What You Should Look For When Choosing A Hosting Company

What You Should Look For When Choosing A Hosting Company
DJ Miller
12/16/2014
Updated:
4/23/2016

Not all web hosting companies are created equal and picking the wrong one could lead a business to lose money on a weekly basis. There are certain needs of companies that are specific to that niche and hosting companies that specialize in hosting an Ecommerce website for example. All of the hosting companies will tell you that they have the best servers and the most resources and will have a team dedicated to you. Seeing through the different sales pitches and promises can be difficult especially if you aren’t versed in the technical side of things. Here are some things that you should look for when choosing a hosting company.

Pricing Options

It is a business person’s instinct to immediately look at the price tag that a web hosting company puts on their services. Web hosting prices should not be skimped on especially if your business uses its website to bring in capital. The best strategy to use when picking a company is to look at all of the features and avoid looking at the price. It is possible to pick the cheapest option with the best features but choosing a hosting company on its features should be the utmost priority. Looking at reviews on sites that review web hosting companies show features and let you search features then sort by price also lets you see what customers have thought.

Strengths and Weaknesses

Most companies in general will tend to shy away from talking about their weaknesses even when asked. Asking what companies that they generally work with or what they specialize in can give you a better idea of where the company is not as strong. For example, there are hosting companies that are gurus when it comes to Ecommerce website hosting but this wouldn’t be the best fit for a personal travel blog. If you are going to have HTML5 coded type of media or have a large amount of videos, then picking the hosting company with the cheapest price is not the best option. Issues with site speed can kill sales quickly as a customer wants their product and to leave the site, one case of your site making a laptop freeze could lose a consistent customer permanently.

Customer Service

A website being down for even a couple of hours can have a big impact on the bottom line for many companies. Having 24/7 customer service and support is something that a company should look for in a hosting company. Being able to call a person at any time who can assist with the problem the website is having not only calms the site owner but minimizes the time the site is down.

Future Endeavors

A web hosting company should fit into where you want your site to be in the future. Switching hosting companies to an unproven company is dangerous so staying with you hosting company long term has its advantages. The advantages are that the hosting company and the site owner understand the way that they work together and operate. Knowing where your site is going and having the hosting company that is equipped to make that happen with optimized efficiency is important when choosing a company.

As one can see, choosing a web hosting company isn’t as easy as picking the cheapest option and just hoping that it works out. Choosing the right company takes time and research over the course of time. The more research that you can do about a hosting company the better especially if you are not a techie at heart. Pick the hosting company on features and where you are going in the future with your site!

DJ Miller is a graduate student at the University of Tampa. He's an avid gadget geek and spends most of his time reading or writing. He is a huge fantasy sports fan and even runs his own advice site for Fantasy Help.