Budget Web Hosting - Are They All Created Equal?
Choosing a budget web hosting company can be overwhelming. In fact, choosing any web hosting company can be a challenge due, in large part, to the fact that there are so many of them. Do a search for "web hosting" with the quotes around the keywords on Google, and it'll return over 5 million documents! That doesn't mean there are 5 million web hosting providers but there very well could be at least 1 million! That's a lot of web hosts. How can you choose one that meets your need?
What is Budget web hosting anyway?
Budget web hosting is generally defined as any hosting service that is below $10 per month. The budget comes from the low price. Now, most companies in the budget web hosting category only offer one year plans. Most budget web hosting companies however, will quote you the monthly fee you would pay if you divided the annual fee by 12 months. Keep that in mind when you are comparing one company with another. The other thing to look out for is the setup fee. Do they charge you a setup fee to get started?
Evaluate your general impression of the company.
The first place to start evaluating budget web hosting companies is their front page. Does their website give you a sense that they are professional? Is it easy to find all of the information you need? Take a look at their contact information. Do they list a physical address, an email address and a phone number to contact them? If they don't provide any contact details, that has to throw up a red flag. If you run into problems setting up your website, and you have no proper contact information, how are you going to get service from that company?
Do they have a toll free support number?
Does the budget web hosting company provide a toll free number for you to contact them? If they are based in Atlanta, Georgia and you are in Seattle, Washington, you don't want to be paying long distance to them if you need to get them on the phone about a concern you have. A toll free number also speaks to their willingness to deal openly and honestly with their customers.
What kind of guarantee do they offer?
Choose a budget web hosting company that offers a good guarantee. Most budget web hosting companies don't openly publish their satisfaction guarantees. If you have to look in their terms and services agreement to find out where they stand with regard to giving you back your money if you are not satisfied, you should look elsewhere.
What is the uptime guarantee of the site in question?
Uptime guarantee refers to the amount of time the server is live and serving your web pages. An uptime guarantee of 99% means that the host guarantees that their servers will be up and operational 99% of the time. Over the course of one year, 99% uptime would represent a downtime (the one percent) of around 87 hours in a year or an average of 7 hours per month. An uptime of 99.9% would involve only 8 hours of downtime for the entire year.
What kind of after sale support can you expect?
While there are many other factors you could consider, the final one I will deal with is after sale support. What kind of resources do they make available for you. Find out if the budget web hosting company offers free scripts. Do they have any marketing tools they can make available to you? What kind of support for setting up your account can you expect from the budget web hosting company? All of these factors must be taken into consideration.
Just because a company offers a budget web hosting service, doesn't mean you necessarily have to compromise on features, quality or service. All three will only be found, however, if you make sure to do your homework to find a budget web hosting company that is a good fit for you.
This article was written by Joe Duchesne, president of http://www.yowling.com/, a business web hosting company that specializes in helping online business owners increase their website traffic. Copyright 2004 Yowling. Reprint Freely.
Related Articles:
Cheap Internet Hosting, Business Web Hosting - Choosing The Right Web Host Package
With literally hundreds of web hosting providers competing for your business, it may be confusing to find the one that's right for your web site. A few key considerations can help you narrow down your choices to the most affordable and best options to meet your personal, professional or business web page needs.
Web Hosting Design: How To Profit From Free Or Paid Web Hosting Site
There are many ways that websites can use tools to profit from free or paid web hosting sites
The optimal way to profit from free or paid web hosting is to buy a hosting script, or purchase a professional design from a company that specializes in web hosting and design a site that is going to attract visitors and ad revenue
Professional Web Hosting vs. Free Web Hosting
Both free and professional web hosting have their benefits and down sides. However, before the best type of web solution can be found the webmaster will need to consider the main motivator for the website.
Web Hosting Advice And Information - How You Can Find A Cheap Web Hosting Package
All webmasters will at some point face one question: how will I find a good and cheap web hosting provider?
Web Hosting Providers - Find A Newbie Friendly Web Site Host
If you're about to set up your first web site and are completely new to running a web site, a dependable web hosting plan with stellar customer service is an absolute must. You'll want to choose a web hosting provider that can be of assistance from the moment you choose one of their web hosting plans.
Got Web Host SEO Web Hosting Guarantee: Dedicated IP's on All Hosting Plans
Got Web Host the original seo web host provides dedicated IP's on all hosting plans, dedicated or virtual. Studies show dedicated IP's are more effective for desired SERP than shared IP's.
Choosing a Web Hosting Provider from 40 Million Other Web Hosts - Pt1
Discover how to go about choosing a web hosting provider in ways that 99.5% of the advice on the Internet never mention.
Web Hosting - Finding Cheap Web Hosting in Australia
The term ? web hosting ? is used for the business of providing a space or server and maintaining files for one or more websites on the World Wide Web Web hosting is sometimes also termed as web site hosting
Web Hosting Service – What you Need to Know to Change Web Hosting Providers
When service at your web hosting company is lacking, or your web site grows in traffic so much that you outgrow your current account, you may find yourself needing to change hosting providers. It can be scary to think about everything you need to do.
Web Hosting - Choose Affordable, Cheap Web Hosting
The Basics:Web hosting offers you the opportunity to put your web site online, when you think about it; it's the only way you can do it. No matter how large or small in content your web site happens to be it has to go onto a web server.
Cheap Internet Hosting - Get The Most For Your Money With a Cheap Web Hosting Package
With so many web hosting companies competing for your web hosting dollar, the companies have had to stretch their imagination to come up with ways to convince you that their company is giving you the most for your money, and consequently, the most affordable web hosting package for you. The most typical way they've done this is to throw in a bunch of bells and whistles to create full 'packages' so that you get everything you need - and a lot you don't - for one low, affordable price.
New Review Website for Web Hosting Services Web-Hosting-Info.com Launched
Known for websites such as FaxCompare.com, PBXCompare.com and Email-Marketing-Options.com, Zilker Ventures launches its newest comparison and review website for web hosting services, Web-Hosting-Info.com.
A Hosting Review Can Help You Find The Right Web Hosting Provider
If you do a search in Google for 'Web Hosting' or 'Hosting', the first couple of results that come up are surprisingly enough, not those of actual web hosting companies, but rather web hosting review sites.
Lunarpages Awarded the Best Web Hosting Title in $10 Cheap Web Hosting Directory
The $10 Cheap Web Hosing Directory, a leading web hosting directory since 2002, announces that Lunarpages (http://www.lunarpages.com) has been selected as the #1 Web Host in their directory.
Web Design and Hosting - Free Web Hosting Perks That Will Perk Up Your Web Site
If you've got or are considering a web hosting account with PHP and mySQL support, you'll find a wealth of free programs and scripts to take advantage of their powerful combined capabilities.Web hosting providers, from free to pricey, have always included some free pre-installed scripts to their customers in the way of guest books, counters and calendars.