How To Choose A Domain Hosting Service
How To Choose A Domain Hosting Service
Choosing the right hosting service provider and the right hosting plan is very important. That’s why I have broken the process into 3 different stages.
1. Know the different types of hosting packages
There are several different type of hosting packages available. Knowing what these packages are, and whom these packages are for, is very important before choosing one. Below, I have listed the most important and commonly used hosting packages available.
i) Shared hosting
You share your website’s server with multiple other websites.
Pros
- Very cheap
Cons
- In most cases, your storage and bandwidth are limited.
- Your blog might slow down if the other websites take up too much bandwidth.
- Newbie bloggers
- Small business owners
- Bloggers with very less hosted video content
- Bloggers who don’t sell self-hosted online tools
ii) Dedicated server hosting
You get a server entirely for yourself.
Pros
- Your storage and bandwidth are not affected by other users.
- Your website loading speed is not dependent on other users.
Cons
- very costly
- Technical expertise required
- Big business owners
- Websites with lots of traffic
iii) Virtual private server hosting
This is an offspring of shared- and dedicated server-hosting, wherein a part of the advantages and disadvantages of both these methods are present. Each server is divided into several virtual servers and each user is assigned a virtual server.
Pros
- Your storage and bandwidth are still affected by other users, but not so much.
- No technical expertise required.
- Not so costly
Cons
- Can’t handle sudden traffic increase
- People with not so much technical expertise.
- Bloggers with self-hosted online tools, whose traffic is mostly uniform or predictable.
iv) Cloud hosting
A Cloud is a network of virtual servers built upon a network of physical servers. Cloud hosting is a method of storing your data across several physical servers and accessing that data through a network (Reference: Hostgator).
Pros
- Data is extremely safe.
- Increased server speed since data is served from a network and not a single server. Hence, data can be accessed from a server close to the visitor’s location.
- Easily scalable
Cons
- Costly
- Bloggers who offer huge file-downloads and have video-streaming content.
v) Reseller hosting
In this type of hosting, you can sell hosting services to your clients. You can manage everything, including the storage and bandwidth you want to allocate to each client.
Pros
- Make money on the side
- You can even run your own hosting company
- You don’t have to worry about uptime, server maintenance, etc.
Cons
- You are answerable to your clients
- Website designers, coders, etc whose clients are not technically knowledgeable.
2) Which hosting plan to choose?
There are several factors, four to be exact, you have to consider, for choosing the right hosting package.
i) Type of content
To find out the right hosting package for you, you have to first figure out the type of content you want to create.
Are you planning to create articles and infographics, or are you planning to create a video blog?
If you are just planning to create articles that helps you in pulling the readers to your website, you can go for a shared hosting package. However, if you are planning to post a lot of videos or start a vlog, it might be wise to consider at least a Virtual private server hosting.
ii) Amount of traffic
Even though we all would like to have millions of visitors visiting our blog every month, what is your realistic estimate of the traffic you need, to make the amount of money you want to make?
Are you planning to sell seasonal items, or have seasonal offers, that might see a huge spike in traffic during festival days?
If you don’t expect to see a huge spike in traffic all of a sudden, you can go for a shared hosting package. However, if you sell seasonal products, and if your website’s uptime is a very important factor to you, opt for a Dedicated server hosting.
iii) How do you plan to monetize?
How do you plan to monetize your blog?
Do you plan to just display text and banner ads, sell your own or affiliate products, or do you plan to set up a huge membership website where people come back every week or month?
If you plan to start a huge membership website it may be wise to opt for a Dedicated server hosting or at least a Virtual private server hosting.
If you are planning to offer downloads of huge video files or live streaming, buying a Dedicated server hosting package is the right way to go.
iv) How much money can you spend?
Do you have a job? Do you have a business that’s already making money and now you want to scale it up? or at least access to endless capital?
or…
Do you struggle to make ends meet? Is your blog your only way out of a financial crisis?
I ask these questions because, the answers to these questions play an important role in deciding how much money you can afford to spend on hosting.
So, ask yourself this question,
“Will the money I pay for hosting burn a hole in my pocket, even if I don’t make any money from my blog for a year?”
If the answer to this question is yes, you should probably go for shared hosting.
3) Choose the right hosting provider
It has always been easy to switch hosting service providers. Hosting service providers always help you out, if you want to switch to them, from their competitors. It may not be very easy, but it isn’t impossible.
So, even if you choose a wrong service provider now, you can always make a switch later. That being said, it is always wise to choose the correct one in the first try rather than having to worry about it later.
Following are some important factors you may want to consider, before choosing your hosting service provider.
i) Customer support
This is the most important factor I would consider before signing up.
Many a times, you may hit a roadblock where you need an immediate solution. When such a time comes, will your hosting provider help you out patiently till the problem is solved, even if you’re super dumb?
Excellent customer support beats cheap hosting costs any time of the day, any day of the year.
Do they have live chat and telephone support?
ii) Cost
Are their rates cheap, or at least reasonable?
Let’s face it, nobody is willing to pay a fortune, even if their customer support is super awesome.
So, compare prices of similar hosting packages across several hosting service providers, to find the one that suits you the most.
iii) Happy customers
Read their reviews. What do people say?
Are their customers genuinely happy? Or did they regret their decision, because they think they sacrificed quality for money?
Chances are, if they can keep their existing customers happy, they will be willing to keep their new customers happy too.
iv) Server Uptime
What is server uptime?
Server uptime is a measure of the amount of time your website will be available.
| Server Uptime | Downtime/year |
|---|---|
| 95% | |
| 98% | |
| 99% | 3Days 15Hours 36Minutes |
| 99.9% | 8Hours 45Minutes 36Seconds |
| 99.99% | 52Minutes 34Seconds |
| 99.999% | |
| 99.9999% |
Calculated using SLA Uptime calculator. To make you understand better, if you make $1000 monthy, a server uptime of 95% would cause you a loss of $50/month, whereas an uptime of 99% would cause a loss of $10/month and an uptime of 99.9% would lead to a loss of $1/month.
What is the sever uptime guaranteed by your hosting service provider?
v) Security
Though it is your responsibility to keep your website secure using safe passwords & scripts, particularly if you have a shared hosting, the web hosting company still has to safeguard your server.
What are the steps taken by your hosting service provider to keep your server safe?
Does your hosting service provider have helpful information on how to keep your website safe?
vi) Backup
Even though there are a lot of plugins available that can backup your data, it is important that your hosting company has a backup plan as well.
Does your hosting company have a backup plan?
How often are the backups performed?
vii) Suspension of your account
Read their Terms Of Service carefully, particularly if you have a shared server. Find out how much storage space and bandwidth you have, and beyond which values can your account be suspended.
viii) Features
What features does the web host offer you?
Among many others, the following three features are the most important when it comes to managing your website:
- A user-friendly Cpanel – the user-interface of the web host. It should be as self-explanatory as possible.
- One click installer – One click installer is very important. For example, for content management systems like WordPress, Jumla, etc.
- FTP access – File Transfer Protocol (FTP) access is required for transferring bulk files and also comes in handy when you want to host a custom-made sales page.
ix) Discounted first month price vs the renewal price
Most hosting companies offer a discounted price for the first month. Don’t be fooled by looking at their discounted first month price, more so because, this is often what the hosting companies advertise.
The first month’s discounted price may be cheap, but the renewal price may be ridiculously high. Look at the price for the consequent months, to decide which hosting company to choose.
x) Server speed
The loading speed of your webpages depend on your server speed as well. This varies not only from one hosting company to another hosting company, but also from one hosting package to another hosting package within the same company.
Curios to find out the server speed offered by your hosting company? Go to a webpage speed checking tool like Pingdom, GT Metrix, Web page test and Google page insights and find out how long it takes for the first byte to be loaded, also known as TTFB (Time To First Byte).
Now that you know how to choose a domain hosting service, now it is time to actually find out which hosting service provider is the best match for you.
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