Selecting a good website hosting company is extremely important for the success of a website. If the hosting service isn’t reliable and doesn’t have good customer support, your website’s performance will be negatively impacted. (Read this article on why not to choose 1and1 for your hosting and also read this article on why to avoid Aplus.net as well).

As a website designer, I have the fortunate opportunity to work with many different website hosting companies and they all offer different levels of customer support and website services. If you’re shopping for a website hosting company, keep these things in mind:

Do you know someone who has used the particular hosting company before and are they satisfied?

No matter what kind of claims you can read on a hosting company website, the very best indicator of a website’s host future performance is their past performance. Find out how long the person has been with the hosting company they’re recommending and ask about issues and support.

Compare costs: Are they a reseller or a “real” hosting company?

Some hosting companies are “real”, meaning that the servers that your website files are on are actually in their buildings. Other hosting companies are simply resellers, meaning they are a middle-person and are adding on profit to what they’re selling to you.

Size matters.

I’ve had experiences with some smaller hosting companies that weren’t the greatest, and I’d recommend that people go with a larger name hosting company. You’ll not only save money, you’ll generally get much more for your money, in terms of easy-to-install free applications.

Find out if they support PHP Scripting and MySQL Databases.

Most hosting companies do support these, however not all are running the same versions. I’ve also had some hosting companies charge for more than one database, so find out what their policies are. If a hosting company doesn’t have either, take your business elsewhere, because these are really industry-standard services. All kinds of applications, from shopping carts to blogs use these two languages - so don’t sign up for hosting if the hosting company doesn’t have them.

Try out their customer support.

Hosting companies really differ in the level of customer support. I frequently have to contact them with questions about their particular configuration. Some hosting companies have support only via email, while others offer phone support. Having phone support is nice, but it doesn’t mean that the hold time won’t be a half hour, or that person on the other end speaks good enough English to be able to understand you and be able to help. My own hosting company, DreamHost only offers phone support with more expensive plans, and since I’m cheap, I don’t have it. I’ve always managed to get what I need done by using their email support. In fact, they’re often much faster than when I call for phone support for other companies…I get the right answer, the first time, without having to talk to someone who doesn’t even understand what I’m talking about.

How Sophisticated Is Their Control Panel?

The control panel is the place where you configure your hosting settings. Give the control panel a test drive. It should be easy to change hosting settings, setup email accounts, set or change the FTP username and login, etc. If your hosting company doesn’t offer a control panel - keep shopping. All major hosting companies offer this and without it, you have to contact your hosting company for everything. Keep an eye out for “one click installs” or “fantastico” - this is a highly recommended feature, especially if you want a WordPress blog. This feature makes installation and upgrades a snap - another time/money saver.

Which website hosting company do I recommend?

If a client has no preferences, I recommend they use the same website hosting company I use: DreamHost. I recommend them for several reasons. First I’m really familiar with their system, so it takes me a lot less time to get new websites set up, which in turn, saves my clients money. Their support is good and their servers are reliable. They offer free web hosting to non-profit organizations. They are also environmentally conscious: they are a “green company”, which is pretty cool. Additionally, I receive a reward from DreamHost for everyone I refer. So my clients save money, I get a reward, and there are fewer greenhouse gasses emitted, everyone wins.

Happy website hosting company shopping - and if you are considering someone other than DreamHost, I’ll be happy to let you know if I’ve had issues with them before!

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 28th, 2007 at 7:46 am and is filed under the 1st Steps category. Read other Aldebaran Website Design Blog articles by returning to main blog page. Need a blog added to your website? Click here to read about blog installation services or click here to contact Aldebaran Web Design.