Things to consider before buying your first web hosting

Things to consider before buying your first web hosting

1. Budget
What is your monthly or yearly budget?
Usually a monthly payment is more expensive than that of a yearly one. That is because a host usually offer discounts on yearly prepayments. However, a yearly payment service is riskier as you won’t be able to quit as easily should the hosting or service be bad.

2. Requirements
What are your technical specifications that the host have to meet?
Do you require PHP ? Asp.Net? Node.js?
There are only a handful of hosts that offer asp.net or node.js, so if either one are a requirement, you have to take caution so as to not be buying the wrong one !

Other than those specifications, you will have to think about other requirements such as hard disk space, monthly traffic,
processing power, ram/memory needed, number of ftp accounta and so on…

3. Support
You will definitely have to rely on the hosting’s support at some point of time, and you will definitely want to have one that provides a top-notch support.Support is also what usually separates a bigger and a smaller hosting company. Both have their pros and cons.

A bigger hosting company will usually outsource their support to people from countries such as India as labor cost is cheaper. This can lead to poorer communication in English.
Pros : quicker responses
Cons : potentially lower quality of support
A smaller hosting company will usually have more personal support because their support is usually not outsourced but rather in-house. This may mean better quality of support, but slower response times
Pros : better quality of support
Cons : slower responses

*by quality of support i mean everything else except response time. i.e. communication level, knowledge and skill level of support, how fast they get things done, and so on...

Of course, these do not apply to all companies but is just a general outlook of what I see in the hosting industry now. The best case is if you are able to get a host that provides quality support with quick response time but yet friendly to your budget.

CONCLUSION
There are many web host out there and there are many options to choose from. So don’t rush into your first buy. Compare costs, technical specifications, reviews before purchasing your web host !