 Nobody wants to be caught walking bare foot through a mine field but that’s exactly what the search for a good website hosting provider can feel like. The UK alone is home to well over 200 of them, with many more existing in the USA, each with their own distinct take on services, support and price. But just who do you choose?
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Naturally we can’t answer that question generally as everybody will have their own requirements, but with a few simple tips we can help you to whittle down your choices to something more acceptable: 1. Beware unrealistic service promises. It’s important not to put too much faith in hosts and packages that advertise economically unrealistic service promises. For example, a host offering 1000 GigaByte’s (GB) of monthly bandwidth on a shared hosting package for just £10 ($20) per month is unlikely to deliver upon its promise and may instead result in slow hosting performance and or other problems. Try to be realistic about what you expect and you will find a better balance of service. Good quality usually comes at a price premium. 2. Read the fine print (Terms & Conditions). More than a few hosts fail to clearly define the contract length, and other service restrictions, on their product pages and thus it is important to pay close attention to any terms before subscribing. Some hosts claiming to offer overly flexible and unrestricted services on the surface often hide restrictions away in the fine print. For example, you may find that your webspace is not allowed to host streamed videos, direct downloads and or other types of content and services. 3. Test the customer support. Try asking the customer support contacts, both via e-mail and the phone, a number of semi-technical questions prior to subscribing. This will give you a rough approximation of how good the support will be for when you really need it. Pay special attention to the competence of replies (automated responses are worthless), the time it takes them to respond and whether or not telephone support is provided 7 days a week / 24 hours a day. Hosts with a consumer discussion forum deserve extra credit but check to see how effective it is by looking at existing topics. Some example questions you could ask the host are as follows (replace XXXXXX with the package name):
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