How Web Hosts Set Their Prices
How Web Hosts Set Their Prices
So you have just finished putting the final touches on your first web site. Now you need a place to host your site and start making money. Searching for a web hosting company may seem daunting at first but with a little bit of knowledge you can weed out the good ones from the bad ones.
One of the first things that you may become painfully aware of is the difference in cost being charged by various web hosts. One web hosting firm seems to have a cheap price compared to another whose cost is significantly higher. When it comes to, just because they charge more doesn't necessarily mean they are better. In fact, the web host with the lower price may be the best web host for your new website. How do you know which price is the best for you?
A web host will base their price upon advertised disk space and bandwidth. Behind the scenes they are also basing their price on their infrastructure cost, such as the cost of the data-center that houses their servers. All of this is factored into their advertised price to you. The cost of their plan will also a base level of support offered to their customers. It is not uncommon to find different hosting plans from the same company that will offer different levels of disk space, bandwidth and technical support.
Disk space is important. Disk space for web hosting is just like your hard space on your home or business PC. You need to have enough disk space to store your data. Without enough disk space things get slowed down or there is not enough space to store your entire website. Some web hosting companies have started providing unlimited disk space. That may sound pretty good but always read the fine print. If your website continues to grow and you keep adding features and data to it, you may find that the web hosts asks you to move to a more expensive solution. As the old saying goes, nothing is always free. However, if you are just getting started, then this probably will not be an issue for you.
Some web host companies offer a fixed monthly amount of bandwidth. It can be a combination of both incoming and outgoing traffic, or could just be incoming or outgoing traffic. For a new website, web traffic is usually light so this may not become an issue until later on. You should monitor your bandwidth usage because if you go over that amount, you may be charged for the overage. Your web host may offer unlimited bandwidth but like unlimited disk space, that is not always true. If you are streaming movies or have a bandwidth intensive application on your website, you could find yourself being asked to move to the next level plan. If you don’t move to the new plan, they may shut you down.
Infrastructure is important in delivering reliable web hosting for your site. Some companies have invested large amounts of money to provide a reliable hosting experience. They know if they don’t deliver to you and their customers, they won’t be in business for long. Look for companies that promise a 99% or greater up-time for their hosting. They should be able to provide a guarantee that they will provide their service at this level or you will be entitled to monetary compensation for your downtime. It is easy to check some of the hosting review sites to determine if a web host is reliable or not.
The level of support you need as a new webmaster is very important. If you have problems with your web site, you need to be able to contact your web host's support team. Some web hosts have a toll free number you can call for help. Others require you to submit a help desk ticket. A reliable company will respond quickly and help you to resolve your