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:
Reseller Web Hosting: The Perfect Way To Start A Web Hosting Business
Hosting web sites on the internet can be a lucrative business venture. However trying to setup a web hosting company from scratch can be quite a bit of work and also quite a bit of money.
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.
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?
Host Gator Upgrades Web Hosting and Reseller Hosting Plans
Increases in disk space and bandwidth are part of Host Gator's commitment to providing customers everything they need to succeed online.
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.
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.
Web Hosting Pad is Offering Up to 6 Months Free Web Hosting
Web Hosting pad is now extending their 6 months free web hosting.
Website-Hosting-Offers.com Launches to Compare Leading Web Hosting Providers for Small Businesses
Website-Hosting-Offers.com announces the launch of a website featuring a select group of top web hosting providers, including reviews and side by side comparisons of all web hosting plans from these providers. Web hosting providers reviewed include Yahoo Web Hosting, 1&1 Web Hosting, iPowerWeb Hosting, and more. Site visitors can get informative web hosting reviews and articles that cater to everyone from beginning website builders to more experienced small business owners upgrading to a new web hosting plan.
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.
DomainplusHost Unleashes Web Hosting Special Offers Featuring Top Hosting Providers
DomainplusHost today unleashed Special Offers on Top Web Hosting Providers. Domainplushost (http://www.domainplushost.com) announced providing exclusive discounts (up to 40%) on Best Web Hosting Providers.Damien Wien, CEO DomainplusHost, announced the partnership of DomainplusHost with Web Hosts enabling you to receive special discounts and incentives.
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 Geeks : Which Web Hosting is Best For You
With thousands of beginners trying their hand at websites, it is certain that the market is becoming quite crowded. From music blogs to gossip communities and technological havens ? these online avenues can be a wonderful hobby for people who just want an audience. After all, who wouldn?t want to be heard among thousands of visitors every day? For this reason alone, websites are one of the most popular forms of entertainment. While making a website is essential, the majority of beginners do not realize that web hosting is even more important.
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 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.
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.