Eight Ways To Evaluate A Web Hosting Service Web hosting is a very competitive industry, and there are a lot of companies out there eager to meetyour hosting needs. You'll want to choose wisely in order to get reliable service at an affordable price.Because every hosting package is described differently and includes different features, it can feel likecomparing apples to oranges to kumquats when you try to choose between them. To simplify matters,here are eight places where it should be easy to find a definitive answer about any hosting plan. 1. Dedicated or shared server. This is exactly what it sounds like. With a dedicated plan, yourwebsite's data has a server all to itself. This can be important to you if you require exceptionalsecurity, fast response time, and want to exercise control over the server yourself. 2. Data transfer limits. In order to keep their bandwidth costs down, some hosting services put a limiton how much data can be uploaded or downloaded from your site. Make sure you know whether ornot your plan includes limits, and if so, how they are implemented. Some hosts will disable access toa website that hits it limit; others will slow access down. There's a big difference between the two! 3. Storage space. This is becoming less of an issue over time as hard drives grow cheaper andcheaper, but your hosting plan will still restrict you to a finite amount of data stored on the server. Formost kinds of websites, this will never be an issue, but if your site is extremely large or multimedia-intensive (or both!) you may run low on space. As with data transfer, find out what happens when youapproach or cross your limit. 4. Security. Whether or not you intend to host very sensitive information, security is an importantconcern with your web host. A sub-par hosting service can be the weak link where data is mostvulnerable. Learn everything you can about the security measures a hosting company uses to keepyou safe. 5. Programming support. Modern websites can do a lot of very fancy tricks to provide improvedfeatures and functions to their visitors. A lot of these tricks require the cooperation of the site's server,which is in the hands of the hosting company. Inquire about the kinds of scripting and programmingfunctionality a hosting service supports, especially if you already know that you want to use thesefeatures on your site.

6. Software add-ons. Keeping a website up and running requires specialized software along withdedicated hardware. You will need, at a minimum, a dashboard program to track server activity andonline traffic. Full-service hosting companies may also provide you with handy tools that make iteasier to operate and expand your website, like SQL databases and advanced analytical programs. 7. Contract. Like many other high-tech services, you often need to sign a contract for web hosting thatlocks you into the service for a length of time. If this is the case, be sure you find out how long it isand what penalties you would face for terminating service early. 8. Reputation. Thanks to the Internet, companies that mistreat their customers have a very hard timerunning away from them. This is especially true for hosting providers; online reviews will be sure topoint out their shortcomings far and wide. Take a look at customer reviews before signing up with ahosting service to see how good they are at satisfying their customers. You will find that the best way to pick a hosting plan is to develop a firm idea about your ideal hostingservice and then see how close each plan is to it. You can use this article as an excellent startingpoint; feel free to add more points to it to address the hosting issues that are important to you. Onceyou make a yardstick you'll find it a lot easier to measure the hosting services you're choosing from. For the best Web Hosting click here