When it comes to web hosting, you will find noticeable differences in what vendors provide. Some are aimed toward individuals who simply want to maintain a personal blog, while others are designed more for business clients that have extensive needs.
Here are five of the most important features to take into consideration when you’re looking for the ideal web host.
1. Adequate space
If your needs are only minimal and your website will be used for personal purposes, 10 GB of memory is usually sufficient. For small to mid-sized business, you will probably want more storage: 30 to 50 GB is a good number to shoot for.
The option of upgrading as needed is invaluable if your site has the potential to grow over time and you find it needing to accommodate more traffic. Expandable disk space from a vendor with plenty of scalability will help you make any adjustments along the way with minimal hassle.
2. Website backups
Whether it’s due to a technological disaster or simple human error, there is always the potential to experience content loss. Consequently, it’s crucial that your web host has an effective backup plan in place to protect you in a worst-case scenario.
A quality vendor will back up both your site files and databases so you’re completely covered. Although there are a few types of backups available, it’s usually best to find a host that offers daily website backups. With that, you can recover and experience limited down time.
3. WordPress integration
Due to its simplicity, ease of customization, and boatload of plugins, WordPress is one of the most popular platforms out there. If you plan on blogging extensively, it’s essential and will make your life a lot easier once your site is up and running.
An article by inc.com stated that “even if you don’t blog, you might in time, so make sure that the hosting service meets the minimum requirements for WordPress, the leading blogging platform.”
4. Reliable support
As with nearly any other type of technology, hosting can be prone to glitches and other complications that are detrimental to your site’s functionality. Accordingly, you want to be assured that you can swiftly contact a knowledgeable customer support representative to resolve any issues.
This is especially important for businesses because any downtime means lost sales and upset customers. Support that’s there for you 24/7 is ideal because you never know when you’re going to run into a problem, and you don’t want to be stuck waiting for assistance.
There should be a variety of contact options, including telephone, online chat, and email. It’s also nice to have support that’s completely free of charge and a low query resolution time.
5. Money-back guarantee
In case things don’t work out the way you anticipate and the plan you purchase just isn’t working, it’s good to have a convenient means to exit. A professional web host provider will typically give you a 30 day money back Guarantee so you can opt out if necessary.
That means you won’t get caught up in a lengthy contract that costs an exorbitant amount of money. It also shows that the vendor believes enough in its hosting packages to offer customers their money back, which implies the vendor is more likely to be a professional operation.
Keeping these criteria in mind should help you sort out web host providers. Once you’ve found the perfect one, you can keep your site running smoothly and shouldn’t have to face any major setbacks.
