Nowadays, all business owners have understood the importance of having a business website for them. Thus, they search for a reliable website developer and web hosting UK provider. But, before the actual search starts, you must have decided some parameters to choose a host for you, isn’t it?
What do you look for? Unlimited bandwidth? Unlimited storage space? Does that still matter these days? Because you can see every hosting provider offers you these benefits. So, this article will guide you about what exactly one should look for while selecting the best web hosting provider?
Table of Contents
First of all, make a check-list of your hosting needs –
There are so many factors involved while selecting a host but, as a beginner, you must consider having the following points :
1) Domain name
2) SSD storage
3) Website builder
4) Server reliability
5) Uptime guarantee
6)Email accounts support
7) cPanel Control Panel
8) WHMCS License
9) E-commerce features
10) Sign-up pricing and renewal prices
11) Support (Chat, email, ticket)
12) Latest software up-gradation
13) Account setup duration
14) Datacenter choice
15) Website Migration facility
Consequences of choosing a wrong host :
According to a study by Forbes contributor, more than 33000 websites were hacked in Feb 2018. From them, 90% of websites were running on WordPress and Joomla. Some of the big brands like Home Depot and BlueCross were also the victim as there isn’t a perfect solution to prevent hacking found yet.
That’s why the reliable web hosting UK provider also, offers you the backup service. A daily backup gets necessary for the work that you perform so as to protect it from getting lost or to save the data from any security breach.
To avoid problems later, you need to make a better decision in the first place about the hosting provider that you would like to choose.
Here are some tips to select the best web hosting provider in UK :
1) Know what are your hosting needs –
For selecting a hosting provider for your business or personal website or blog you must understand the purpose of your hosting. For that try to find out :
(A) What kind of website do you want to build?
(B) Are you going to use the Windows or Linux operating system?
(C) Do you need a WordPress blog, WordPress support?
(D) Does your website require special software or plugins?
(E) Do you require technical support?
(F) How big or a small amount of traffic do you expect on your website?
These are some of the basic questions that you need to answer before selecting any provider.
Don’t just consider the current situation instead, see the picture of 12 months down the line. This will give you some clear guidelines about your website needs.
2) Decide the hosting type –
After noting down all your hosting needs, you need to select the web hosting type. You have the choice of shared hosting, dedicated hosting, VPS and Reseller hosting.
(A) Shared hosting –
Shared hosting is a type of hosting where the server space is shared among different websites. That means you need to share the resources like disk space, bandwidth, CPU memory with other websites hosted on the same server. This can be a good choice for the small scale business with a low volume of traffic.
(B) Dedicated hosting –
In dedicated hosting, you get the separate server and thus, the resources belong to you only. You don’t have to share any resource with other websites and thus, may not face resource scarcity during your hosting journey. This is mostly used by the mid and large scale industries.
(C) VPS –
VPS (Virtual Private Server) is a type of hosting, where you host the website on the shared server but you get the isolated resources. That means you get the benefit of dedicated hosting in the shared hosting environment. Thus, VPS is a combination of shared and dedicated hosting.
(D) Reseller hosting –
In reseller hosting, you can resell your part of resources to other customers. That means, part of the resources can be kept for your use and the extra part can be sold to others. You can sell the other part of resources under your own brand name and this is called as ‘100% White Label’. Reseller hosting is mainly used by web developers and designers those have their own customer base, to whom they can sell the hosting resources.
If you are a complete beginner then, I would suggest you choose the Shared hosting. Later, as per the need, you can always upgrade to dedicated or VPS hosting and for all type hosting services I would personally recommend MilesWeb.
3) How to choose the right hosting partner :
After deciding the hosting needs and type of hosting, the next and most important step is to select the hosting provider. Follow these guidelines that can help you :
(A) Perform head-to-head comparison –
Select some of the hosting providers that you want.Do their comparison on the basis of the features and cost associated with them.
Try to get more features at less cost!
(B) Read reviews –
Best way to find a genuine partner is to read out the reviews about them. Instead of reading the reviews on the same site you can refer some of the hosting review sites, where you get the genuine reviews about the top hosting providers.
(C) Talk to others –
Talk to your friends from the same industry. Also, reach out to the current customers of the hosting providers and find out their views on the services they get.
(D) Read terms and conditions –
Many companies have sign-up charges or other charges associated during payment, renewals, etc. So read the terms and conditions of the provider carefully.
(E) Check for the trial period –
Before making the final purchase, find out if you can get the product or service on a trial basis.
Some companies offer you 20 to 30 days money back guarantee, these companies are more reliable ones.
(F) Check the support service –
During the trial period, you can also check out their technical support service. Do you get the instant support via chat, email or phone call? Does your problem get solved? This feature is considered as the most important while choosing a hosting provider.
Conclusion –
You should select the hosting provider carefully, as the hosting partner is the virtual support for your business. So, do read the contract carefully, do research as per your needs and ask for the security support while choosing the best web hosting provider.
