One of the major decisions you’ll make as a website owner is choosing a web hosting plan. There are a lot of web hosting companies out there promising 24/7 support, unlimited resources, and flexible web hosting plans that suit your needs and preferences. However, not all web hosting companies deliver what they say they can.
This post will help you make the right decision by taking into consideration the most important factors when choosing a web hosting plan.
Your Business Needs
You can find expensive and cheap hosting on your search for a good web hosting plan, but you can narrow down your options by first understanding what your business needs. This step is crucial so you can choose a web hosting plan that can meet the requirements and daily operations of your website. Your web traffic, leads, conversions, and revenue are all affected by the type of web hosting package you choose.
Here are some questions you might ask yourself to assess your needs:
- What kind of business website am I building? A virtual resume needs less bandwidth than an e-commerce website.
- What features do I need? Your site would need more features for video blogging or 24-hour live streaming, as well as a website requiring user registration or video and multiple image uploading.
- Does my site receive a lot of traffic? Websites with daily traffic won’t likely function properly on a shared server that can only accommodate small websites with limited demands.
Extra Tools Available
If you’re an online seller who wants to use a shared web hosting plan for a cheaper option but is needing extra tools to resell your hosting space, you might consider getting a reseller web hosting plan. A reseller hosting package is a shared hosting account that usually comes with better technical control, such as Web Host Manager or WHM control panel and billing software for smooth invoicing.
Here are the extra tools commonly offered by reseller web hosting packages:
- White label technical support or the web hosting company resolves the tech support issues of your customers or clients
- Private name servers
- Free website templates
Your Site Traffic
If your site is starting to drive more traffic and your shared hosting plan seems unable to handle the surge of traffic anymore, you can choose to upgrade to a cloud-based web hosting plan. This web hosting is a new technology wherein individual servers (hundreds of them) work together, which looks like a single giant server. A cloud-based web hosting plan is a practical upgrade solution from a shared hosting plan.
Here are the other web hosting plans you may consider when you have high web traffic:
- Dedicated Web Server Hosting: It means that you’re renting one physical server, so you have full control. It is considered the highest level of a server for online businesses growing into a presence that is getting heavy website traffic.
- Self-Service Web Hosting: If you have a growing and expanding online business or you’re a business seller, you may consider getting a self-service web hosting for full control over your website hosting. You’ll take care of the server hardware, data center space, power, systems administrator, bandwidth, data integrity, and cooling.
- Virtual Private Server or VPS: Websites are sharing one physical server, acting as multiple, separate servers. Each Virtual Private Server shares hardware resources but with a dedicated slice of computing resources allocated. It prevents the problem of hosting neighbors bringing your site down while not paying the price of a dedicated server.
Your Budget
If you have a brochure type website or your new site does not get a lot of traffic just yet, a shared web hosting plan is a good option. It is recommended for start up businesses and mostly text-content, like life coach blogging or educational websites.
Here are the advantages and disadvantages of shared hosting when it comes to cost:
- Because shared hosting means that other websites share one server, the shared cost is generally cheaper than other hosting packages.
- The cost of a shared hosting plan is as little as $5 a month, as compared to super servers that cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars.
- The most popular sites tend to use the server at a meager price.
- Online businesses that start with a shared hosting package to minimize costs tend not to get a ton of traffic. For website hosting scalability, reliability, and security that won’t ruin your budget, choose cloud-based hosting.
Conclusion
You’ll encounter other types of web hosting plans, such as colocation web hosting and managed WordPress hosting. Choosing the right web hosting plan involves considering your traffic, the tools or features you need, your budget, and your business needs. By doing so, you’ll be able to operate your business smoothly and successfully.
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