11 Things to Check before Purchasing Web Hosting 2020 Guide

It is important to know the essentials of web hosting before you commit into a contract with a web host, In the post below I have summarised my 15 years of experience into 11 points.

Here is Things to Check before Purchasing Web Hosting 2020 Guide

1. Discounted Initial Cost Vs Renewal cost

A lot of hosting companies will make an initial sale at a loss by giving new customers high discounts and make it all up in the renewal costs, so before you make the decision to purchase the hosting check the price for first time purchase of the service and the renewal fees. You can simply do that by contacting them directly from their website.

2. Support

Always get in touch with the WebHost before you make any purchases to see their waiting times and the quality of support. Do ensure that they provide 24/7 support for any issues or queries you might face. Yes, 24/7 since you do not know when you might need them.

3. Back-up/Security

I remember vividly over 15 years ago when I purchased hosting from ‘cheap company’ that was hacked twice, both times having me (the freshie aspiring web developer) to lose all my hard work and sleep over it. Any web hosting provider can also be vulnerable to online threats thus having regular backups is a step towards ensuring that your data is safe and there are multiple saved copies so that you can retrieve your data whenever you need.

4. Uptime and Downtime

After all that hard work the last thing you want is to lose a potential customer to a blank screen when they visit your website. No company can guarantee 100% uptime so do your research and choose a hosting provider that has a strong reputation for maximum uptime, usually 99.99% uptime throughout the year.

5. Storage Space

Depending on the type of website you will be making it’s important to have a rough idea of how much storage you need beforehand and buy hosting accordingly. A good idea would be to go for unlimited / Unmetered storage.

6. Bandwidth 

When a customer visits your website, files are transferred from your WebHost to the customers’ computer and then displayed by the browser, some web hosts have bandwidth limits, do make sure that the package you have selected is sufficient for your needs or select a host with unmetered bandwidth.

7. Reviews and Rating

Reviews, Reviews and Reviews, I personally wouldn’t trust the reviews on their website just a simple search with the WebHost name + review will usually pull up all the different review websites, make sure you visit a few review sites before making the decision.

8. cPanel

I personally couldn’t live without it, it’s one place that allows you to manage all aspects of your website in one place, from making FTP account to emails to installing software on your website, it has it all. Most hosting companies offer ways to manage your hosting. This is a very basic requirement for customers, I would never sign up with a company that does not offer cPanel. P.s they should not charge you for it.

9. Add on Domains

This is especially important if you have multiple domains for the same project or if you wish to launch different projects using the same host, make sure that the host does not limit the number of domains you can have.

10. Free Domains:

Everyone loves perks, a lot of Webhosting companies will offer free domain registration if you purchase hosting from them, check with your host if they also do provide this.

11. Refund Policy

Things might not work out as you had planned, it shouldn’t cost an arm and a leg to move if you need to, at times you might need to stop the service and move to another service provider in case you are not satisfied with the service you are receiving. You should be able to ask for the cancellation of service and receive a refund.

Conclusion

It can be difficult to make a decision especially when all Webhosting companies claim to be the best. Take your time, go through this list and see what is relevant to you and cross-check to see if the hosts you are considering offer them. Good Luck!