Providing web hosting services since 1999 we have been asked this question many times. We will try to make our answer as simple as possible, but the answer is not always simple unless you know the correct (tech) words in the web hosting industry and already know what it is you’re looking for in web hosting products and plans. In our humble opinion we’ll try to break this question down into 5 main parts or categories. Obviously some technical and additional more detailed information has been excluded in the interest of simplicity but in this short outline of 5 main parts, but you’ll get a good feel for what-is-what in web hosting services and options.

1. Research on your part is always instrumental in your quest to finding the right web hosting service for you. You must ask yourself what services products and hosting plan do I need in web hosting to provide me with what my web site needs to do the job you expect from the web host you finally choose in the end. Knowing some of the technical words of services or products will also reduce your stress level and reduce any miscommunication between you and you’re soon to be web hosting provider.

2. Knowing what web plans your web site uses or will use in web hosting products is key in picking the correct web hosting basic plan that you actually need to start with such as; shared web hosting environment , VPS web hosting environment or a dedicated web hosting environment. Then look for any additional product services you web site might need such as; standard IP address or dedicated IP address, serverside applications that can be accessed by your web site that are included with that web hosting plan.

3. Once you have the basics in mind look for a web host that can provide additional products and services that at some point as your web site grows (and it will) there is already the infrastructure in place by your web host to provide additional resources and products you’ll need such as; any web hosting plan changes or upgrades, more server space, more bandwidth, additional features, there are many.

4. There are over 600,000 web hosting providers out there, so how can you possibly pick one. It’s fairly simple. Our 1st rule of thumb is to get a referral from someone you already know and who has done most of the real hard foot work finding that right web host, and with any luck they can also tell you just exactly how good or bad their current and past experiences have been with theses web hosts. If you don’t know anyone who is in that category then our 2nd rule is refer again to rule #1! You can go to additional web forums just like this one and read other posed questions and other replies from the others who have already done the real hard foot work finding that right web host, and with any luck they can also tell you just exactly how good or bad their current and past experiences have been with theses web hosts.

5. We left our reply about price to the end. This answer is about as bad as looking at 600,000 web hosting providers for the right one without a referral to go by. Price is a strange thing; it ranges from dirt cheap to very high against the market. As you can’t tell a book by its cover you can’t tell a web host by price. We have by our own experiences found price is not relative (most of the time) to services and products of web hosing in the market place. Our example is (our past history) when we started our web hosting company in 1999 we had to charge a fairly high price for our services and web hosting plans. Really more that we wanted to. But as time goes on web hosting equipment, server locations (farms), and fiber optics costs have all come down because of high demand and high competition, just like computers have drastically come down in price today. Cheap is not always a bad thing theses days. But another example is the way the record label and recording industry was back 10 years or more ago. Only a select few could provide services to a captive audience and charge what every price they wanted to. But not anymore.

We hope we have provided some small amount of insight that will help you decide what web hosting is best. Its really up to you, as the more knowledge you gain the easer it will become to see clearly all the possibilities what web hosing plans that so many good web hosting providers can offer you and for a reasonable price.

Regards!

Pretty good! Impressive Actually.. I never thought that way..

Choose a good provider is very important, especially when the web site is for business.

Thank you for the kudos mr.log,

We're just glad to pass along ten years of being there for our hosting clients and what we have learned on the road of hard knocks. What we said before is certainly no secret, but hopefully we cut through some misconceptions and shortened our outline to be concise and an easy read. Obviously the finer points and for the most part the tech jargon was left out to be a short read, but the over all concept is certainly there.

With over 600,000 web hosts its understandable just how hard choosing the right web host and hosting plan can be.

All the best in your web host search!

Nice write-up, good job!

Nice writeup, thanks for sharing!

Very nice writeup! Should help newbies out well.

Thanks everyone for the kind words!

Maybe we should get out some of our other mothballed suggestions that we have collected for over 10 years of our web hosting. Staying in business during these economic times is a real feet in business planning and for-site, with a little luck sprinkled in. We could share some of those stories too.

Anyway thanks again for taking the time to read our humble opinionated post on web hosting.

Regards!

Nice post, its very very accurate! Good job

Wooh, excellent post right here! Thanks!

Yes, nice post.

Research is important! Not only in the hosting provider, which is a given, but also in understanding what exactly your web needs are. I feel Technut's point #2 is important. You need to know what you are in the market for before you can accurately research the market. Find out what you need and what you DON'T NEED. Why pay for services you do not use?

Thinking ahead is also important. Make sure that the hosting provider is not only able to provide the right services for you at the moment but also that it is a place you can be in the future as your site evolves. You might have different needs in the future so take that into consideration.

Nice share, pretty good!

Thank you everyone for the kind words! We're just glad to cut through some of the haze of picking a web host or a hosting plan with our simple post.

Regards!

thanks for sharing, very helpful! Didn't know there were 600k hosts lol, thats an amazingly big number!

normally you ping speed, look for big space and bandwidth, cheap price. As long as you have backup you should be fine with any host.

If you want 99.9% up, then look for a reliable host.