How to Choose the Right Web Hosting Provider for You
With the number of web hosting services available to you, it’s easy to get lost at the sea of choices to choose from. How exactly do you find the best hosting company for you? Read on to find out:
Get an Expert Opinion
There are many mailing lists and forums that would serve as a good ground for you to ask for recommendations. You may want to select a forum that focuses on the specific technology that you have decided upon (Java, Ruby, Python, PHP, etc.) in order to get the most spot-on responses.
Remember to read back on former posts or search the archived messages before you ask as this is a commonly asked question. Another good source for recommendations is your own web developer. Selecting a hosting provider that is familiar to your developer will save you a lot on hours and work-related hassles.
How Fluent are they with Technology
While most hosting companies will say they know how to set up and maneuver their way to any technology, the truth is there are significant differences between the configurations of one application from another. You must not settle for a provider that will only muddle their way through. A good method to check whether they are the real deal is to have your list of recommendations at hand.
Give their tech support a call and ask them some basic questions to see if they are comfortable with the technology that you have in mind. Beware of general answers like “Yes, we are familiar with that.” What you want to hear is specifics such as “We can set up your website with Passenger using Apache or Nginx on Ruby 1.9 or Ruby 1.8.” This is a good way to narrow down your choices between hosting companies.
The Customer is Always Right
A very important factor in choosing your hosting provider is their customer service. This holds especially true if you are not particularly technical. A good provider will have a systems administrator who can guide you in installing and configuring your server. This is something you can’t expect from the large hosting companies but there should be some medium scaled firms who will.
These can also be counted on to have fair pricing and a great tech support staff. Once again, you can check out for yourself by giving their hotline a call and asking a few questions to check their responsiveness and knowledge.
Hosting Options to Consider
The cheapest option would generally be shared hosting. It means you share the resources of the server with some other customers. This is not a problem for applications of low volume. A more superior alternative are Virtual Private Servers but tend to cost a little more. With VPS, you are on the same platform with other users but you also have a dedicated set of resources that is not alterable or dependent on the use of the other customers. A dedicated hosting means you must lease or purchase a physical server dedicated solely to you.
