Important Things to Look for in a Cheap Web Host

Articles on Hosting | Topics: hosting, web, host

by Easton Yang

There are several important things for you to look for in a cheap web host – or any web host for that matter. In today's age of confusion, you need some clarity. Believe it or not, there are six major things that the best web hosts do far better than the rest of them. If you can find a web host that has all of these factors in large supply – stick with them. It's that simple.

The first thing you should look for is real live support. To do this call their tech support number – not their sales number, as their sales number will always have someone ready to answer the phone – but call their tech support number and see if you can talk directly to one of the technicians. An alternative way for you to check this is to go onto their live chat and see how long it takes you to get to a technician. Did you get one right away, or did you have to wait a while? Was the technician competent? Remember – just because a company says that they offer live support doesn't mean they always do. They may not have people ready when you need them, and that can set your website back weeks, or even months if you're not careful. Every good business knows how important time is – you can't afford to be wasting it with something as trivial as trying to get support.

The next thing the top web hosting companies do better is that they offer guarantees. Look for any kind of guarantee – uptime guarantee, money back guarantee or even a price freeze guarantee. You'd be surprised at the amount of companies that don't give you your money back if you sign a contract for a year and cancel six months into. That's six months worth of money you're not going to get back! Be sure to look into this very closely – a lot of companies don't mention anything about giving money back simply because they don't do it.

If your business grows, you're going to need to be able to upgrade. You'd be surprised at the amount of cheap web hosts that don't have the upgrades in products or services that you need. Sometimes just having a lot of bandwidth and a lot of room for storage isn't everything you need. Half the time the customer doesn't even use all the bandwidth and storage that they're entitled too. That's why you need to look at what different types of upgrades the cheap web host offers. Do they give you spam and virus filtering, or any kind of marketing tools? The more paths for upgrades the web host gives you the better off you'll be.

Historical Quote

These seem like bristles, and the hide is tough.
No claw or web here: each foot ends in hoof.

—Thom Gunn (b. 1929)

The best cheap web hosts have a very solid infrastructure, even though they're "cheap". These web hosts have multiple bandwidth providers so that even if one goes offline they can simply convert to a different one. This will keep your website up and running a lot longer. If the web host depends primarily on one company for everything, what is the host going to do when that company is shut down or goes offline? Make sure that your web host has a good support system and a vast variety of resources to call upon.

All good web hosts are financially stable. If your business is very important to you – it needs to stay online. If the web host isn't financially stable, unfortunately your business won't stay online. If they close down, they can cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars, depending on the scope of your business. You should always ask for proof from the web host that they've been in the business for a while, and financial proof that they're doing fine.

The last thing is customer support. Why is this mentioned twice? It's mentioned twice because it's just that important. You can't spend time trying to track down technicians to fix your problem – time is money. Another good way to test customer service is to call at a bizarre hour like 3 A.M. and see if you can get a technician. This could make all the difference in your website.

Always remember when looking for a web host – especially a cheap one – to read the fine print. Figure out why they're so cheap, and then look at the above six points, and see if they're right for you.

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Please note: All personal opinions expressed in the "Important Things to Look for in a Cheap Web Host" article belong to the contributing author and are not necessarily shared by WebDesignConferencing.com.

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