Choosing a hosting package

There are many hosting packages being offered on the internet, however its not just a case of picking one, as the services these companies offer varies greatly. It can be daunting picking a web hosting company if you have no experience in this area, and most web hosting companies offer a range of different packages, aimed at different people needs. This page will hopefully talk you through the basics of picking a web hosting company, and at the bottom you will find a database detailing various companies and their web hosting products.

Its very important to check the details of each hosting package thoroughly before you commit to one and feel free to email (or live chat) with the support/sales team in order to check any details. The first thing you will notice is the price. Don't be fooled into thinking that it’s all about the price of the packages, and that all packages are the same. Many companies whose packages have an appealingly low price may lack extras, which you will have to pay for if you require them.

Site size and download allowances

For most basic sites, these basic packages are usually fine. Many have small limits on how many megabytes / gigabytes your site can be, and often there are small limits on how much can be downloaded from your site in a given time period (usually a month). You will then be charged for any extra that you use on top of your normal fees.

For most start-ups this will not be a problem, and you may only want to consider upgrading your package, when the traffic on your site increases. However, if you have a lot of high quality (large file sized) images or videos on your website, then the allowances that a basic package might offer may get used up fast with only a small number of users on your site.

Contract lengths

You should have a good idea what you want out of a package when you go shopping, and hopefully this article should be able to help you with that. However every site is different, and everyones needs vary, so unless you are absolutely sure you have the perfect package for you then make sure you don't sign up for a 12 month contract. Most companies will give you an option to pay monthly or annually (or various other intervals). I suggest that initally, unless you are totally sure, you should pay monthly, that way it will be very easy to change hosting providers.

Hosted Databases

If your site is more advanced, with dynamic pages (pages that use databases to dynamically provide information to the user) then you will want to look into whether databases are included in the price, and if not, how much are they will cost. This is also important if you currently are working with a basic site, but have plans to make it dynamic in the future. Sites with secure member’s areas also usually require databases.

The most commonly used databases are MySQL and Microsoft SQL databases. MySQL is the world’s largest open source database technology, and is consequently usually cheaper than Microsoft's database hosting options. Which ever you use is up to you, however with some shopping around, there is not much difference between the two hosting options.

(N.B. SQL stands for Structured Query Language)

New technologies

Some companies charge extra for you to use the new website technologies such as Microsoft's ASP.NET 2.0 (Active Server Pages). So if you are building your website using such a technology, just be sure to check that it is supported free in the package that you would like to use. If its not, I would strongly suggest looking elsewhere, as someone else will probably host it cheaper.

Multiple domains

If you are planning on running several sites, (and once you get the bug, you may well do), you will need to consider the extra hosting costs of this (after all you should always aim to keep your costs to a minimum in any business).

One great way of saving money with this is to pick a package that will host multiple domains. They may cost a little more per month, but can be well worth it when you start hosting multiple sites.

Email

You will need to have email addresses that have the same domain name with your account, and most (if not all) web hosting providers will provide this to you for free. Make sure the email system operated by your hosting provider works for you. Most provide a variety of options with anti-virus and anti spam options included. Many will also have a premium service available also.

You, as the site owner (and webmaster) should be able to set a global email redirect, so that any mail not sent to a registered email address, but that is sent to your domain name will get sent to you.

Support

Unless your are a computer genius, there is probably going to be a time sooner or later when you get stuck, and because every hosting company is set up differently, you might not necessarily be able to find the answer to your query from sites like this, or from doing web searches.

The web hosting companies like to keep their support costs down by providing extensive help sections on their sites, and they will probably tell you about this in their sales blurb, however, it important to check that they also offer phone and email (and sometimes even Instant Messaging) support, and you should also be wary of companies charging their phone support services via a premium rate number. This may not seem that important now, but when you get stuck, you will save so much time sending an email to the support team who will usually be able to help you out pretty quickly, saving your precious time.

Extras

As with many things, web hosting companies will offer you nice bonuses for joining their company. Many offer $50 free advertising on Google, others will offer free computer games. So I’m sure you will all be used to not getting caught up with these free gifts. So, all I will say is don't go for free gifts that you don't have any need for and you'll probably be subsidising your free gift with higher monthly payments.

Ecommerce applications and forums are frequently offered free with web hosting packages along with code samples. These can be very useful, but if these are what you need then you will benefit yourself in the long run by doing some research into what packages the web hosting company is offering, and are these free anywhere else online as often they will be open source projects. Open source projects can be great, but may not have such great security, support and reliability as products you may buy. However if you do research these freebies, and they are what you need, then they might just be perfect for you!