Choosing the best web host can be a challenging assignment especially when there are simply too many web hosting providers around. By investing a little bit of your time and effort to evaluate the services available, you can increase the chances of choosing a reliable web host that provide good service.
Customer Support
Customer service and support is the most important factor to look for when choosing a web hosting company. Find out what kind of support does the web hosting provider provide.
Is there any form of telephone support, email or knowledge base? Does the web host offer a dedicated discussion board or forum for clients? How fast is the response when problems are encountered, for example server downtime? Do they provide any online chat where technician are available 24/7.
The best web host provider are those who can support their clients 24-7.
Is There Any Money Back Guarantee?
Many reliable and best web host provider usually provide a 30 day money back guarantee on their service either via a free trial period or a money back guarantee. This is good for us, the customer. Having a 1 month trial is the best way to find out if they are reliable before we accept a longer term of web hosting.
Always look for one that provide some form of money back guarantee.
Contract
There are many web hosting providers who do not require any contract commitment. You just need to move from month to month. However, some web host providers offer a better fee in exchange for a contract commitment. You have to once again calculate if it is worth the deal to accept a lower cost for a longer term of commitment.
User Friendly Control Panel
Control panel allows you to take care of your web site account yourself. One crucial point for thought is to make sure that the chosen web hosting company provides a easy to manage control panel filled with multiple attractive features. Be sure to check this out before you sign up for any web host package. Most of the top web hosting provider does provide a easy to use control panel.
Here you can find a list of the features available in cPanel:
- Email:Allow you to create new email accounts, manage your email accounts. There is also a web based email program available.
- File Manager: Make it possible for you to upload files to your web site and download files from your web site.
- Backup: Provide a one click web site backup
- MySQL Databases: Allow you to create and manage all your database.
- Fantastico: Allow you to install many very good software to your website with a few effortless clicks. Scripts like wordpress, zencart can be install easily via Fantastico.
And many more beneficial features available that make cPanel which is the most popular control panel at any time.
E Commerce Web Hosting
If you want to promote your product and service online, the next feature that you have to make sure that your ecommerce web hosts provide is the shopping cart script.
Does the ecommerce web host make it easy for you to add shopping cart to your web site? Do they offer shopping cart for your website? If so, are the shopping cart included at no charge or do they charge extra for this?
Find out the names of the shopping carts the ecommerce web host provide and choose one that is most appropriate one for your ecommerce requirements.
SSL
If you are running a web store that accepts credit cards payment directly from your web site, you need a Secure Socket Layer (SSL) to be bundle in your ecommerce web hosting package.
Web Based Email Program
Find out if your web hosting package come with a webmail access program. This useful feature offers you the flexibility to access your email everywhere you go. The above checklist shows some of the most common features provided by web hosting companies. Always remember to go only for those features that you truly need.
