Ten Tips for Choosing the Right Hosting Plan
You hired a web developer to build a web site for you and you are ready to roll it out. Or it could be that you have a little ability to create web pages and you built some with your family information and vacation pictures on them. But web pages are useless unless they are put on the internet and for that you will need to get a web hosting service to serve the pages to remote web browsers. But how do you choose the right web hosting plan? What do you need to know? Do you have to be technically qualified to choose? Here are some tips to consider:Tip 1: Know which type of web hosting service you need.You should know if your web pages are written in PHP, ASP, HTML, or ASP.NET before choosing a web hosting service. These are the main types of web pages. PHP web pages will have a .php on the end of their file. ASP will have .asp on then end of the filenames. Likewise, HTML will have either .htm or .html and ASP.NET will have .aspx.Tip 2: Know what functionality your web hosting service needs to provide.What are you going to be doing with your web site? Is it just to display pictures and text (a static web site) or is it a full-blown ecommerce web site where you have to take orders, process credit cards and send emails. What your web site is for determines the type of web hosting service.Tip 3: What price is offered by the web hosting service?Obviously you want the price to fit in your budget. Be careful that extremely low prices could indicate future poor support service but that is not always true.Tip 4: What kind of space is provided by the web hosting service?You should have an idea of how much space you will need in megabytes for your web pages and database (if you have one) from your web hosting service. Allow room for expansion. Tip 5: Does the web hosting service provide tools for monitoring?The potential web hosting service should allow you to be able to look at traffic to your site, monitor bandwidth usage, and look at logs.Tip 6: What type of email service is provided by the web hosting company?It could be that you are looking for a web hosting service to store your business website. It could be that you have employees. How many unique email addresses are provided in your web hosting plan so that personnel and functions can have a unique email address? Tip 7: Does the web hosting service handle Front Page Extensions?Some web applications use Front Page Extensions and the web hosting service should be able to handle them. Your web developer will be able to tell you if this is a requirement.Tip 8: Do you need secure capabilities from your web hosting service?Many business web applications contain confidential customer data. Your web hosting service should provide support for secure shell page rendering (usually indicated by https:// instead of http://).Tip 9: What type of database is needed for your application and is provided by the web hosting service?Most web hosting services offer support for Microsoft Access, MySql, or SQL Server database. Your web developer should be able to tell you what type of database your website will use.Tip 10: What type of support is offered by the web hosting service?Even though this is last, it is probably the most important element of the web hosting service. Can you reach a live person and not just a live one but a knowledgeable one?Remember to compare before you purchase a web hosting service. A good service will give you a highly-available site and be a site enjoyable for visitors and customers.
About the Author
This Article was written by John Galt. John is a professional webmaster who spends most of his time online. John is also the owner of www.Webhostchart.net – a web hosting review site with tons of useful information about web hosting topics.. Visit their website at: http://www.webhostchart.net
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