What is the Best Web Hosting For You?
Searching for Web hosting can be daunting, especially if you’re new to the Web or making significant upgrades to your site. You might think that the priciest packages have the most (and, by extension, “best”) perks, or that you absolutely must have your own dedicated server with maxed-out everything to compete with “the big boys.” But the simple truth is, Web hosting is just another regular expense for your business, and it pays to get the most bang for your buck – without going overboard.
The Importance of Needs Analysis
As with any other major business expenditure, the first step in choosing the right hosting package for your business is needs analysis. Understanding exactly what you need is critical if you want to get all the features you need at a price that’s within your budget.
Before you begin shopping for hosting providers, as yourself the following questions:
- What’s my budget for Web hosting?
- Will I be building my site on my own, with a designer, or using a template?
- Who will be managing, updating, and monitoring my site?
- How much assistance and support will I need during my site setup, and on a regular basis?
- How large is my website?
- How much traffic am I expecting my website to draw?
- Will I be selling products and services directly on my site?
- Does my site need support for lots of custom applications?
- Will my site have interactive or media-rich components?
- Does my site need room to grow in the future?
Answering these questions gives you a detailed outline you can refer to when shopping for a host. If you know that your site is relatively small, will grow slowly, and is focused on information, rather than eCommerce, then it’s unlikely you’ll wind up choosing a maxed-out dedicated server package with high monthly fees and enough power to take on Amazon.com.
Choosing the Right Type of Host
Once you’ve completed your needs analysis, you can start shopping in earnest. In general, you’ll be choosing from three varieties of hosting:
- Shared Hosting lets you host your website (and all your databases, media, and other files) in a partition of a collective server. Other users can negatively impact the performance of your site, and you may have limited control over the configuration of your Web server and resource allotment you receive. Advanced customer support, backup services, and powerful upgrades may cost extra, or may even be completely unavailable. This is the cheapest option, however, and since it offers many of the same features (including eCommerce, database application support, etc.) as more expensive plans, it’s a great choice for small sites or those who are new to the Web.
- Cloud or Virtual Private Server (VPS) Hosting are two terms that are often used interchangeably, but in the strictest sense, a VPS may or may not be hosted on a cloud server, while plans specifically designated as “Cloud-based” set up a virtual machine across multiple machines on the Internet (i.e., “the cloud”). Whether part of your host’s physical server or on the cloud, these plans offer more power, greater security, and far more scalability than their shared counterparts. In addition, since you receive your own virtual machine, you will often have a much finer degree of control over its operation, configuration, and management. And since your server is virtual, upgrades and pay-as-you-go, on-demand resources (e.g., during periods of unexpected or seasonally high traffic) make keeping your site up and running smoothly much easier. Prices have fallen in recent years, but for upper-level VPS and Cloud plans, you can still expect to pay at least two to five times as much as you do for shared hosting (and sometimes much more).
- Dedicated Hosting is usually the most expensive option available. These plans let you host your website(s) on a physical server that you can configure and upgrade to your preferred specifications. These plans offer the finest degree of control over your Web server, and the options for upgrades to hardware like your processor and RAM mean you can “turn it up to 11” anytime you like. They also generally come with a more robust level of personalized support, as well as optional services like fully managed hosting. Power, resources, and control come at a price – dedicated server rates can easily reach hundreds of dollars each month, and that’s before any added upgrades, special services, or customizations. They earn their keep for sites that pull huge traffic, do major eCommerce, or serve up lots of media, but for small-to-medium sites, they’re likely hosting overkill and a needless expense.
Understanding the benefits and limitations of each hosting level will help give you a clearer picture of how much hosting you really need, and also let you plan for future expansions or additional services down the road.
NOTE: You may be able to get a better deal on a specific type of hosting if you choose a provider that specializes exclusively in that variety. For example, as cloud computing becomes more widespread, finding a plan with dedicated-hosting power at an affordable price is not out of the question.
Narrowing the Field
Armed with a rough idea of what level of hosting is right for you, you can use the information from your needs analysis to further refine your search. Use a hosting compare tool to specify the features you need (control panel of choice; eCommerce options; RAM, processor, and bandwidth limits; etc.) to find three or four promising candidates. Then it’s simply a matter of choosing the one that best meets your feature requirements and budget.
A Few Caveats
Keep a few things in mind before you sign on that dotted line:
- The cheapest hosting isn’t necessarily a bargain. Even in the age of the Internet, you still get what you pay for. If a deal seems too good to be true, make sure that the price you see isn’t a promo that will balloon after a few months, or contingent upon a ridiculously long contract (some hosts require a five-year commitment to get their cheapest rates). Also, less expensive hosting may have cut-rate support, limited features, and lots of hidden fees. Always – and we do mean ALWAYS – read the fine print.
- Choose a host that can accommodate your growing business. You want your business to grow, and if you’re making the most of your website, that means the plan that meets your needs today probably won’t meet the needs of your increasingly busy site six months down the road. Find a plan that can grow with you, or, at a minimum, make sure you can easily transfer your site content to another host if you need to move to a more powerful provider in the future.
- Don’t be afraid to kick the tires. Most providers offer some sort of money-back guarantee or free trial period. Use this time to figure out how well your plan is meeting your needs. Is your site up and running as promised? Do you have sufficient resources to handle the traffic you receive? Is customer support responsive? Giving a plan a test drive is a great way to discover what works – and what doesn’t.
Web hosting is not a “one size fits all” industry. While most hosting providers will prove adequate for the majority of businesses, your primary concern lies in finding the host that’s not just adequate, but ideal, for your needs. By taking the time to determine your needs, understand the options available, and thoroughly evaluate potential solutions, you can find the Web hosting that’s truly best for you.