Are you starting your new website? You will need some assistance in creating your website but that step is not that much tough. You just need proper assistance, content and that’s it. The main point arises after developing a website. That question is how you can make your website visible to people. how does your website go online?
In this 21st century, where everyone is using either a desktop or mobile phone. You always encounter many websites or pages whenever you search for anything. What is the reason behind that website being visible to you?. have you ever thought about this? let me tell you today, whenever any person creates a website, he has to make that website online for people who will search for those keywords. this is possible through hosting services.
Web hosting is the service that will create your website online for the people who have searched for it. At this time, about 269 web hosting providers are available in the market. These are the companies or brands that will provide you with hosting services. All of these have their claim to be the no.1 web hosting provider. Everyone thinks he is the best in their work. But you have to decide which web hosting provider is the best one for your website.
Finding the right web hosting provider is very crucial because these hosting services will decide the success of your website. If in any aspect, you choose the wrong one. What will happen? you might experience:
- Site crashes- whenever a person opens up your website it will crash after every while. And this will be very irritating for the user and he might jump to another site.
- Security breaches- there might be security issues if your website doesn’t have good web hosting services.
- Poor loading speed- this is one of the biggest issues of not getting enough traffic on your site. Whenever a user visits any profile and it takes more than a usual minute to open it, he will immediately close it and jump to the next one. So if you want your website to get more traffic then it should have high loading speed.
These are all the issues that you will face if you choose the wrong web hosting service provider. So to minimize your headache, we are here today to guide you on how to choose the right web hosting service provider for your website.
Without wasting further time let’s get started.
HOW TO CHOOSE RIGHT WEB HOSTING SERVICE PROVIDER?
There are some steps that you have to take before choosing any web hosting service provider for your website in 2024 and 2025 and those steps are:
- Understanding the requirements of your website
- Check for the type of hosting
- Compare your budget with prices
- Customer support services
- Features you want
- High security
- Good speed and reliability
- Special types of hosts
- CMS VS. Website builder
- Easy to use and handy
1. UNDERSTAND THE REQUIREMENTS OF YOUR WEBSITE
First things first, it is very important before going on the hunt for the right web hosting service provider, to know what is the need of your website. What features does it require? what are its demands? although creating a small website does not require any resources creating an e-commerce website requires a high level of resources in web hosting service other it won’t work well.
Let’s see what are the factors you should know in identifying the requirements of your website:
- FEATURES: All the web hosting service providers have basic features but to avail of the extra features you have to pay them extra. So you should know whether you can pay extra or not.
- BUDGET: The most important thing is the budget, you should know how much you can easily pay for web hosting.
- TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS: Every website has its specific software that will help in working. So identify which type of software your website needs.
- TRAFFIC EXPECTATIONS: Estimate how much traffic you want on your website and also the potential traffic growth.
- USABILITY: Always try to make your website user-friendly and with technical support.
- WEBSITE TYPE: Always first decide which type of content you are going to present on your website. Either it will be a blogging site, an e-commerce store, or any portfolio.
These are all the factors that will help you to identify that which are the specific needs of your website. In knowing about your website, you can easily do this by categorizing all the types of websites and then deciding in which category your website lies.
1. LOW RESOURCE WEBSITE
These are all the small or new websites that have very limited content and visitors. Their content mostly comprises small blogs, portfolios, and basic informational sites. In brochure websites, important business information will also be provided.
2. MEDIUM RESOURCE WEBSITE
In this category, websites have regularly updated content with small business websites and with a moderate number of traffic. In this category, educational and non-profit organization websites are included.
3. HIGH RESOURCES WEBSITES
These are the websites with huge product listings and large e-commerce platforms. They have high-traffic social media platforms and content streaming services.
4. SPECIAL RESOURCES NEED
These are mainly news sites with high-traffic content. In this mostly AI and machine learning sites are included.
Now from these categories, recognize in which category your website lies. And then proceed.
2. CHECK FOR THE TYPES OF HOSTING
In the market, you will see many types of web hosting. It is very crucial to know about all the web hosting so that you will decide the right one for your website. The point to ponder is, that not all web host offers all types of hosting, so it is very important to first research the web hosts and then decide. Let’s see some of the types of hosting:
- Shared Hosting
- VPS hosting
- Cloud hosting
- Dedicated hosting
- WordPress hosting
Among all of these, the most preferable and popular one is Shared hosting.
Now decide which type of web host is needed for your website and does it has all the features that your website requires.
All the web host offers different plans. So before decide the web host, first check their packages. For checking the packages of the web host. Always check the answers to these questions:
1. Does it have room to grow?
This is very important because if you are deciding to go with this web host for the long term, it should have good packages with good VPS.
2. How many plans are included in each hosting type?
This is very important as the type you have chosen has 2 rooms which means it will not have much space for scalability, which is bad for your website.
Before choosing any web host dig deeply and then make your decision so that you won’t regret it later.
3. COMPARE YOUR BUDGET WITH PRICING
While buying a web hosting service, never spend all of your money because that is not it in getting success for your website. There are many more things for those you will need money. For example, buying new plug-ins, freelance contributors, and maintaining custom domains. For all of these, you will need money. So it is very important to first judge your budget and then decide which package you can buy easily.
Many web hosts are budget-friendly for example we have Shared hosting, which will only cost you $1.39 per month. Although this one is the cheapest and best for newbies there is a limitation to it, once you start growing, its features won’t be enough for your website and you will need a new web host for new and latest features for your website.
Just for the sake of some money, never settle for less. Cheap prices can be friendly for you but it will be for some time and it will be useless if it does not provide your website exact features that it desires. So, don’t make your choice all about price.
If you are going for the advanced features for your website then you have to pay more. A more advanced hosting plan requires more money to pay. Among all the types of hosting, dedicated hosting is one of the most expensive types. The dedicated hosting plan of HostGator starts from $89.98 per month, which is not very friendly for everyone.
1. WEB HOSTING PRICES
When a new person joins a web host, he receives a discount price on the plan, this is the reason why hosting prices are cheap for newcomers. But never forget that it is only for your first term, once that period is over, you will have to pay the normal price of plans. That will be your enjoyable period after that you will be like every other normal user.
Your first term depends on which subscription you have chosen. For example, if you have chosen the plan of 6 months then your first term won’t be over in six months. But after six months you have to buy a new subscription at normal prices. So never fall prey to the discounted prices, always check for original prices then buy one.
There can be another reason why hosting plan prices look cheaper, it’s because they always show the prices for the longest billing cycle which is about 36 months. Always prefer the 12-month contracts in the beginning.
2. HOW TO CHECK VALUE OF HOSTING PLANS
Whenever you check the prices of the plan, ensure the value for money. For example $1 per month hosting plan is a waste of money if it does not support your site.
Following are the points that you should consider when looking out for prices:
Money-back guarantee?
Always prefer the plan that has a payback feature. So that if you aren’t satisfied with its features you can back off and get your money back.
Renewal prices
Always check the real prices of the plan. So you should know after the first term how much you will have to pay.
Free features?
Many web hosting plans have free features that are very important for a website. So look for a plan that offers free SSL, free domain, free backups, and free migration.
4. CUSTOMER SUPPORT RESOURCES
In any web host, customer support is very important. Always check for the resources they have for customer support before choosing the web host. Before making your decision, first explore their help center. Look around and see whether they have a helpful center or not. You can also check by getting in touch with them. It will also tell you how fast their services or help is.
Always prefer a web host whose customer service inspires you or satisfies you.
5. FEATURES YOU WANT
There is not a single web host that will completely fit your requirements but still, there must be the right one for you. Knowing which feature will be the right for the success of your website will help you a lot in choosing the right web host for your website.
Let’s see some of the factors that you have to think about:
- STORAGE- first know how much storage your website needs. If they have too little storage leave it immediately as little storage will affect your website growth.
- BANDWIDTH- always prefer the bandwidth that will handle the traffic on your website. For this, you must have some expectations for your traffic and if bandwidth is not enough it will crash your site if it gets too much traffic.
- RAM- RAM means memory. This is the box that will store your website data so that it can be accessed quickly and easily. If you have a lot of programs to open then you will need more RAM.
- QUANTITY- the basic plan of each web host allows for one site. You should know how many sites you need to host.
- ORGANIZATION- some of the web hosts have cPanel, but most of them use their custom control panel. So you have to decide what is your preference.
- DOMAIN NAME- if you want a domain name for your website, you have to buy the web host plan that has the free feature of domain name otherwise it will be very costly for you.
- SSL- this is a security sockets layer. In this generation, a web plan having no free SSL features is considered a bad web host. It’s a must-have option. If you want a better security plan for your web host, you might need an advanced SSL plan later on. So check before buying a plan whether you can change to an advanced level in SSL later on or not.
- CONTROL- control features are the ones through which you can get your hands on the more technical side of your web host plan.
- STORAGE- for storage always look for SSD storage, it is far better than the usual one because of its boosting power and high speed.
While choosing the web host, you might get confused many times, because there are many features that you have to keep track of otherwise you won’t be able to get the correct choice for your web. If you keep this feature list in your mind, it will be very straightforward for you.
6. ENSURE HIGH SECURITY
The security of your site server is dependent on a web host. Never leave a single doubt when it comes to the security of your website. Ensure that you are choosing a web host that is good for the security of websites.
There are different security ways or programs for example:
- DDoS protection
- Firewalls
- Virus scanning
- Brute force defense
- Server hardening
To find out about the security protection in web host is a challenging task. Because they have hidden their exact details of security measures just for the sake of hacking. If they disclose everything to the world, it will be very handy for a hacker to hack the whole system and interrupt their maintenance.
Other than these security features, there are many more to look for, but these are the major ones. Other security features are:
- SSL- lots of web hosts have free SSL certificates. But if you have an online business then you might need an advanced level SSL system and for that, you have to purchase. Always check the web host that has an advanced level of SSL system.
- DOMAIN PRIVACY- Domain privacy is very important in keeping your personal information secure and will appear anonymous in the public sector. And this is all to minimize the chance of spam.
7. ENSURE THE GOOD SPEED AND RELIABILITY
A good website has a high loading speed otherwise website will always struggle to succeed. This is the major factor that will either take your website to the top position or make it fall to the last place. So, always check for the loading speed and reliability of the web host, although that is very difficult to know before using the web host. At in start, it will give you a high loading speed but later on its speed goes down. But there are some factors that you can look forward to to ensure the good loading speed and reliability of the web host.
1. UPTIME
This is the time that will tell you how much your website or server will be up and active. Uptime will give you the information in percentages, and 100% uptime is not possible, which is a very unrealistic thing. This is because, at some point or time, your website will face a downfall or downtime. This time can be just for the updates, but it will happen. So never imagine that any web host will give you 100% uptime. If anyone is claiming that they will give you 100% uptime, then it will be a red flag or false statement.
The maximum uptime possibility is 99.97%, this is the uptime that will given by any top web host. And in this uptime, your website will get almost 150 minutes of downtime per year. More than this downtime will be the bad option for your website.
Right now the best uptime running in the market is 99.99% and that is by HostGator. Although many web host have displayed their uptime on the front still if you want a reality check you can get it from recent uptime performance on their website.
2. SERVER LOCATION
The more the server location web host has, the more it will be easy for your website to get open across the globe. Because the logic: the closer your visitor is to your server, the faster your website will load. So before purchasing any web host make sure that the host has multiple servers.
When you are using any web host, not all of them will allow you to choose the server of your choice. But the one that allows is one of the best choices.
Other than server location features, there is a feature known as Content Delivery Network. With the help of this network, your servers will be at different locations working all together to deliver your content as fast as they can. This feature is available on many web hosts free of cost. So briefly check for this feature in the web host you are getting.
This feature has a benefit, in that it will improve your site’s performance amazingly and will keep the visitors on your site.
8. ANY SPECIAL FEATURE YOU WANT
Above we have mentioned the types of hosting. Among those we have some specialist hosting packages that you should consider before choosing any web host for your site.
1. WORDPRESS HOSTING
WordPress hosting is the major type of hosting. But in it, we have sub-divisions that are:
- SHARED WORDPRESS HOSTING- This hosting is for small or basic WordPress sites.
- MANAGED WORDPRESS HOSTING- this one is the advanced type of hosting that is best for those businesses that have grown far.
Let me tell you some features or factors that you should consider if you are looking forward to WordPress hosting:
- Free backups
- Custom themes
- WordPress Support
- Automatic WordPress updates
- Automatic WordPress installation
2. LINUX VS. WINDOWS HOSTING
Linux hosting is the default hosting in many web hosts. But if you are looking for specific needs then window hosting will be a good option for you as it provides more niche programs.
3. RESELLER HOSTING
This hosting service is a very unique feature that is mostly used by businesses that are looking to set up their own hosting company because it allows you to resell hosting space to others. As we have said this one is unique hosting so it is not offered by all the web hosts.
9. CMS VS. WEBSITE BUILDER
These two are the features that are very must in a good web hosting provider. CMS is the content management system and the other is website builder. CMS helps build a website more successfully and will take it to the top position in the best websites. But this is the steep learning curve. If you are using this option then you must have some technical knowledge as I this option you have to face many technical work so you should learn technical tasks like optimizing the speed and security of your website.
Among all the CMS platforms, the most popular ones are WordPress and Joomla. You can also choose the web host that has the feature of an automatic installer, which will automatically quickly activate your chosen CMS.
The second one is the website builder, with the help of this feature you don’t have to worry about your management of the website in technical aspects. Some web host providers have built-in site builders as this is more user-friendly for customers.
The following are the factors that you should keep in mind while choosing the right CMS platform:
- Technical skills- as compared to website builders, you will need more knowledge in CMS hosting as it requires more technical skills.
- Budget- some web hosts are self-hosted and those are more affordable for users as compared to website builders.
- Flexibility- CMS platforms have more flexibility as compared to a website builder that has more limitations.
- Design- CMS platforms have the freedom to customize your templates on the other hand website builders have pre-made templates in their designs.
10. EASY TO USE AND SETUP
When choosing a web host service, always prefer the one that has more easiness in it. Although features are much more important still many web host service providers have advanced features along with handy setups. Some hosting control panels are more user-friendly than others.
Other than an intuitive user interface, the other important thing is that the provider should offer a library of information or knowledge in provider to help you get started on building your website.
CONCLUSION
After creating your website the very next challenging step is choosing the right web host service provider for your website as your whole website performance depends on that web host service provider. While choosing the web host, you will see huge varieties and that will be the most difficult to choose the right one from that bundle.
In this article, we have mentioned all the 10 factors that you have to consider with the help of which you can get the right web hosting service provider for your website. So before choosing any platform or web host service provider, first give this article a brief reading and try to understand all the parts of it. Only that way selecting the right web host service provider will be a piece of cake for you.
FAQs
1. Is a web host a must for a website?
Yes, your website needs a web host otherwise it will affect the performance of the website. This web host provides the infrastructure and resources that are necessary to make your website accessible on the internet.
2. Can we change our web host at some point?
Yes, you can shift to another web host service provider. You have to follow the following procedure:
- Select a new host for your website
- Set up your new account on it.
- Now you have to copy your whole website database and files and paste it on a new web host
- Update your domain’s DNS settings
Among all of the web hosts, Hostinger offers the easiest way to migrate.
