Choosing a suitable web hosting service can be time taking. There are so many web hosting service providers, and all of them offer different plans. You may wonder why shouldn't you build a personal server. While it is possible to build your server practically, it needs a lot of specialised skills, equipment, maintenance, and money to build a server of your own. If you are planning to build a website, then a brief web hosting knowledge will help you select the best hosting service according to your needs.
What is Web hosting?
Simply put, web hosting means buying a space or storage on a web server where you can store your website's data. You buy storage on web servers from web hosting service providers. When a viewer searches your domain name, the server provides him with all your website data.
Now that we know what web hosting is, you need to know some important details about web hosting so you can choose the right one for you.
Here are 8 things to know about web hosting before you sign up for an account.
Which hosting plan is suitable for your website?
Every plan is all good, but what is good for you depends on your priorities. There are three most popular types of web hosting.
Shared Hosting
In shared hosting, many users share a single server for running their website. The hosting server's storage, memory, processing power, etc., are shared among many other users.
Shared hosting is popular for users with personal websites and small businesses because of its affordability and clarity.
VPS Hosting
In VPS hosting, your website shares a server with other websites. Still, you are allocated a separate space on the server. Increased traffic doesn't affect your website. It's popular for medium-sized e-commerce websites.
Cloud Hosting
Most big e-commerce companies use cloud hosting for managing heavy traffic. It is more expensive than VPS hosting. It uses several servers to run a website, so excessive traffic doesn't affect the performance of the site.
You should research everything and decide which plan is suitable for your website.
2. Control panel and other features
Ensure that the hosting you purchase gives you access to the control panel. The Control panel gives tools that prove to be useful for the basic maintenance of your server account. By having access to the control panel, you can maintain your hosting account yourself without waiting for technical support. Check what they are providing you in the following plan. You should create a checklist of what features you want for website hosting according to your budget and check if the hosting plans have those technical specifications and features. These features can affect your hosting experience in many ways, so select according to your priorities. For example, if you are planning to grow your website in the future, see if the hosting provider is giving you the option to upgrade to another powerful server.
3. Website's uptime
If your web server goes down, it will affect your customer's trust in your brand.
Most web hosting service providers guarantee 100% uptime of your website. You should check the performance of their servers and then look for a minimum of 99% uptime. Any less than that is not advisable.
4. How secure will your website be?
You don't want your website, which is so important for your business, to have a security breach. Ensure that the hosting service provider is well equipped with every needed security measure and follows the general guidelines of security so your website can be protected from malware attacks and viruses. Your hosting provider should be SSL (secure socket layers) certified. SSL certificates add many layers of security to make sure your website remains safe and secure.
5. Technical support
How effective the hosting provider company's technical support is, really matters, especially when, for some reason, your site is not working or facing some technical bug/issue. Check what type of support they offer and do they offer 24/7 support. Do they give different levels of support with different levels of plans?
6. Website's load time
The time your website takes to load on the customer's device can determine if the customer will stay on your website or never visit again. According to data, if a website takes more than 3 seconds to load, the chances of customers leaving the site increase drastically. So make sure that your website loads smoothly and fastly.
7. What are the prices of different hosting providers?
Check what every web hosting service provider offers in what price plans. Some hosting providers can be expensive, while others can give the same value at cheap rates. This very much depends on your budget and what you need at that price point. Without research, you can buy an expensive plan when your needs can be fulfilled with a much cheaper one. Compare what everybody is offering and then choose your plan.
8. Check online reviews
In modern times, due to the internet, checking the credibility of hosting providers has become easy, thanks to online reviews. Before buying hosting, check all the latest reviews of the plan you are considering buying. See if they are providing what they are promising. Ask people if they are satisfied with the hosting provider's service. It's better to listen to a person who has already experienced the plan.
Summary
Building a website is exciting and has many aspects. Web hosting is an essential part of making a website. Due to technical barriers, many people get confused about which web hosting service is suitable for their website. You should follow simple steps like knowing what features you want, your budget, and website uptime for website hosting. And also, check reviews. I hope this article helped you in knowing about web hosting in detail.
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