Head Resist

As with the event of time, one can easily find an immense number of low cost hosting providers on the net these days. Creating confusion in the mind of user which to select? A cheap web hosting, or a reliable web hosting, because experience compel the user to believe that in several occasions cheap hosting is not a dependable option. If the user has decided to go for cheap web hosting he/she should go carefully through the features proposed by the host and should pick the one on which he/she can trust upon. Fortunately, there are several cheap web hosting providers in the market providing guarantee for a month to the user from there side, hence, one can easily look for an another alternative if the current hosting server is not fulfilling the user’s requirements to the expected level. Talking in general, duration of one month is quite sufficient to judge whether current server is dependable or not.

What can be a crucial factor user should consider while selecting a free web host? Answer is, the features provided by the free hosting server, it includes, type of supportive programming language, provided bandwidth, accumulating number of email accounts, charge of course, and probably very crucial feature i.e. disk space, because a large website cannot survive with a small quantity of disk space. An expert advice is instead of going straight to the cheapest, one should keeping in mind that even that small amount he is paying for is useless as in return the user would get a server which will be most of the time down. While exploring sites providing hosting at a cheaper rate one should not be concern about the fact that host is offering cheapest service or not but should verify that it is dependable or not. Because many a times service cheap in price are cheap in quality also. After all the formalities and going through all the features, user should not act as a blind with proper eyes, rather should investigate about the web hosting server from the people related to that field, forums and exploring search engines.

While dealing with the condition, when user have more then one web site, he/she should locate for a hosting provider who offers several accounts at the charge of one, there are several hosting providers in the market who provides such facility, and if user stars are favoring him/her, he/she can probably get an unique offer, which on doubt will demand few amount but provide the user a free setup or something related to it, however, one should read the contract papers carefully and should avoid signing long term contract, it is a thing which definitely provide the user a fair amount of concession, till the time he/she go for a dependable web hosting server.

Now at the end it can be concluded that a web hosting providers do not have full control over their server; they just work in cooperation with other companies, to make their services cheaper, so one should keep this aspect in mind and then must carry on with his/her search.

Before rushing for a web hosting account, you need to check the following features which are important for any web hosting account. Many people overlook this features and pay the price later. So here are the important features you need to check with your hosting company before paying for it.

Technical Support

Technical support is one of the most important factor you need to consider when a choosing a web host. Test different companies before you sign up by sending them an email with a question or two. If they respond quickly, this is a good sign.

Uptime

The more uptime they guarantee, the better. 99% uptime is the minimum acceptable standard. Look for 99% plus guaranteed uptime. 1% of uptime is about 87 hours in a year.

Disk Space

Decide how much disk space you will require. A basic web site with few images and about 10 to 20 pages will not take up much web space . If you require a lot of graphics or multimedia or you need to store a lot of information, you will need a bit higher disk space. Again you can increase your web space as required with almost all the hosts by paying the extra charges.

Data Transfer

This factor is usually overlooked until the data transfer limit is reached. If you go over your alloted data transfer, you will get a hefty bill. If you are running a site with lots of downloads, or a site with lots of images such at a photo post site, your data transfer will be higher than a site with mainly text. The average website uses less than 200MB of bandwidth per month.

Scripting Languages support

If you using a scripting language to output your html, you need to check whether the plan has support for that script. You will need a windows hosting plan only if you are using microsoft scripting languages like asp and asp.net.

CGI Bin

This is now standard feature with almost all hosting companies. If you do not have access to your own CGI Bin, you cannot install your own cgi scripts and programs.

Perl

If you do not have Perl, you cannot run Perl Programs. Many good scripts that you buy or get for free are written in Perl. In my opinion, it would be a limitation not to have the latest version of Perl installed

SSI

Server Side Includes are great if you want to spend minimal time updating your site. Again this feature is provided by many hosts.

FTP Access

Unlimited and unrestricted FTP access to your site is essential. You will need an FTP program to transfer files from your computer to the server.

Statistics Program

A good stats program is handy if you want to keep an eye on how many visitors you are getting, where they are coming from, referrers, top entry and exit pages and so on. Some companies offer excellent stats programs as standard while others offer basic stats but you have to pay extra for advanced statistics.