This document provides criteria to assist you in finding the right hosting provider for your website.
Determine Your Needs
You've built your website, now you need to find the right host for
your needs. Even though every site has different needs, your web host
should provide the following:
- Speed - the longer it takes your web pages to load, the more likely your visitors are to leave your site
- Security & Stability - if crackers are successfully attacking your web host's servers, your site may be affected
- Reporting - evaluating how visitors are using your site is important
- Service - the administrative tools and person-to-person tools a web host provides its customers are vital
Speed
A variety of factors make it difficult to accurately determine how
rapidly your pages will be served to visitors. One rough method of
testing speed is to use a traceroute tool. Using one of the
tools listed in the resources links below, test each web host you're
interested in. Average ping time results of higher than 150ms indicate
that a host might show noticeable speed problems.
Security & Stability
Again, security and stability are difficult to measure. The only
reasonable method of obtaining this information from a web hosting
company is to ask them for their "90 day uptime."
Any good hosting company should have this figure readily available.
"Uptime" simply refers to what percentage of the time a host's web
servers are operational.
If your prospective web host can't or won't give you this figure, you may want to look elsewhere.
Note that a 90-day uptime of even 99.9% means that for over two hours your site would not have been working properly.
Reporting
There are a variety of packages available for analyzing the results
of your web server logs. This information can tell you which pages
visitors are looking at, how many times your site has been viewed, and
more.
A good web host will provide an easy to use method of examining
these logs at no extra cost. If possible, look at example log reports
to see which host offers the reporting package best suited to your
needs.
Service is Key
Some hosts allow you to use standard utility programs (CuteFTP,
Fetch, and so on) for moving files to and from your server, and
conducting other maintenance chores. While some customers prefer this
approach, others prefer a web-based administrative interface. Find out
what approach your prospective host uses, and be sure you're
comfortable with it.
Most of the time, you shouldn't have any difficulties with your web
host. But if your site goes down, or some other issue pops up, you'll
want to be able to talk to a knowledgeable, helpful tech support person
without having to wait for hours. Test the host's response time by
calling their support line. If you are placed on hold before you even
talk to a technician, you may want to look elsewhere.
Pricing
Hosting prices vary greatly, depending on the amount of storage
space required, the operating system used, and the degree of support
provided.
If you intend to add database-driven features to your site at some
point, any competent host will allow you to do this. Be sure to ask
potential hosting providers if they support the tools you're thinking
of using. For example, most Linux-powered hosting companies support the
PHP scripting language and MySQL database for free, but do not support
Microsoft ASP. |
