If you are planning on starting your first website—no matter the type—it can be difficult to decide on a website hosting company. Whether you are beginning a blog, building an online store, or developing a website for your company, choosing a host for your site can be rather complicated…especially if you are looking for cheap website hosting.When looking for a website host, the first and most important consideration is to determine what type of web hosting you will need. After all, once you have this decided, you will be able to better compare the various cheap website hosting plans. There are three main types of hosting plans: free, shared, and dedicated hosting.

How to Choose a Web Host

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit

One of the most crucial decisions you will make for your website is selecting your web host. It’s essential to choose the right host or all your hard work could be wasted or even worse, lost!
How do you choose from the plethora of web hosts available today? Will they hold your files to ransom when you come to transfer away? Can you be in full control of your account at all times?
With so many hosting businesses out there how can you ensure you choose one of the more reputable ones? Here are a few pointers that should help steer you in the right direction:

Steps

1. Get e-mail through the domain name of your website. It’s best to go with a host that provides unlimited autoresponders, pop mailboxes, email aliases etc. These services are needed to stay in touch with your visitors, potential customers and indeed your past customers in the hope of back end sales. Using your_name@your_website_name.com also looks more professional and official.
2. Investigate the uploading method. Using an online manager takes a lot longer when transferring large amounts of data. FTP provides more flexibility when managing your website. For the non-techies, always look out for a host that provides a good online manager, too.
3. Track your website’s progress with logs. If you are a serious netpreneur, pay close attention to these. All good hosts will provide you with the ability to access your website logs via download.
4. Leave room for growth with enough space. The amount of space good web hosts provide would matter if your website grows bigger than allowed. Always look for a host with at least 25GB of space available with the option to buy more space if need be. Moving hosts can be a pain. Avoid this with a little foresight and planning.
5. Test the speed of a host’s network to your location by clicking start > run > type in “command” enter, and then type “ping hostdomainname.com” wait for it to finish and look for the average ping. The lower the number the better, and chances are the faster your site will load. Any number averaging around an 80 would be good. Anything over 100 is very bad except, of course, if the host is based in another country.
6. Seek good customer service with lots of help pages and FAQ pages, 24/7 telephone support preferably toll free, 24-48 hours reply email support or chat is vital. Avoid a host that has a reputation for poor quality customer service. Check out their average response time and their true uptime guarantee. See the Tips below.
7. Enable interactive features with access to your own cgi-bin directory. This is the directory from where scripts are carried out. CGI scripts are the backbone of all the functionality of the web. Every time you fill out a form, buy a product, use a forum or engage in a chat room conversation, you’re running a script of one type or another. This feature is very important if you want your website to be interactive in any way.
8. Make transactions with a secure server with https:// capability because your potential customers will expect it. Security is of paramount importance to your customer. Visitors who are concerned about the insecurity to their plastic will never become customers.

Tips

• Test a host’s support before joining by calling in. You’ll be surprised how many hosts with a toll free number never answer their phones, or have long hold times. Make sure you call the technical or support department. It’s not unusual for a web host to have incredible response times for their sales department but lousy response times for their technical or support department.
• The cheaper the plan and the more space/bandwidth included, the more sites per server the host will have to pack in to make their money back. Don’t shop for a host based on their plans! Shop based on recommendations and experience!
• Look closely at how your guarantee is defined and if your host will honor it. Most guarantees are prorated and are often worthless.
• Check out how legit the web hosting company is by doing a WHOIS on their domain name. Also look for the creation date of the domain name. If the domain name was created less then a year ago, it’s more of a risk to join that hosting company.
• Using the company’s name, search Google for honest reviews. If they have been around a year, you should find many real reviews of people who use their hosting. The web hosting company’s forum is another good place to check but be warned as they may delete negative posts and ban the user.
• There are a wide variety of websites that present comparisons of web hosting services. These can be helpful if you don’t want to spend so much time conducting these comparisons yourself.

Warnings

• Look for a host with an uptime guarantee of a 99.9%. No hosting company can guarantee 100% uptime. Beware of anyone who does, they are lying.
• Be wary of hosts that include a free domain name with their hosting package unless you are certain they will be putting your information in the WHOIS. Whoever has their information in the WHOIS is the owner, not the one who paid for it.
• Think twice about web hosts with a more competitive yearly rate, forcing you to pay for a year up front. If you have paid yearly and are dissatisfied with their service, you are less likely to swap. It’s always best to only pay monthly!

Related wikiHows

• How to Create a Website
• How to Get Your Website Indexed by Google
• How to Buy a Cheap Domain Name

Article provided by wikiHow, a collaborative writing project to build the world’s largest, highest quality how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Choose a Web Host. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

If you are looking for a web hosting provider to host your website or blog, there are several features that you should consider before purchasing the cheapest package you can find.  Not all web hosting providers offer the same services for comparable prices.  You need to carefully scan each offer and look for the features that you require to host your website.

1.  Disk Space

Disk space, or web space, is the term used to describe the amount of information that you can store via your web hosting account.  Whether you’ll be using HTML, images, sound or video files, they all take up disk space from your web hosting account.

Now-a-days, even the cheapest shared web hosting packages offer plenty of disk space to host your site.  Do not settle for less than 1 gigabyte of disk space even if you don’t need it.  Most web hosting providers offer their clients hundreds of gigabytes at incredibly cheap monthly fees.

2.  Monthly Transfer Volume

The monthly transfer volume, also known as bandwidth, is a term used to describe the amount of information that your particular web hosting account can receive and send during the month.

Most web hosting accounts will give you many Gigabytes of bandwidth per month.  The more traffic your website receives, the higher your bandwidth will be.  Keep an eye on this traffic.  If it gets close to your monthly limit, consider moving to a higher web package that offers a higher monthly bandwidth.

Web hosting providers that offer a high starting bandwidth means that you’ll be able to stay in that plan longer which is a benefit to you.  Most good web hosting providers will offer bandwidth in the range of 250 Gigabytes to over 1 Terabyte of monthly traffic.

3.  Linux vs. Windows Hosting

Most beginner web hosting packages will offer Linux based web hosting simply because it’s often cheaper for them to run.  However, Linux is an extremely fast and reliable operating system.  Most Linux systems run the Apache web server which accounts for over 50% of the Internet’s web hosts.  It does not matter that you are creating your web pages on a Windows PC.  They can be hosted on a Linux server without any problems.

Window web hosting is ideal for those requiring Active Server Pages (ASP) functionality or need better integration with Microsoft SQL server.

Linux plans normally tend to be slightly cheaper, which is why you’ll see more of them around.  This is probably your best option unless you have specific requirements that only a Microsoft server can meet.

4.  Web Databases

Whether it’s a MySQL or Microsoft SQL database that you need, make sure that the web hosting plan you purchase has access to some.  Even if you don’t need it initially, you may need it in the future and most beginner hosting plans offer at least access to one database in their packages.  Plan ahead and save yourself headaches later on as you expand your website.

These databases have a wide variety of uses.  From storing proprietary information for your company to forming the back-end storage for blog add-ons such as Wordpress or Joomla, you will need to have access to a database to make these features work.

5.  e-Mail Space and POP3 / IMAP Access

If you want a professional appeal for your site, an e-mail account with your business name is vital.  This shouldn’t be too much of a problem since most web hosting packages now give you access to POP3 and IMAP accounts to setup for your business use.  Just make sure there are enough accounts for each employee who needs access to e-mail on your business site and that there is enough web e-mail space for all those combined users.  E-Mail space is usually quoted as a separate listing from web space.  Pay close attention to what the web hosting provider gives you since this space is divided up between all allocated e-mail users.

6.  Free Website Plug-In Scripts

These are scripts that are available for you to automatically install as needed.  Most web hosting companies use the Fantastico Deluxe set of scripts.  Some of the scripts included are:  Wordpress, Joomla, PHP Nuke, Help Center scripts, Polls and Survey software, Guestbooks, and Form-mail scripts to name a few.

The automation allows for very simple integration with your website.  Many of these products are very powerful and robust packages, so this is an excellent add-on to have available.

7.  Secure Shell (SSH) Access

Being able to log into your web hosting account and make changes from the command line to your web pages is an incredibly convenient feature.  However, power users will benefit the most from this option since some knowledge of the underlying operating system, Linux, is required to navigate easily.

Not all web hosting providers offer this service, so if you feel you may need it, make sure to find out ahead of time whether or not it’s available.  Some offer it free as part of the package, others have it listed as a paid add-on.

Conclusion:

The Internet is filled with literally thousands of web hosting companies all claiming to be better than the other.  Do your homework and compare several top web hosting companies before making your decision to buy.

In addition to finding a web hosting provider with the web features you want, make sure they have been in the hosting business for some time and developed a reputation for reliability, 99% server up-time, high customer service satisfaction, and a large and growing user base.  Remember, when a visitor goes to your web site, any problems that happen reflect on you, since the end-user does not know (or care) who your web hosting provider is.  Therefore, choose a rock solid web hosting company that will satisfy your business needs.

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Probably your first step in creating a website should include domain registration and choosing your website hosting. Your domain name is actually a website address that is assigned by the main governing body of domains. You simply go online to one of the Domain Registering sites and check desired names until you find one that is available for registration. This can also be done at the same time as you set up your website hosting if you wish.

You should try to choose a domain name that reflects the general theme of your intended website.  It should also easy for people or customers to remember. Try to choose a domain name that will include an important word describing the theme of your website or the name of your company.

Select Your Hosting

The next step is to find website hosting. They maintain large computers that are set up to be information or data servers. You need to upload your website files to the hosting computer so they can make it available for others to view on the internet. This is the service we call website hosting. A hosting service will actually place your website (your domain) on the internet for you at the address they register for you.

Build Your Website

It has become relatively easy to build a website today. Many software programs guide you step by step through the process. At one time if you wanted a high quality website it might cost you thousands of dollars and take considerable time to have produced. The quality and selection of website templates available today makes it easy for anyone to have a high quality website quickly and easily.

A Few Notes on Hosting

There are also many things you might consider when choosing a web hosting company. You have a couple of basic options that include shared hosting packages or dedicated hosting. Shared hosting works quite well for a high percentage of users.  Many websites are very simple and compact websites that are made up of primarily text. Some types of websites may require the next level of hosting if they draw heavily on the server resources. This website may include very large numbers of images, music files, movies, software distribution or heavy blogging traffic. If you expect to fall into that category you may wish to select a more expensive, dedicated hosting package.

Web host servers are large and powerful, and have sufficient room (file storage space) and bandwidth capacity (movement of information) to host multiple websites. When you select a shared web hosting option, you purchase a package from a web hosting company that includes a specified amount of storage space and bandwidth allotted for your use. With shared webhosting packages, several clients share the same space and bandwidth (measurement of data exchanged between users and host) allotted by that server. As long as your shared web hosting agreement provides adequate storage and bandwidth there will be no need to change hosting plans.

If your website grows to the point where it requires larger storage and greater bandwidth, you may find it necessary to add additional space and bandwidth capacity. Another option is to change to a different type of web hosting, which could mean moving to a dedicated server with managed web hosting.

Publishing a website has become relatively simple in recent years. Many more issues affect the actual success and performance of your website. I often say that anybody can build a website. Not everyone can manage to have their website found by the search engines.

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Whether you want to create a website for fun or for profit, you will need to find a reliable web host to support your site. While you should not spend a fortune each month in hosting fees, you should expect to get what you pay for. But cost should not be the only variable when it comes to choosing a host.

Understanding what you need from a web host and visiting different host websites to see what they have to offer will give you some good information on which to make your choice. Below are four tips that can make this decision a little easier.

Check Out Different Web Hosting Packages

Because your needs will be different from a large corporations needs or a medium sized business’ needs, many web hosts offer packages for small, medium and large businesses. When comparing packages, you will notice that the major differences are cost, amount of data transfer and disk space available, number of email addresses offered, and amount of bandwidth you will receive each month.

If you’re planning to upload lots of pictures, video or other media that takes up more space than text, you should determine how much space you’ll need before choosing a web host.

Quality Control Panel

A good web host makes it as easy as possible for customers to upload files, manage email accounts, review site statistics and manage FTP accounts. Learn as much as you can about the control panel before choosing a web host. Learn which site statistics will be available so you can adequately monitor all marketing campaigns and incoming traffic. Lastly, make sure you can contact customer service at any time if you’re experiencing problems.

Moving Your Domain Name

If you’re moving from one web host to another, keep in mind that you may have to pay to move your domain name. While some hosts offer to do this for you for free, others do not and will charge you for registration.

When reviewing monthly fees and billing options, find out exactly what’s included in these fees. If you don’t have a domain name, you will have to register one in order to claim a web address so no one else can use it. Some web hosts include the domain registration fee in their monthly fees, while others charge service fees. Because your domain name needs to be renewed each year, find out who will be paying the renewal fee as well.

Customer Service

If you can’t get in contact with your web host if you’re site goes down, there is very little you can do except wait until the site is up and running again. Choosing a web host that provides excellent customer service 24/7 via phone, live chat, email and tutorials found on their website can make downtime seem less frustrating.

Since you’re paying for their services, you should expect their customer service department to be efficient and easily accessible.

Now that you know more about what to look for in a web host, you should be able to make an informed decision that will enable you to choose the very best hosting services for your website.

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With a plethora of web hosting companies around, it is surely a grueling task to choose the right one. All the webmasters will advice for some research before you take the first step. But where to begin the research? One cannot compare all of them. And the time factor that this research will take? It’s simply for this that the sites with web hosting reviews are so popular and helpful.

Just like the hosting companies, the number of sites providing web hosting reviews is also increasing. But here it is easy to chose the best and the authentic ones. The best web hosting review providers give two options - an at-a-glance table and an in-depth table. In the first type of table they provide a general overview by placing a number of web hosting companies side-by-side. You can have a quick glance at your priorities - price, bandwidth, disk space, etc. The second table delves into the depths of each issue.

There are a lot many of these sites offering web hosting reviews which belong to some web hosting providers. You cannot trust their information which could be biased to the core. And there are a lot more of web hosting reviews which are camouflaged with advertising. So trust only those websites which have in-depth information and unbiased reviews. And also information as to how they determine the rankings of the web hosting providers. The best review sites even go a step further and provide even the details of these broad categories.

But the web hosting review sites which are really great are not into the number-rating game. They only provide a detailed individualized review of some of the better known web hosting providers. If you are searching for some specific type of hosting like VPS, LINUX, Windows, etc, then these reviews may prove critical.

Other than shortlisting some of the best web hosting providers, there are two more reasons why you need web hosting reviews:

* Reviews provide a detailed method of how to find an honest web hosting service provider.

* These sites offering web hosting reviews also explain many other issues related to web hosting which customers must be aware of.

However the main function of web hosting reviews is to provide a detailed review of honest web hosting providers to help the customers wade their way through the “hosting jungle” with ease. So the web hosting reviews must be endorsed by people with real technical and market-specific knowledge and experience. They should provide a myriad of information covering support, technology, products, values, etc.

The web hosting reviews are the beginning of your research offering information about which service provider would provide the features important to you. A great website encompasses design, content and functionality and the web hosting provider is the engine upon which the website runs. http://www.e2webhosts.com

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