Are you looking into hosting solution for your website? Here are a few insider tips on what to look for in a hosting provider…
- Budget
- Hardware
- Security
- Support
Your Hosting Budget
Establish a budget before looking into hosting providers. Hosting companies try their hardest to nickel and dime new customers with mundane features and support. Affordable hosting packages are out there for what your website may need to function properly
For example, you might need a hosting solution that includes…
- Free email for your business
- A website builder
- One-click WordPress installations
- Free domain registration
That last one may come in handy if you have not acquired a domain for your website yet.
Make sure you take note of their cancellation policies and always be on the lookout for free trial periods. These are a good way to test the performance of the server and the quality of the customer service.
Either way, make sure you budget enough money to get the performance (speed) and customer service you will need to keep your website effective and operational.
If you are paying $4.99 a month for hosting and expect business-class performance and support, you will be massively disappointed. Alternatively, if you’re spending $1,200.00 a month and using a portion of the allocated resources, you’re throwing money away.
Hosting Hardware, Space, and Performance
The hardware you need for your website to load fast and run smoothly for great user experience will affect your hosting decisions. Most, if not all hosting providers, show their system specs of the hardware where your website will be hosted.
Pay attention to certain server specs such as the CPU, and whether it is Intel or Ryzen. What is the number of Virtual Cores and size of RAM the server offers? Can these be scaled up or down depending on the package you choose or when you decide to upgrade later?
Look at the storage drive being offered. Is it an HDD or SSD? All these specs are key components to understanding where your website will live and what sort of speed and durability you can expect.
Pay attention to whether providers can upgrade or downgrade your server to newer hardware or software such as operating systems to website builders. You may need to quickly scale your website as your website’s traffic increases.
Pick a hosting provider that matches your needs. You may not need to upgrade, but instead, downgrade if your resources are not being overly used.
You’ll want options to choose from and the freedom to upgrade or downgrade your server on the fly so your website can stay agile as your business grows.
Hosting Security
A hosting provider with high-end security services for your website is what you need, period. You cannot afford to skimp on security. In today’s world where everything is virtual and digital, your website is your storefront.
Today’s standard for hosting providers is nearly the same across the board, however, you should know if the hosting provider offers DDoS protection. Distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks are when an attacker gets your origin server IP address and sends a flood of traffic to it.
Your hosting server cannot handle this attack and eventually goes unresponsive. Picking a hosting provider with DDoS protection and countermeasures is useful in the sense that you are guaranteed little to no downtime on your website.
Hosting providers with the ability to secure your website as well for any vulnerabilities is a great feature to also look for to better your cybersecurity.
Hosting Support, You Get What You Pay For!
Getting support from hosting providers can be daunting and even time-consuming. Look for a hosting provider that offers all or any of these systems…
- live chat
- chatbot
- ticket system
- phone number to call
This is another big decision-making factor when picking a hosting provider. Knowing there is a support process to rely on if you have any questions about billing, troubleshooting, and your website will help ease any support related needs you may have.
Also, check their response time if they offer it. This will tell you a good bit about the type of hosting company they are.
And finally, always check for customer reviews and feedback from their own support requests. When it comes to hosting, “distrust but verify.” Pay attention to their pricing, specs, security protocols, and support offered.
It could literally save your business someday, especially during this pandemic when everyone and everything seems to be virtual.
Do you need hosting services? We offer our SailFish hosting solution for business class hosting clients. Drop us a line or give us a call at 301.383.8351 to find out more.
