Choosing the Right Host

[imported_maxhest]

Ok, a little how to on choosing the right host:

1) Do you research, either on forums, hosting review sites, or here! There are goods and bads about all hosts. Make sure you find one that fits your needs and has good support and a solid company base.
2) When you do find one, don't use unlimited, make sure your offer is within reason, and not unlimited.
3) NEVER PAY YEARLY! Your only going to get screwed if your host goes belly up.
4) When you do find a host, make sure they have a money -back policy, 14-30 days is pretty good, make sure you use it and read the TOS before you choose your host, you won't regret it!
5) When you do choose a host, post a review for all of us to see and come back and tell us if they are good!

Hope that helps!

 

[Francisco]

Well, I do not need to seek for a Hosting, but let's Exchange roles with the Customer's for a Moment. If I'm a Customer and I need a Paid Host, what I would do is:

1. Check Whois Record
2. Check for the Uptime SLA
3. Refund Policy
4. Uptime Graps, Some host don't offer it but they can get one for Free from SiteUptime.com we use Alertra.com .
5. I would do a Google Search for the Hosting Company to see if there're some Horror Histories about them... :gun:
6. I won't go for a Cheap Host since they Oversell like hell and they don't survive...
7. How much time in Business?
8. Datacenter they use
9. Features I would like, and features that they offer.
10. Average suppor less than 15 Hours.

I that those are the Most Important 10 Points if you're looking for a Good Host.

~Francisco

 

[CrazyTech]

1.) Research
2.) Research
3.) Research
4.) ...

You get the point - I cannot stress it enough. Dare to compare...literally. Examine your choice(s) with intense scrutiny. Ask questions, expect reasonable answers. If you get even a single 'bad vibe' then move on, that company is not it. Do every bit of research you can, ask to see statistics, ask questions, check at different times of the day and so on.

 

[imported_Rox Off]

Make a good set of questions and send to potential host.
1. How long have you been in business?
2. How many employees?
3. How many techs/admins?
4. What times are the techs/admins available?
5. How is support handled?
6. What is the turnaround time on support questions?
7. How do you stay in contact with customers during downtime?
Do you have an alternate support site/helpdesk/emal?
8. What datacenter are the servers in?
9. What are the server specs?
10. What makes your company unique?
11. Why should I choose your company?

Add any other questions you can think of. Send out a set of followup questions. You be surprised how many host don't like to take the time to answer emails from inquisative customers.

 

[BlackStorm]

Nice questions Rox!
Im sure that this whole thread will help a lot of people when searching for a new host

 

[Allin1Joe]

In general, the industry standard price is about $1/GB of bandwidth. If you see a company offering 50GB of bandwidth for $2/year, that should be a red flag. Now, there are some companies that are in the 40GB for under $10/month that are actually good. However, for the most part, they are overselling and praying you don't use all of your allotment. When you are looking for a host in this price range, doing your homework is even more important.

Also, read over their TOS very carefully. I'll directly paste in a section of a TOS that's my absolute favorite. It'll show you how some hosts attempt to mislead you with their uptime guarantees...

*snip* has a 99.7% average uptime across our entire network at large, which includes webservers, mailservers, and more - as a whole. If a single server is temporarily offline, the rest of the *snip* servers remain unaffected and uninterrupted, thus contributing to our overall uptime.

So, in other words, your server can be down for a week, but since the rest of their network is up and running, the guarantee doesn't kick in. Sneaky huh?

This thread has a lot of great advice. Unfortunately, nothing you do will guarantee you don't end up with a lemon. The hosting industry is so over-saturated, that it's tough sometimes to filter out the good from the bad. However, the more you research, the better your chances.

 

[Freckled]

3) NEVER PAY YEARLY! Your only going to get screwed if your host goes belly up.

I always see this on the forums and it still to this day bugs me, because it almost implies that if your host even offers the option to pay for a year, then they must not be any good. It is never put into a don't do this when purchase a host it is always under the How to choose a host.

Personally as a consumer I always paid by the year, sometimes 2 years at a time. I just hate having to pay one more bill every month. Now I know hosts go out of business and then you are out that money, but that is with any business, just the chance you take. I guess I just never felt that strong about losing a few dollars. The one company that I did leave before my time was up happily (well maybe) refunded me the time I had left on my account.

Think of it from a hosts perspective too, you pay a fee on every transaction, why not pass the savings of a one time purchase back to your customers by allowing them to pay for a year and and they often pay less. As a host, I offer complete refunds on monies left on the account.

If the host is going to go out of business you are technically screwed anyway, now you have to search for a new host and make all kinds of changes so you are losing money anyway.

I guess I am just babbling but felt the need to say I really hate seeing that in the posts even though I know there are some pretty bad companies out there.

 

[Allin1Joe]

I think the advice is sound when starting with a new host. Once you've been with them a couple of months, upgrade then. It won't completely reduce your risk, but at least you know you are happy with the service you have received to date.

 

[turnkey]

Yea, if they have survived the 1 year point then chances are they will not go out of business, might strugle. I know I sure have but the grass is starting to get a lot greaner now with a few sales boost.

Ok, one thing that I do not think anybody selected is the ping time. I would say that a adverage of 50 ms is ok and anything over 150 is bad. You don't want to live in NC and have a host in China. Just an example of the long distance from you to your host. The request time to get data back from the host to your customer would be awfull.

 

[Freckled]

I think the advice is sound when starting with a new host. Once you've been with them a couple of months, upgrade then. It won't completely reduce your risk, but at least you know you are happy with the service you have received to date.

Now see that sounds totally different what you are saying vs Don't ever pay by the year. Nice point Allin1Joe.

I may put that on my site, remove the sign up and pay for a year offer and just make it that anytime they would like to pay for a year in advance they will receive a discount at any time. Thanks for the tip.

 

[BlackStorm]

I may put that on my site, remove the sign up and pay for a year offer and just make it that anytime they would like to pay for a year in advance they will receive a discount at any time. Thanks for the tip.

maybe I should do that, never even thought about it!

Good idea

 

[Freckled]

You are more than welcome to use the idea, I stole it from Allin1Joe and he hasn't said anything yet. :lol:

 

[Decker]

A lot of very good points, but a few that may confuse.

Yearly payments - don't take it as a bad thing, but if you want to try out the host just pay a month. (or even ask if you can have a trial period)

Ping times - down to your connection only, your visitors may get better.

Research - should have been at the top

Ask the host - they 'can' lie, not saying we would but it's possible, same as the websites promises of service delivery.

Forums - visit the hosts forum if they have one and ask, hopefully the customers will settle it for you, as well as any other forums.

Probably missed a few but hopefully added some

 

[Leo]

Thanks this is all great information