With such a huge market of web hosts on the Internet you may be lead to believe that they all are basically the same. I would caution you to rethink this philosophy.
There are web hosts that offer huge amounts of disk space for a small monthly fee and there are web host that offer a very limited amount of disk space, bandwidth, and email accounts for a more expensive price.
When searching for a web host there is more important factors to take into consideration.
When searching for a web host please look at the following factors:
What is there uptime guarantee?
May host offer a guarantee of uptime? Please inquire to determine if there are any discounts if they do not meet this guarantee because this is your business and if your website is not visible on the Internet you cannot sell your products or services. For instance, does your prospective web host offer a guarantee of discounts for each hour that your site is inaccessible from their servers or their network?
Ask for information regarding their network
On the Internet there are several interconnected networks. There are some networks that connect smaller networks to larger networks and some networks are top tier networks. It would be a good idea to ask your prospective host for their network diagram or documentation regarding there network backbone. A top-tier provider offers more reliable and faster connectivity while a host that connects via a 3rd party network may experience frequent network issues and reduced speed on there network. For an example please review 561Hosting's network provider info at: http://nsssc.superb.net/information/dca2net-info.php. This is quite a bit of technical information. If you should need an explanation please visit: http://www.561hosting.com. Our support staff will be happy to answer your questions via live chat or email.
Support
Support is a very important factor as well in your decision-making process. Please ask your prospective web host about their support package. Is there support 24/7, do they offer live chat? Is there a cost? At some point you may need support and it is really reassuring to know that your web host is there when you need them.
Above are a few issues to consider when selecting a web host. There are more factors to be considered but the factors above determine if your experience with a web host will be a pleasant one or one that can rivals a natural disaster.
Andy MacDonald owns and runs his own custom website design company called Swift Media UK which also incorporates intranet design, ecommerce development and also logo design.
