How to choose the best Web hosting company?
Yes, you guessed it well, reading some reviews of Web hosting companies is a good way to start your researches! However, because your hosting needs are specific to your hosting projects, you can't just choose blindly the best rated hosting company. So here is a list of question you may go through before making your final decision;- First thing first, you'll need to define your hosting need before choosing your Web hosting company. Which kind of content do you want to host (heavy or light)? Do you need a lot of independent databases? In which language (and version) do you want to develop your website?
- You'll have to compare your hosting needs to the features offered by the hosting companies. Try to find the best match!
- On one hand, try to avoid overkill your hosting plan if you don't have to. You won't need unlimited MySQL databases for your personal blog. On the other hand, if you're very ambitious and you plan to host many websites, try to choose a company that offer hosting packages that will evolve with your hosting needs. Or at least, a company that offer a barely all unlimited resources deal, like these ones.
- You'll also have to take in consideration that all the companies that battle for the top ranking tend to add the most useful (and less) features to theirs hosting deals. Therefore, same if you plan to host only one website, you might need some advanced features (cron jobs, .htaccess) only available in the more expensive hosting plans.
- If you plan to do business on the Web, you may be interested by hosting companies that offer preinstalled shopping cart, like CubeCart, Zen Cart or osCommerce.
- If security is an important matter for you, for e-business or personal data, you'll have to look for SSL secured servers and maybe integrated OpenPGP encryption.
This list isn't exhaustive, but it's a good way to start you're analysis!
