Things need to look at before taking any web hosting service?

[jpattric2]

Hi All,

I am about to launch my website. I purchased my domain from godaddy.com but now I am bit confused about hosting.

Can anyone help me about web hosting services? There are many providers available in the market who offer their hosting service.

So the confusion is that what things I need to look around before taking anyone?

I really appreciate your thoughts........

[edmltw]

Web Hosting Services, Reseller Hosting, and Dedicated Servers by HostGator

That's the most reliable one so far

Ed

[jpattric2]

But still my question is what things I need to look at any hosting service provider before taking anyone.

[Negotiator74]

Since most hosting companies now offer unlimited everything (sites, databases, etc.) really the only thing that differentiates hosting companies is their reputation. For the IM crowd, you are overwhelmingly going to have HostGator recommended.

[jpattric2]

Originally Posted by Negotiator74

For the IM crowd, you are overwhelmingly going to have HostGator recommended.

Thanks Negotiator74 for such a great info.

Still i'll be grateful to other warrior opinions.

[rondo]

Go with a host who offers the cpanel control panel and fantastico script library. Many do.
If you're going to have multiple sites consider a reseller account so you can have one control panel per site, which makes them easier to manage.

[NikkiG]

Some hosts still try to, for want of a better term, screw you with heavy limits on storage, bandwidth, domains, sub-domains and databases.

So those are all areas to compare.

It is such a buyers market that price is almost not an issue.

I use hostgator for a lot of my stuff and they are good. I'm not going to name and shame the bad ones.

[Kay King]

The problem with trying to logically choose a host for a new marketer is that you may put emphasis on a factor that is not important and ignore one that might be.

That's why I advise people to sign up with Hostgator - because so many of us use it for multiple sites and have been happy with it for a long time. Good customer service, reasonable pricing and usually the top recommendation of members here whenever the question is asked.

kay

[ChrisChoiSEO]

Look for high % uptimes, speed of servers, and customer support. Those are the 3 most important points. I also like cPanel, unlimited MySQL, and if you can unlimited bandwidth.

[Dennis Gaskill]

Originally Posted by NikkiG

Some hosts still try to, for want of a better term, screw you with heavy limits on storage, bandwidth, domains, sub-domains and databases.

So those are all areas to compare.

It is such a buyers market that price is almost not an issue.

I use hostgator for a lot of my stuff and they are good. I'm not going to name and shame the bad ones.

Hostgator is a good recommendation, as is Bluehost . . . but honestly, do you think hosts are trying to screw you with heavy limits? The hosts that tell you their limits are being more honest with you than hosts that advertise unlimited resources.

You see, if you think about it, there is no such thing as unlimited bandwidth, unlimited disk space, or unlimited anything. Each host has a finite amount of these resources. They get away with advertising "unlimited" because few people approach the area where it's a problem.

But if you are using too much bandwidth, system resources, storage space, or anything else, don't think for a minute they won't put clamps on your site, force you into a more expensive hosting package, or simply give you the boot.

I know from experience. When I wouldn't agree to a 500% price increase at one host, they gave me 12 hours to move my site to another host. The reason? It was serving about a million pages a month and eating lots of bandwidth.

@ jpattric2 - Check my signature for a free ebook on choosing a good host.

[glassextreme]

Also look at the number of email accounts allowed. Check how many sites will be sharing your server. If some are bad hats, it's going to hurt your ranking.
check the upload bandwidth. Some hosts have unlimited bandwidth, but cap the uploading bandwidth to 50Mb. My files that are larger than that can't be uploaded.
Make sure your addon domains are free. One host I have allow hundred subdomain, but wants to charge me for addon domains.

[JayYamada]

I think hostgator seems good since everyone recommends it, but justhost seems good as well but I got turned off by the setup fees and all.

[NoGuru]

You definitely want cpanel and unlimited everything. Double-check to see if they are offering unlimited MySQL databases. Fantastico or SimpleScripts makes loading WordPress easy.

[jpattric2]

Thanks everyone for sharing your experience at here.

[seasoned]

Originally Posted by NikkiG

It is such a buyers market that price is almost not an issue.

I WISH I could agree with you. Frankly, people overtax systems, reduce baselines, and charge more for overages, to make a VERY expensive system seem CHEAP! Godaddy is a good example of that!

BTW unlimited does NOT exist! Look at verizons unlimited EVDO. I went over their unlimited plan several times! Unlimited REALLY means UNSPECIFIED, or UNADVERTISED!

You DO want PERL, PHP, a nice panel, like cpanel. Fantastico or superscripts is good. Disk space? Bandwidth? You may want at least 3 mysql databases, email? Be aware of overage charges.

Steve

[Alexa Smith]

Hostgator, Bluehost, Blurstorm and Fat Cow all provide a good service and everything that most marketers are likely ever to need. In the long run, it doesn't really matter too much, for most people.

I think most Warriors would (and normally do, in such conversations) tell you not to touch GoDaddy for hosting, even if you've - much more reasonably - used them as a registrar, and in any case you should never host where you register - this has no possible upside at all and can easily cause problems.

[Elle Holder]

Originally Posted by Dennis Gaskill

You see, if you think about it, there is no such thing as unlimited bandwidth, unlimited disk space, or unlimited anything. Each host has a finite amount of these resources. They get away with advertising "unlimited" because few people approach the area where it's a problem.

But if you are using too much bandwidth, system resources, storage space, or anything else, don't think for a minute they won't put clamps on your site, force you into a more expensive hosting package, or simply give you the boot.

Originally Posted by seasoned

BTW unlimited does NOT exist!

Steve

I just want to reinforce what Dennis and Steve said here.

One of the hosts I use is HostGator. They advertise unlimited everything. I have about 20 sites with them, and about a month ago I realized that all my sites were taking forever to load. Since that happens occasionally I just let it go. But after more than 24 hours of this I contacted HG via chat and asked them what the deal was.

They checked for me, and within minutes told me someone was using too many system resources on the server. They then told me to give it a few minutes and I'd have my speed back as they were sending the client an email and then shutting their site down.

HG advertises unlimited everything, but as is stated above, that's just a marketing ploy and not much else.

Having said that, I still think HG and Bluehost are two of the best hosts.

[LeapingHorse]

I suggest JustHost for anyone that wants a good deal. Use the coupon code "50off" and it's $40 for a full year with unlimited domains, databases, yada yada yada........

[Valdor Kiebach]

You need to know what you will be putting on the domain, will you need curl, ffmpeg, modrewrite?.
Your questing is a bit like asking 'what shall I look for when buying a laptop'
The asnwer is ' I dont know, what do you want to use it for'.

[FortressDewey]

Wow, lots of answers here...couple of reinforcements 1. there is no such thing as unlimited ---period end of story. 2. Go with HG or Bluehost, they will handle what you need to get started. All shared hosting is cheap dollar wise.

[NoGuru]

Bluehost has pretty good customer service and will walk newbies through setting up WordPress, etc.

[MKTMaster]

I'd be sure to review the following:

Reliability/Up-time
Bandwidth limits
Disk Space
Customer Service reputation
Money back guarantee if you're not satisfied
Ease of Use
Price

There are a ton of hosting companies out there, so do your research and look around. There are a ton of reviews and ranking sites out there. I personally use iPage and have never had a problem with them. Fit my needs well.

Good luck!

[jpattric2]

I used hostgator and I am satisfy with the services.:-)

[Katelyn Silverman]

Whatever you do don't use Godaddy hosting. Not very reliable IMHO.

[CNP3]

the most relaible for me by far is host gator. Come on, under $10 a month and I have like 10 domains on their server and multiple launches (traffic up to 100K in a week) and never a hiccup...

my opinion is that there is no competition to host gator all around...

[Allen007]

I use HostGator as well and never had a problem with them.The most reliable IMO.

[jpattric2]

Thanks guys for sharing your wonderful experience.......:-)

[ecllctpva]

I would recommend the thing to look in a hosting provider is to check out there Tech support and see how fast they are in responding to your quires.

[jpattric2]

Originally Posted by ecllctpva

I would recommend the thing to look in a hosting provider is to check out there Tech support and see how fast they are in responding to your quires.

What kind of tech support and queries you are talking about at here?

[NoGuru]

A couple of folks in this thread have recommended JustHost, and I thought they were fine too -- until today. I was doing something fairly basic where I had to temporarily adjust some permissions, and my account got suspended. I've been back and forth with their support and I was told that their server configuration doesn't allow you to set permissions like 777 and 666. I don't do that often, but I know I've had to change permissions on a few things through the years. This type of thing is not an issue with Bluehost or Hostgator.

[Jamian]

It's important to choose a good web hosting right for the start. Make
sure to take your time or you may regret it later. I suggest you start with
hostgator.

Jamian

[scottsheen]

I have read a lot of positive feedback about hostgator but I have never used them. I use hosting24 and haven't had any problems and they have great customer service.

I would say that whatever hosting service you are thinking about going to you should always read their TOS. It is the TOS that will reveal what they are offering. Unlimited is not always unlimited.

Scott