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One of the first considerations in choosing the right website host is finding a host that will be serving up your site every time a visitor requests it. This article will explore basics you need to consider when choosing a web host and present a comparison of three major web-hosting services.



Choosing the right web site host is one of the most important decisions any webmaster can make. A bad hosting experience can be prove very costly-not only to fix or change your site but in terms of your branding. The right web site host can make your web site even more effective just by offering a few key features.



Many claim to be the best webhosting service around so how do you choose? Educate yourself and assess your business/webhosting needs.



If you plan to make money with your web site don’t even consider free web hosting. You will create an immediate credibility issue with your visitors and once that occurs it is difficult if not impossible to change. You are best to go with a reputable web-hosting company that can guarantee reliability. Free web hosting is fine for personal sites but it inspires a lack of confidence for any business related site.



Web hosting fees are very affordable and the guaranteed uptime for your site and 24/7 technical and customer service are well worth the small monthly fee. You usually get many other free features as well with paid hosting. What isn’t negotiable is uptime and service. Your customers deserve that. If you can't afford the minimum hosting costs ($5-$10 a month) you may want to re-think your business plan.



Every time your site goes down you lose the opportunity to make a transaction. You need a stable company that monitors their servers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week so that they are instantly aware of any problems.



Uptime is critical for business sites. Many companies will say they're up 99.9% of the time when the reality may be quite different. If it is a few points less than 99.9%, your site may be down significantly more often than you expect or know. Check this hosting site stat as much as possible and check with as many references as possible to find out their experiences.


Make sure you have access to technical support 24/7 and whenever possible get references from people you trust who have had a positive experience. The impotance of this cannot be stressed enough-especially for business sites.



Decide what features you need from a hosting package and make sure your new host offers them, and whether they are included as part of the basic plan or will cost extra to add to your plan.



Space and traffic are often the basis of Hosting rates. The majority of sites require only a few megabytes (MBs) of space and the amount of traffic they will receive rarely causes an issue with the web host. As long as you have a basic site that is not several hundred pages in size, and is not going to be visited by thousands of people a day you don’t really need to worry about space restrictions. However, do be aware of the Web Hosts' fees and penalties for exceeding basic space and traffic allocations especially if you happen to be using a lot of Flash or Multimedia files on your site. It is the graphics and media that eat up space. Text uses very little. If your site is big and contains a lot of mutimedia, images and flash then you may need a larger space package.
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Email accounts: This is a feature used by many hosting companies to get extra profits.They give you a set amount of email addresses free as part of the package and then when you discover you need more they charge you a fee for each additional email address. Make sure your hosting plan comes with enough email addresses when you get started, and find out in advance how much extra you'll be charged if you need more.



If you plan to take product orders over the Internet, find out if your prospective Web Host offers SSL (Secure Socket Layer). If the server isn't secure, most people will not buy anything from you.

Only buy What You need now. You can always upgrade later. What you do want to ensure is that the host you choose has the ability to meet bigger demands if you need to grow.


Make sure that your hosting solution is scalable, and that you will be able to easily upgrade as your site grows in complexity. Check this out with prospective hosts before signing up.



Here is a chart comparison between three top web-hosting services.

***Please note that there are many plans offered by each company and prices and features vary depending on which plan or plans you choose to subscribe to. This is just a high level comparison chart. For a solid comparison you must compare plan to plan.




Hosting Feature


Go Daddy


Host Gator


Host Monster

24/7 Customer Support


YES


YES


YES

99.9% Network uptime guarantee





YES


YES

Unlimited Hosting space


10GB to unlimited


YES


YES

Unlimited Domains


YES-External


&7.95/mo plan or more. $4.95 1 Free


YES

Unlimited bandwidth





YES


YES

Unlimited Pop/Imap Email Accounts


100 (economy package) – 1000 unlimited


YES


YES

SSH access


YES





YES

SSL, FTP, Stats


YES


Shared SSL/dedicated SSL for business accts.


YES

CGI, Ruby (RoR), Perl, PHP, MYSQL


SQL & PHP Only for basic (perl, Ruby,coldfusion on advnaced packages


YES


YES

Easy to Use Control Panels


YES


YES


YES

Front Page Extensions


YES


YES


YES

Free Domain Forever








YES

Environmental Offsets


NO


YES


NO

Free Site Builder


NO


YES


YES

Free Site Templates


YES


YES


YES

NO long term contracts


YES


YES


YES

NO cancellation Fees





YES


YES

Free Site Promotion





YES


YES

Free 1 Click Installer


NO


NO


YES

Free Domain Name


NO but free hosting and website builder with a domain name purchase


1 FREE /$15.00 per year min.


3 Free/$10 per yr. For each additional

Free Domain Transfer





YES


YES

Instant Setup


YES


YES


YES

$25.00 Free Yahoo Credits


NO-but they offer Facebook and Myspace credits


NO


YES

$50.00 Free Google Credits


YES


YES


YES

Cost


From $4.99/12 months to $14.99/mo. For unlimited package. Small discounts for longer packages


$4.95/$7.95/$12.95


$5.95/month (special) 12,2436 mo. Plans from $6.95-$8.95 payable upfront for length of term. (12X 8.96)

Dedicated IP address


$2.99/mo.


YES –on some packages


$30/yr.

SSL certificate


Free w/ unlimited package. $30.00/yr for other plans


$75.00 or if you supply your own they will install for $10.00


1 FREE

$45.00/yr

45 day Money back guarantee





YES


3 day guarantee full refund. NO

Free data transfers


Monthly allowance from 300GB (economy) to unlimited


YES


Unknown

Free File transfers





YES


Unknown

Script Installation





$25.00 min.


See Free 1 click Installer

Affilliate Program


YES


YES


YES

Free Script Transfers





YES


YES

Merchant Services


YES


YES


YES

Reseller Hosting


YES


$24.95/mo.


NO

VPS Hosting


Yes-Costs Vary


19.95/mo.


NO

Dedicated Servers


YES-costs vary


$174/mo. Min.


NO

Site Analytics


YES







SPAM Protection


YES


YES


YES


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