What Hosting is the Best for You?
Difficult subject, yet a lot to say about. If you search about hosting or top 10 hosts you will end up with bunch of results. Still the question remains. What is that thing that makes a host the best hosting? Which one is better for you to select, a free, expensive or just a cheap hosting service with no extra?
First of all you have to decide how much you want to spend, how much you are willing to sacrifice, and most of all what are your actual needs.
For instance, Joomla requires PHP, MySQL and Apache. If you want to fix a real estate site using Joomla you will probably need extensions like realtyna or Estate Agency and from what i know they more or so require another thing called 'GD Library'. You may want also to use credit card, so maybe you can find better solutions on shopping carts? Do you need SSL?
As you see based only on what you need, the choices of hosting reduce dramatically. So the first thing you do is write down all software requirements. Then you proceed to the next step.
So think what you wanna do. A list of most important characteristics of servers are:
Free, or payed service?
I wish also for everything in life that are worthy to be free, but unfortunately that's not the case. The big difference on hosting is if you pay for it, or have it for free.
Free? Is it worthy?
Attractive no? Before you do anything you should know some things about free hosting, regardless of how good things look.
Payed Hosting. Yes but expensive or just cheap hosting?
If you are more demanding on hosting, the one way for you is paying one and enjoy all the goodies that they have to offer. The above check list is still valid, since even when you pay, you have to decide how much to pay. And based on that decision, you receive various benefits. So weight your needs carefully.
The Never Cold Call Again Online Playbook: The Definitive Guide to Internet Marketing Success
The Facebook Era: Tapping Online Social Networks to Build Better Products, Reach New Audiences, and Sell More Stuff
Search Engine Optimization: Your Visual Blueprint for Effective Internet Marketing
Facebook Marketing For Dummies
Web Analytics: An Hour a Day
The New Community Rules: Marketing on the Social Web
First of all you have to decide how much you want to spend, how much you are willing to sacrifice, and most of all what are your actual needs.
What do You Need
Before you even begin to search where to spend money lets sit down and write some things. I am sure that you already have a plan in your mind or papers about the things you need to do once you find a suitable host. Those plans probably include software, so the first that you look is to see if the hosting company you found covers that software requirements.For instance, Joomla requires PHP, MySQL and Apache. If you want to fix a real estate site using Joomla you will probably need extensions like realtyna or Estate Agency and from what i know they more or so require another thing called 'GD Library'. You may want also to use credit card, so maybe you can find better solutions on shopping carts? Do you need SSL?
As you see based only on what you need, the choices of hosting reduce dramatically. So the first thing you do is write down all software requirements. Then you proceed to the next step.
What you are willing to sacrifice
Based on the primary plan, you will consider some things as vital, and others as not that important. For example, if you fix an e-shop, you probably want unlimited bandwidth and plenty of disk space for product photos and media. But if you fix a personal blog then you don't need that much, and all you need is just some disk space with enough bandwidth and maybe pre-installed software like WordPress.So think what you wanna do. A list of most important characteristics of servers are:
- How big disc space they give
- How much bandwidth
- Dedicated Server
- Number of email accounts under your domain
- PHP, MySQL, Apache and other programs
- Scripts to easily install software as Joomla or Wordpress (most popular is Fantastico)
- % of online availability (They have one hour of maintenance usually)
- Technical support options
- Price
Free, or payed service?
I wish also for everything in life that are worthy to be free, but unfortunately that's not the case. The big difference on hosting is if you pay for it, or have it for free.Free? Is it worthy?
Attractive no? Before you do anything you should know some things about free hosting, regardless of how good things look.- Free hosting usually includes advertisements on your website from the hosting service. There are exceptions of the rule like freehostia but if you go for free hosting, first thing that you check is to see if they have advertisements placed on your site or not. Obviously prefer the companies that don't.
- Free hosting doesn't necessary include a bad deal. But you have to be ready for server downtime and small disk space and/or bandwidth.
- Depends on the hosting, you probably also presented with option of registering / transferring a domain to use under your free hosting plan, or you can use a sub domain like yoursite.freehostia.com
- The most important thing though with free hosting is subscription. Most if not all of the times, when your free hosting time (1 year) expires, your site will be instantly deleted and you can't do anything about it unless, you upgrade your subscription to payment method.
Payed Hosting. Yes but expensive or just cheap hosting?
If you are more demanding on hosting, the one way for you is paying one and enjoy all the goodies that they have to offer. The above check list is still valid, since even when you pay, you have to decide how much to pay. And based on that decision, you receive various benefits. So weight your needs carefully.Before you pay any expensive or cheap hosting service, you should know that all hosting companies have discount coupons, that reduce the price of their services either by a sum or by percentage.The best advices on payed hosting would be HostGator, GoDaddy and Hosting24. All are reliable, although GoDaddy made it a bit frustrating by playing with all that marketing tricks in an effort to sell more.
Resources
The Web Designer's Idea Book: The Ultimate Guide To Themes, Trends & Styles In Website DesignThe Never Cold Call Again Online Playbook: The Definitive Guide to Internet Marketing Success
The Facebook Era: Tapping Online Social Networks to Build Better Products, Reach New Audiences, and Sell More Stuff
Search Engine Optimization: Your Visual Blueprint for Effective Internet Marketing
Facebook Marketing For Dummies
Web Analytics: An Hour a Day
The New Community Rules: Marketing on the Social Web
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