If you want to have a proper website that you want to run as a business, one of the most important things that you will need to have is a web hosting company. Let us share our experiences so that you can develop the right criteria to pick a web hosting company.
Before we do that, here is a little background. When we first started in 1999, we signed up with Hostway. Since we were small and relatively new to the Internet, we did not realize that we may not have picked the right company. When we grew, Hostway simply wanted to rip us off by charging a huge fee to upgrade to higher level plan. By that time the hosting business had become pretty competitive (and rates were rapidly falling) with numerous choices so we switched to HostRocket. They promised enormous bandwidth but apparently it was only a promise that they never intended to keep. It is unbelievable what companies will do to mislead customers. While we never exceeded the bandwidth we were supposed to get, they still threw us out (imagine a company declining to do business with us) with the lame claim that our website was attracting so much traffic (wish that was true; it would have been great news to us!) that it brought down their server. Finally, we found HostforWeb and wow! It has been a delight working with them. Since then we have switched three more websites in our network to HostforWeb. We pay less than $10 a month for this website which has approximately a quarter million visitors and a thousand web pages. Great customer service, never a problem publishing, and simply a smooth hosting experience for us.
What to look for when picking a web hosting company?
Before we do that, here is a little background. When we first started in 1999, we signed up with Hostway. Since we were small and relatively new to the Internet, we did not realize that we may not have picked the right company. When we grew, Hostway simply wanted to rip us off by charging a huge fee to upgrade to higher level plan. By that time the hosting business had become pretty competitive (and rates were rapidly falling) with numerous choices so we switched to HostRocket. They promised enormous bandwidth but apparently it was only a promise that they never intended to keep. It is unbelievable what companies will do to mislead customers. While we never exceeded the bandwidth we were supposed to get, they still threw us out (imagine a company declining to do business with us) with the lame claim that our website was attracting so much traffic (wish that was true; it would have been great news to us!) that it brought down their server. Finally, we found HostforWeb and wow! It has been a delight working with them. Since then we have switched three more websites in our network to HostforWeb. We pay less than $10 a month for this website which has approximately a quarter million visitors and a thousand web pages. Great customer service, never a problem publishing, and simply a smooth hosting experience for us.
What to look for when picking a web hosting company?
- Don't believe anything that the company says in its sales pitch. Instead do some research on the Internet. If you don't find anything, it doesn't mean that they are good. Our recommendation: go with the recommendation of someone you know and can trust and someone who has experience hosting a website like yours.
- Think of the future. Will you be able to use the same company when your website grows?
- The web hosting business has become rather ugly so companies will do anything to get your business even if it means that they will treat you bad later. So don't just pick on price.
Related article: How to find a web hosting company?