Choosing a reliable web host is critical for any business or organization that would like to reach the billions of people who use the Internet every day. Some of the vital factors to consider when choosing web hosting services include:
Bandwidth
Bandwidth is simply the amount of data (bytes) transferred from a website to a browser that visits the website. This means that a site that receives millions of visitors every day requires more bandwidth capacity than a site that receives less than 100,000 visitors. With this in mind, be wary of web hosts that use terms such as "unlimited bandwidth" to lure customers. This is because such service providers usually have "unlimited bandwidth caps," and therefore penalize customers for exceeding their allocated bandwidth. To ensure this does not happen, check your site's traffic statistics and use this information to choose a web hosting services that meet your bandwidth needs.
Secure server (SSL)
If you run an ecommerce business, go for a web host service that provides or can allow you to set up a secure server. Such a server would be able to protect your website from cybercriminals, including hackers. In general, the URL addresses of websites that use secure servers normally start with "https" instead of "http." Even if you run an ecommerce site that does not receive tons of visitors, a secure server is necessary. A study carried out Symantec found that 31% of all cybercrimes in 2012 affected businesses with 250 employees or less and these attacks rarely make headlines. Therefore, most people tend to associate hacking attempts with large corporations.
Framework Support
Go for a web hosting services that offer support for popular frameworks such as Zend, Rails, Bootstrap, CodeIgniter, and AngularJS. This is because such frameworks allow web developers to focus on building unique site features rather than re-inventing the wheel. For example, it does not make sense to spend weeks or months writing code for a content management system (CMS) when you could use Django to set up a fully-fledged CMS in a few days. In addition, make sure the process of installing a new framework is as easy as possible because you would obviously not want to spend days trying to install a framework that could improve your site's functionality or performance.
Technical Support
Software and hardware systems tend to fail eventually. For this reason, it is advisable to choose a web hosting services that offers technical support to its clients around the clock. Moreover, choose a service provider that offers various customer communication channels including phone, email, and web chat.
Programming Language Support
Make sure your hosting service provider offers support for a wide range of programming languages. Some popular web programming languages include PHP, JavaScript, Ruby on Rails, and Python. This is important because you can use different programming languages for various tasks. For example, you can use JavaScript for server side programming tasks and PHP for on-site programming tasks. However, the choice of programming language depends on factors like one's preference and the task.
Site Backup
Just like any other business entity, web hosts can experience serious data loss. Remember a server is nothing more than a computer that site owners use to store and access files. Such a server can fail and make your site inaccessible. For this reason, go for web hosting services that offer site backup options for all your site's files and databases.
Cron Jobs
In simple words, a Cron job is a time based job scheduler. Cron jobs make it easy to automate repetitive tasks like sending email notifications to customers or deleting temporary files. Choose a web hosting services that come with Cron jobs.
In summary, some of the vital factors that you should consider carefully when choosing web hosting services include technical support, framework support, bandwidth, secure server, programming language support, Cron jobs, and site backup.
Updated: Friday, 5 June 2015 4:47 PM EDT
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