10 Key Factors to Consider When Choosing a Web Hosting Company for Beginners

Intro

With all the early jitters of starting a website for your company, choosing a web hosting company is as overwhelming, if not more.

While each company provides its own set of features and all glitters from afar, choosing the right fit for your brand will save you tons of money and avoid technical issues in the near future.

Although every web hosting company out there is efficient and unique, in this blog we shall discuss some primary features you should look for before signing up for a web hosting company irrespective of your brand field.

10 Major Factors to Consider for Beginners

1. Server Reliability and Uptime Scores

Have you ever clicked on a website and frustratingly waited for it to load completely? This happens due to weak server networks which push your website offline. Not only will this drive traffic away from your site but also give your site low rankings on search engines like Google.

When Amazon went down in 2013 for roughly 30 minutes, it cost them $66,240 per minute.

Thus, if your brand is highly dependent on your website, being online 24/7 is crucial at your end.

Server reliability can be monitored via website down checker tools, however, this is not necessary. You can easily check your hosting company’s uptime scores and make your decision for the same.

The standard score today is above 99.9%. Thus, always choose a website hosting server with 99.5% uptime scores and stay away from anything below that.

2. Essential Features and Add-ons

The right features will look different for everyone. All hosting companies will provide you with basic features, however, you have to identify your special needs and choose a web hosting company that fits your brand.

(Source: Rocket.net)

You should check for some add-on features like a one-click installer, DNS management, CDN, domain privacy, regular data backups, file manager, and so on. If you find any special features that align with your brand needs, you should look out for that web hosting company and a few similar others.

3. Customer Support

The times when you need a technical bug resolved will be far too many. One way to identify the web hosting company’s availability is their ability to assist you via live chat or calls and instantly resolve your issues as opposed to your site being offline for hours on end.

You can research the web hosting company’s customer service and read reviews on Google and Twitter to see what their recent customers have to say about them.

Give high priority to in-house customer support departments as compared to outsourced customer services as they have a better knowledge of the web hosting company and prove to be more reliable.

4. Site Backups

Website hacks or ransomware are no news in today’s market. With online threats increasing not only in IT companies but the entire web market in general, backups play a crucial role in saving your company some serious damage from information theft.

Accidents like website crashes, viruses, and failures can take your website down for good resulting in the loss of important data. To avoid such losses, it is always wise to have regular backups.

Ask your web hosting provider for their backup provisions like manual backup via a control panel, auto-backups, etc for clarification. Go for web hosting companies that aim at providing the best security plans for your website from the initial stages themselves.

5. Upgrading Your Server

Starting with a shared hosting plan seems reasonable, however, once your website grows bigger, it is difficult to accommodate the bandwidth in a shared hosting plan.

Migrating your entire website to a new host can be a task, therefore, looking for a hosting company that allows you to upgrade your plan as necessary is the sensible choice for the long run.

A web hosting company you choose should look as relevant to you after 2 years as it does now. Do they have VPS and dedicated server solutions? If your web hosting company can not accommodate your growth factors, it can cost you a fortune and valuable time to switch to a new company later on.

6. Pricing Plans

There are two types of costs to consider here – signup costs and renewal costs.

(Source: Siteground Pricing)

Pricing should not be your sole decision-maker, especially if you're looking to monetize from your website. Cheaper plans are likely to not provide any special assistance like up-time, in-house customer service and plan upgrades.

Most web hosting companies provide attractive discounts during signups making it seem like a cost-effective option, however, their renewal rates are sky-high. You can’t avoid these unless switching your web hosting company, which will result in the same after the next two years. If you do not want to be in square one every now and then, it is advisable to enquire about renewable plans beforehand.

Go for companies not charging more than 100% of your joining price. As an example, many beginner Siteground users seek Siteground alternatives due to their pricing & plans they cannot afford. Therefore, if you are a beginner looking for a web hosting company, make sure to consider the price and your budget before choosing one.

7. Free Trial

When you are a beginner with a limited budget, it is always advisable to look for companies that provide a free trial period before signing up. This not only saves money but also helps you recognize obstacles with the plan you’re opting for.

A free trial will help you understand if the plan or the web hosting company is suitable for your website in a cost-effective manner.

Some web hosting companies also offer a refund policy in case you’d like to cancel in the given cancellation period. This is another good option to look out for while choosing the right web hosting company for your website.

8. Email Integration

No matter what they tell you, E-mail is not dead! If you’re looking to have subscribers, newsletters, or even sales through emails, an email linked to your website domain is a great way to start. Additionally, if you are working on an ecommerce website, you might need to utilize sales funnel builders to create a sales funnel for your website. This will help to boost sales and raise brand awareness. Email marketing then becomes a boon for your website as a result of implementing a well-designed sales funnel.

If your email is experiencing a spam problem, your website hosting company should be able to provide services to stop it. Thus, while choosing the right fit for your website, choose a company that provides email hosting for your website.

9. Server Speed

Google is now also considering mobile page loading speed, making it crucial for your web company to provide a steady and constant speed so that your website doesn’t lag or crash due to heavy traffic or a slow network.

If your website speed is slow, it is likely for your users to abandon your website and move on to the next best thing within seconds.

It's suggested that you go for companies that can offer you a steady and quick server speed to guarantee that your site stacks fast and easily. This won't just further develop the general client experience but also will help your website's SEO rankings on search engines like Google and Yahoo.

10. Account Limitations

Every hosting company has a set of terms to abide by, whose violation may result in temporary or permanent discontinuation of your website without any refunds.

Some web hosting companies have limitations on the excessive amounts of CPU to run and scripts exceeding certain times on their servers.

Stay away from companies that argue account limitations and suspension decisions solely on the company’s management as these may be fraud resulting in loss of money and time in the future.

Look for features that are included in the plan you choose and features that need to be paid extra for like additional domains, support, backups, etc

Conclusion

We certainly hope that the above 10 tips shall make your journey of finding the right fit for your website easier. Although we believe that all web hosting companies have their own set of specialties, we recommend doing extensive research and identifying the needs of your brand thoroughly before signing up.