There are a few things to look at when choosing a web host. Recommendations from friends, while helpful may not be enough. Many of the lower priced companies may have loyal customers, but they will also have many that left them for various reasons.
Let’s look at this logically. When you get to their site, they will tell you unlimited for on thing or another. Do not be fooled, all web hosts say unlimited but, there are limits. First, unless you have a dedicated server, you are sharing a server with other customers so your space is limited. Even with a dedicated server you are limited to the size space available on that server.
They will say unlimited domains, or sites. This one fooled me until I needed to add another site to one of the lower priced hosts. What I discovered is that my new domain had to be in a sub folder of the existing site. This is not a good idea since if one site breaks, it can affect all of your sites until you can determine which site is broken and get it fixed. Always look for a separate cPanel account for each site.
What about up time? How stable is their server? Don’t get me wrong, things happen and even the best web host can have issues that will cause your site to go down. Myself, with the last host I used for this site have had many issues lately causing me to have my site go down and have to contact support. The last straw was when my site went down and I couldn’t even reach support to set up a ticket. When your site is down, you are out of business until it comes back up.
SSL certificates is a big one. Without SSL, you have an http web address instead of https. Without an SSL certificate when someone goes to your site, they will get a warning page that the page you are going to is unsecure and hackers may try to steal your information. You then have the option of going back or continuing to the unsecure site which the page will warn you is unsafe. What do you think most people will do?
Price is important but, remember that the better hosting companies are going to be costlier than the others. If price is a major factor for you then look at the lower priced ones to start out. I would advise against going with any of the free ones. For most people the purpose of having a website is to make money. The free hosts will place their own ads and banners on your site to make their money off of your traffic and there is always the risk that they could shut your site down at any moment.
Look at what you need and upgrade later. I myself just migrated this site to a new host. It loads faster which thrills me completely and they have excellent customer support. I know this because I had never migrated a site before so there was a lot I was unfamiliar with. Both phone and live chat were quick and extremely helpful. I have a license for 5 cPanels and when I fill those up I can upgrade my account to get more. My current host is Liquid Web and I am truly happy with how it has turned out for me. I used live chat to talk to a representative and he asked my needs and through the discussion recommended the best package for me at this time. If you would like to check out their service you can do so here.
Above all else, when choosing a host, look at your present needs and not your future goals. Most web hosts will migrate your site for free should you need to change hosting companies in the future. By the way, Liquid Web’s support is available live 24/7.
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