How to get the best web hosting provider?
10:11 PM
After having some bad nightmare experiences with web hosting, I'm writing this post to tell you some basic fundamentally important things you should consider before buying a web space.
We don't make websites to let them sit on our own computers: we set them free on the web. While it's often more fun to create the website than to worry about hosting it, web hosting isn't a decision you should make lightly.
If some of you wanna know about my bad experiences, I can tell you that in one word. One word?? yes! one word, "GoDaddy". It's possible that some lucky guys has good experience with GoDaddy but I didn't. I took the decision of choosing a web host lightly. A developer like me or anyone else invests or like to invest time in making the web-application, rather than worry about hosting and wasting precious time sending emails and contacting support staff of the hosting provider.
So I recommend you to consider following important features in a web host:-
It's the primary thing you want from a web host, "web space". how much data you can store? How much is enough space? these are the important questions you should consider. "How much data?" For most small and medium web sites, you'll find that several gigabytes should be plenty of storage. Some hosts may offer "unlimited storage", don't fall for "unlimited storage", read the fine print.If you read the fine print (usually, the Terms and Services) you'll find that it's unlimited until you go over the "normal site usage." If you think you might be close to or over whatever "normal" is, make sure you know what you can use before buying … or go with a host that sets clear limits.I prefer the second type of hosts who sets clear limits.
When looking for a web host, you'll often see storage and bandwidth hand in hand. What is bandwidth? It's the amount of data that your host will let you and your visitors upload and download (cumulatively) in a given month. Say your website is 5 megabyte of data and your monthly bandwidth is 1GB. At the beginning of the month, you upload the entire site; now you've used up 5 MB of bandwidth. If a visitor to your site views every page, they will have downloaded 5MB of data. That means you can have up to 199 visitors in that month (assuming each visitor views your whole site). After that, your web host will either not allow any more visitors, or (more likely) charge you extra per MB. Just like storage, some hosts offer "unlimited" bandwidth; again, don't fall for "unlimited", find out the limits or choose a host that sets the bar where all can see it.
There's always a good chance that if you're running a website, after a while you'll like to run another one on either a new domain or sub-domain. So make sure your hosting provider will let you host multiple domains. Often, there will be a limit on how many domains you can have on one account; make sure it will accomodate you! Usually, there will be a section in the admin panel for adding your domains and choosing which sub-folders each one will point to. The same is true for sub-domains. I have observed a few variants of how it's done. For eg. In GoDaddy you have a main application hosted on root and other domains are hosted on sub-folders. This sort of management really sucks.
Many web hosts also offer email account for your domains. You'll want to know how many email accounts they'll let you set up; also, don't forget to check out their selections for receiving that mail. Do they have a webmail interface? Multiple ones that you can select from? How about integration with Google Apps (for the Gmail interface)? Can you get your mail in your client of choice via IMAP, or do they only offer POP?
Now-a-days, even small websites seem to have a database on the back end. You'll want to make sure you can use the type of database you're comfortable with. Most hosts today offer MySQL; that's probably enough for most people, but if you’d prefer PostsgreSQL, Oracle, SQL Server, or another flavour, don’t settle for anything less. Remember, if they aren’t advertising it, they probably don’t offer it!
A lot of web hosts offer support for popular frameworks, blogging systems, or CMSes. It's always nice when your web host offers a one-click install (or at least a super easy set-up) for WordPress or your CMS of choice. If hosting provider doesn't support some common installers like wordpress and few CMSes like Drupal etc., Installing these applications can take some time for eg. to install wordpress you'll need to download wordpress and unzip it and upload it on server, provide database preferences and install. With One click installers this becomes really easy. I hope many hosts might have these one click installers. So check for this feature and it'll be surely useful.
It's probably one of main feature you'll be interacting with everyday. I've seen the worst Control Panel, GoDaddy. Please make sure that your hosting provider has proper documentation of the control panel and has an easy to use control panel. Some hosting providers provide cPanel which is really a good control panel and some provide their own. Which can be better than cPanel.To check this out, watch their videos of cPanel(if available) or see documentation and some provides demo login. make sure you'll be able to use their control panel.
After wasting a lot of days sending emails to my previous host GoDaddy, and receiving some computer generated answers I can tell that please make sure that your web host has good Tech Support( Tech support means some technical guys will answer and respond to your requests rather than a person having a manual and types out of that manual to you). So Tech Support is very important: find out exactly what your prospective host offers for tech support: can you phone them? At what times? Do they have a support email address? A ticket system? What's their promised response time? How about a live chat? Do they have a wiki or library of help articles / tutorials? Do they have Q&A Community or Forum? Don’t choose a host until you know exactly what support they offer; you'll be happy for it later, trust me!
If you're a little more advanced, you might want to consider choosing a host that offers shell access: that's logging into your server from the command line over SSH. I really loved this feature, say you need to delete/rename a lot of files in a directory, you can easily do that using ssh. You'll be able to securely copy files up and down, change file permissions for whole groups of files quickly and easily, and perform a multitude of other tasks. But use this very carefully. If you want this feature, you'll know all that you do with it!
Here's another important one: you'll want the ability to add your own .htaccess files to your directories. What's a .htaccess file? It's a configuration file used by Apache server. You can use them to password protect directories, re-write URLs, redirect pages, compress output, set cache and other settings and more.
This should go without saying, but make sure the host you plan to choose offers support for the server-side languages you want to use. If you plan to pick up Ruby on Rails in the next few months, you probably want to see it on the list of supported frameworks. If you want to use Django, make sure there's Python support. Don't lock yourself into having PHP as your only option (unless you're sure that's all you'll ever want or need!).
Don't think that your web host is any less suseptible to data loss than your own computers; remember, servers are just big computers that everyone can read files from! What backup options, if any, does your host provide? You'll want to back up both your site files and databases. If they don't offer backup, figure out how you'll be able to do it yourself: this might be one of the places that shell access and cron come in handy!
We already talked about content management systems, but sometimes you'll want a something more. Several hosts offer set-ups for social features like forums, bulletin boards, forums, mailing lists. If you'll be running an online store, some hosts offer setups for eCommerce solutions.
If you can, find out what software versions the host you are considering offers. Some hosts aren't quick to upgrade to the latest offering, while others will let you choose which version you want. There are few things worse than signing up for a year of hosting only to discover your host is running PHP 4.x (yes, I’ve made that mistake).
Make sure that your host provides almost 100% up-time and check whether they mention that which servers are down and why and they're working to improve and solve issues and in how much time.
Choosing host is up to you, but please make sure that you look for above mentioned features in the web host. Let me know which web host you've chosen and why?
If some of you wanna know about my bad experiences, I can tell you that in one word. One word?? yes! one word, "GoDaddy". It's possible that some lucky guys has good experience with GoDaddy but I didn't. I took the decision of choosing a web host lightly. A developer like me or anyone else invests or like to invest time in making the web-application, rather than worry about hosting and wasting precious time sending emails and contacting support staff of the hosting provider.
So I recommend you to consider following important features in a web host:-
Amount of Storage
It's the primary thing you want from a web host, "web space". how much data you can store? How much is enough space? these are the important questions you should consider. "How much data?" For most small and medium web sites, you'll find that several gigabytes should be plenty of storage. Some hosts may offer "unlimited storage", don't fall for "unlimited storage", read the fine print.If you read the fine print (usually, the Terms and Services) you'll find that it's unlimited until you go over the "normal site usage." If you think you might be close to or over whatever "normal" is, make sure you know what you can use before buying … or go with a host that sets clear limits.I prefer the second type of hosts who sets clear limits.
Amount of Bandwidth
When looking for a web host, you'll often see storage and bandwidth hand in hand. What is bandwidth? It's the amount of data that your host will let you and your visitors upload and download (cumulatively) in a given month. Say your website is 5 megabyte of data and your monthly bandwidth is 1GB. At the beginning of the month, you upload the entire site; now you've used up 5 MB of bandwidth. If a visitor to your site views every page, they will have downloaded 5MB of data. That means you can have up to 199 visitors in that month (assuming each visitor views your whole site). After that, your web host will either not allow any more visitors, or (more likely) charge you extra per MB. Just like storage, some hosts offer "unlimited" bandwidth; again, don't fall for "unlimited", find out the limits or choose a host that sets the bar where all can see it.
Domains and Sub-domains
There's always a good chance that if you're running a website, after a while you'll like to run another one on either a new domain or sub-domain. So make sure your hosting provider will let you host multiple domains. Often, there will be a limit on how many domains you can have on one account; make sure it will accomodate you! Usually, there will be a section in the admin panel for adding your domains and choosing which sub-folders each one will point to. The same is true for sub-domains. I have observed a few variants of how it's done. For eg. In GoDaddy you have a main application hosted on root and other domains are hosted on sub-folders. This sort of management really sucks.
Email Accounts and Features
Many web hosts also offer email account for your domains. You'll want to know how many email accounts they'll let you set up; also, don't forget to check out their selections for receiving that mail. Do they have a webmail interface? Multiple ones that you can select from? How about integration with Google Apps (for the Gmail interface)? Can you get your mail in your client of choice via IMAP, or do they only offer POP?
Database Support
Now-a-days, even small websites seem to have a database on the back end. You'll want to make sure you can use the type of database you're comfortable with. Most hosts today offer MySQL; that's probably enough for most people, but if you’d prefer PostsgreSQL, Oracle, SQL Server, or another flavour, don’t settle for anything less. Remember, if they aren’t advertising it, they probably don’t offer it!
Framework Support and Easy-Install
A lot of web hosts offer support for popular frameworks, blogging systems, or CMSes. It's always nice when your web host offers a one-click install (or at least a super easy set-up) for WordPress or your CMS of choice. If hosting provider doesn't support some common installers like wordpress and few CMSes like Drupal etc., Installing these applications can take some time for eg. to install wordpress you'll need to download wordpress and unzip it and upload it on server, provide database preferences and install. With One click installers this becomes really easy. I hope many hosts might have these one click installers. So check for this feature and it'll be surely useful.
Control Panel
It's probably one of main feature you'll be interacting with everyday. I've seen the worst Control Panel, GoDaddy. Please make sure that your hosting provider has proper documentation of the control panel and has an easy to use control panel. Some hosting providers provide cPanel which is really a good control panel and some provide their own. Which can be better than cPanel.To check this out, watch their videos of cPanel(if available) or see documentation and some provides demo login. make sure you'll be able to use their control panel.
Tech Support
After wasting a lot of days sending emails to my previous host GoDaddy, and receiving some computer generated answers I can tell that please make sure that your web host has good Tech Support( Tech support means some technical guys will answer and respond to your requests rather than a person having a manual and types out of that manual to you). So Tech Support is very important: find out exactly what your prospective host offers for tech support: can you phone them? At what times? Do they have a support email address? A ticket system? What's their promised response time? How about a live chat? Do they have a wiki or library of help articles / tutorials? Do they have Q&A Community or Forum? Don’t choose a host until you know exactly what support they offer; you'll be happy for it later, trust me!
Shell Access
If you're a little more advanced, you might want to consider choosing a host that offers shell access: that's logging into your server from the command line over SSH. I really loved this feature, say you need to delete/rename a lot of files in a directory, you can easily do that using ssh. You'll be able to securely copy files up and down, change file permissions for whole groups of files quickly and easily, and perform a multitude of other tasks. But use this very carefully. If you want this feature, you'll know all that you do with it!
.htaccess Files
Here's another important one: you'll want the ability to add your own .htaccess files to your directories. What's a .htaccess file? It's a configuration file used by Apache server. You can use them to password protect directories, re-write URLs, redirect pages, compress output, set cache and other settings and more.
Language Support
This should go without saying, but make sure the host you plan to choose offers support for the server-side languages you want to use. If you plan to pick up Ruby on Rails in the next few months, you probably want to see it on the list of supported frameworks. If you want to use Django, make sure there's Python support. Don't lock yourself into having PHP as your only option (unless you're sure that's all you'll ever want or need!).
Site Backup
Don't think that your web host is any less suseptible to data loss than your own computers; remember, servers are just big computers that everyone can read files from! What backup options, if any, does your host provide? You'll want to back up both your site files and databases. If they don't offer backup, figure out how you'll be able to do it yourself: this might be one of the places that shell access and cron come in handy!
Extra Application Support and Installers
We already talked about content management systems, but sometimes you'll want a something more. Several hosts offer set-ups for social features like forums, bulletin boards, forums, mailing lists. If you'll be running an online store, some hosts offer setups for eCommerce solutions.
Up-to-Date
If you can, find out what software versions the host you are considering offers. Some hosts aren't quick to upgrade to the latest offering, while others will let you choose which version you want. There are few things worse than signing up for a year of hosting only to discover your host is running PHP 4.x (yes, I’ve made that mistake).
Up-Time
Make sure that your host provides almost 100% up-time and check whether they mention that which servers are down and why and they're working to improve and solve issues and in how much time.
Choosing host is up to you, but please make sure that you look for above mentioned features in the web host. Let me know which web host you've chosen and why?
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