a shared hosting plan from any of the popular hosting providers. And that too with a multiple website hosting plans, as the basic plan mostly offers only 1 website option.
In case your traffic goes high with time, you can easily upgrade your hosting plan to cloud hosting or VPS servers. But in every case, try to evaluate your hosting company as per these key questions and then choose the best web hosting service for your online business.
