If you are looking for web hosting services at low cost, there are many companies that offer a low price monthly fee for the host (store) to the site. Some examples are Yahoo, Bluehost, Hostgator, and network solutions, to name a few. Of course, not everyone looks the same characteristics as webhosting, but all offered the same? The answer is no. Believe it or not, there is a web-hosting companies, which are millions of websites on their servers. If you are told that the monthly average of about ten dollars a month for a total of some serious cash! No wonder they are able to offer special deals for new subscribers, with all the bells and whistles.
The information that follows is based on the widely used Linux server webhosting packages, although some firms offer Windows web hosting also. Forget about the difference here, as it will not affect you, unless you are an advanced user and intend to create your site using ASP, FrontPage, the .NET environment, Windows Streaming Media, Access, MSSQL, or any of the other Microsoft technologies, in which case, you probably need to use a Windows host.
Top 5 Cheap Web Hosting Service Features
1. Customer Service and Technical Support – does the company offer email, phone and live chat (at their website) 24 hours a day and 7 days a week (24-7)? Do they reply to your questions within 24 hours or within minutes using live chat? How would you know? Try them out, even if you’re not a customer yet – send them an email or try their live chat. Or, go to business forums like the Warrior Forum and search for similar discussions. If they have these features, then add 1 point for this company.
2. How long have they been in business? At least 1 year? Go to Google and type in “Who Is” and type in the company name, like xyz.com and see when their creation date was – if it was more than a year ago, you can at least know they have been in business for a while and will hopefully be here to stay. I would give them 1 point if they have been in business for at least 2 years to be on the safe side.
3. Do they offer unlimited bandwidth? Bandwidth can be best described as gas for a car. If your website runs out of bandwidth nobody will be able to visit it. 1GB of bandwidth is equal to over 100,000 hits. The average website uses less than 2 GB of bandwidth a month. Your bandwidth number used will normally reset back to zero on the first of every month.
Similarly, do they offer unlimited disk space? The more disk space you have the more files, pages, emails, and everything else you’ll be able to use and store. Yes, unlimited sounds excessive I know, but if they offer it, better safe than sorry. If the company offers unlimited in both cases, give them one more point.
4. Guarantees – do they offer a money back guarantee, if for any reason, you want to cancel? If it is at least a 30 day guarantee and they will refund 100% of your money, that’s good. Also, do they guarantee your site’s uptime, in other words, that it will be live on the internet all the time, or over 99.9% of the time? If that doesn’t happen, will they give you a full refund for that month? If the answers are yes to both of these questions, then add 1 more point.
5. Do they have Fantastico Deluxe? This program will allow you to install over 50 scripts instantly. Examples are WordPress, Joomla, discussion boards, ecommerce, polls and so on. Most people these days build websites based on WordPress because of it’s search engine optimization features and available plugins, so using fantastico makes it easier. Give them one point if they provide fantastico at no extra charge.