Your website hosting provider is the engine behind your website which, itself, is a visual representation of your Brand and your business. Any server downtime could potentially hurt and ruin everything you’ve been working toward for years. If you are serious about your website, you need to make sure it’s in good hands.
It’s really hard to choose between web hosting companies these days, especially as we are being constantly bombarded by tempting promotions and minimal differentiation.
If you’re looking to get a new web hosting account, here are 7 things you should know.
1. The “Free Domain” Gimmick.
A free domain certainly sounds nice, however here are some things you might need to take note of before agreeing to the free domains provided:
- Who owns the domain? The domain is free but the hosting company retains the ownership. What does that mean? You’re either stuck with the company forever or you need to pay a hefty sum to buy the domain back.
- What about the next few years of renewal? The first year is free but when you want to renew it, they’ll charge $19.95+ for renewal. That is like a 200% mark-up over the average domain name purchase cost.
- What about DNS or SSL? We prefer to use a 3rd-party domain name registrar. That lets us keep the domains and the hosting accounts nice and separate.
It’s better to ask questions during the research process to know who will own the domain and also make sure that the standard renewal fees costs are acceptable.
2. Separate Domain and Hosting.
Like I said, Domain names don’t have to be registered at the same company. Don’t take us the wrong way, we are not implying that your current web host is not trust-worthy; it’s more about finding a dependable and trustworthy registrar right from the start. After all, your domain name is your online identity, the most expensive and irreplaceable asset while hosting services are just there to accommodate your website and maybe your email.
You may argue for convenience’s sake. Of course, web-hosting companies would prefer to have your domain registered with them, as it is their other profitable revenue stream. However, it won’t be that convenient if the web hosting company decides to go down together with your domain. That’s part of why jHost ONLY offers web hosting. They do one thing really, really well.
3. Read the Bandwidth and Disk Space Terms.
Bandwidth and disk space are terms often ignored by people shopping for shared or even VPS web hosting. You should ask yourself,
“What if my website becomes really popular overnight, and draws in thousands or millions of visitors? Will I pay hefty charge for the huge data transfer?”
Most websites won’t go past their bandwidth quota by high traffic alone, but if you provide some files for downloads in your website or self-host videos (for some reason), it can happen.
4. Unlimited Storage’s Catch.
Unlimited Storage seems like a great offer doesn’t it? That’s what some web hosting services want you to think. But, there is no such a thing as “Unlimited Storage.”
Have you ever studied the Terms of Service (ToS) of your web hosting service completely? If you’re like many people, you‘ll scan it and don’t read it carefully. Somewhere in the ToS there is a section that mentions CPU/Server Usage.
To sum it up, basically it says if your website uses more than a certain amount of storage, it violates the ToS and will subject to termination. Of course, it is necessary for just about every hosting service to have something like that in their Terms of Service to protect resources on their servers from improper usage. However, many web hosting services are using the CPU/Server Usage or iNodes to get around their “Unlimited Storage” promises. Buyer beware.
5. Research and Find out more about them.
One common way is to insert the following query “web_hosting_company sucks” and see what are the results returned. You’ll be surprise by the amount of consumers that had complained about their web host.
This list may give you an idea but you should not take it for granted because:
- Unfair count. Large companies tend to disappoint more people because they have more disgruntled customers, although they might be only an extremely small percentage of the overall customer base.
- Bias and subjective verdicts. Statements on personal blogs can sometimes be highly subjective, biased and influenced. Any rebuttals can potentially deleted by the site owners to give one-sided impression.
- Complaints are common. It is easier for some people to rant than to praise. In general, if a web host performs smoothly, they’re just doing their job and if it doesn’t, then it deserves all the bad reviews. That’s just what we do :)
6. Do Your Own Backup.
The following question might have crossed your mind – Should we trust and rely on our hosts to backup our files? Of course not. While the host needs to perform regular backups, it can be considered unwise not to do your own off-site backups.
Look into plugins like BackupBuddy or All-in-one Migration, or one of the many cloud backup services available out there.
7. Avoid Long-Term Contracts Unless You Trust them.
We’ve seen how companies giving us ridiculous discount for paying two years up-front. Unless the web host has an excellent track record, think twice about that long-term contract.
Final Thought
As a final thought, web hosting providers are all essentially the same. The differences, however small they may appear, can add up to a happy experience or an abusive relationship. Do your homework. You’ll be glad you did.