1. Scale of Resources
Many still tend to think that an unlimited amount of essential resources can cost a fortune. In reality, many web hosts can offer such amounts at very affordable prices.
Even hosting packages built on shared servers can provide you with unlimited bandwidth, websites, storage, or email accounts. So keep in mind that you are selecting a vendor who can provide a reasonable amount of resources without compromising the customer's budget.
2. Loading Speed:
As Google said a few years ago, even a two-second delay can make your website lose potential customers. Nowadays, everyone has very little time. Especially on the internet, where everything goes very fast, the online surfers expect that every page is loaded in a few microseconds.
Therefore, the web host of your choice should ensure that the page loads immediately. Many providers list the exact average loading time on their website. Look for such information on their official site and other reliable sources.
3) Uptime Percentage :
Even if your website pages take the least time to load, there is no value if the interested customers can't even access the site.
During this time, the uptime of a website should be at least 99.94% on average. So any web host that offers a lower uptime percentage is not worth considering. Some hosts even promise to compensate if the website ever goes offline for longer than they promised.
Choose a confident provider in their capabilities and whose uptime history for other customers matches their claims.
4. Domain Registration :
Most leading web hosts take the domain registration process off your hands. All you need to do is choose the domain name of your choice and check its availability.
The provider may include this in their hosting plans, which means you don't have to pay extra; they may offer you registration at a discounted price or charge you less costly. The first option works best for site owners on a tight budget, of course, but you can also choose the other for transparency.
5. Email Accounts :
A good web host will let you have an unlimited or fixed number of email accounts based on the domain name chosen. In addition, specific security measures are also included with the package to ensure that no spam can enter your inbox. Some of the providers have the benefits of auto-responders that prepare a canned response to certain emails.
6) Website Transfer :
If this isn't your first rodeo, you'll need a web host that doesn't charge extra to transfer your site from the previous provider to the new one. This advantage can be found in the hosting packages of most providers. Moving a site from one host to another is difficult. Taking on the downside of paying extra for the transfer can only add to the inconvenience.
7) Backup Frequency :
Depending on the price set, the hosting plans offer weekly or daily data backups. The more affordable ones can impose a fixed number of backups for a day or a certain number of days to provide the backups. It can also be automatic or manual. Daily automated backups are the most convenient choice.
8) Customer Support :
No matter what kind of website you are using, it will surely fall victim to a crash or problem at some point. Failure to respond to your request for assistance on time will result in huge losses for your business if the support team does not respond. Even if the team responds immediately but does not provide the required solution, it is still just as bad.
So look for 24/7 customer support and whether the support team gets any training beforehand.
9) Security Measures :
A free SSL certificate is the most basic standard security measure for a hosted website. In addition to this mandatory feature, your chosen web host must also scan the network and servers. It must remove the malware to protect the sites from cyber attacks. An e-commerce site must be PCI compliant for secure financial transactions.
10) Developer Friendly :
If your website requires a developer-friendly environment, find a hosting service compatible with the popular programming languages and platforms. This category's available hosting service features include support for multiple versions of PHP up to the latest 7.2, Node.js, Perl, Python, Apache, and MySQL. These can all be valuable additions to your website hosting package, and the developers on your team will be very grateful to have them available.
11) CMS Support :
Support for a CMS or content management system is necessary for e-commerce websites. Although WordPress leads the CMS competition, you can opt for more specialized platforms such as Magento, Joomla, Drupal, PrestaShop, etc. These platforms streamline many time-consuming functions and allow you to set up the site more efficiently.
12) Site Builders :
Free website builders make the whole process of setting up your website a lot easier. While standalone website builders like Weebly, many hosting services also offer them as part of their hosting packages.
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