Evaluating Hosting Providers

Technical Support

This is one of the most important factors in your selection and one you can easily test before you buy. Almost all hosts make great claims for their support service, so send an email to support or phone them up with a few questions about their service. You will get a good idea of their level of knowledge, their efficiency and their willingness to work with you. If the response is sluggish or unsatisfactory can you really expect it to improve after you part with your cash?

While support via email has advantages for efficiency and cost it should also be possible to make contact by phone. If you require 24 hour, 365 day, support be prepared to pay a bit extra, employing people to provide this type of service is expensive. 

Reliability and Uptime

You are looking for a host which provides at least 99% uptime, preferably higher, and can back up this claim; some allow access to their server monitoring software statistics which will verify their uptime. You could also check out their own site at www.netcraft.com as an indication of what to expect.

Be a little cautious of those claiming 100% uptime. Even if their servers are completely reliable they will need at least scheduled reboots or some downtime for maintenance and upgrading.

Internet Connection

Find a host with at least a T3 connection to the internet preferably though three different providers to ensure reliability. Fibre optic cables, good quality routers and switches and good quality hardware are also important considerations.

Cost

It is sometimes said that there are three types of host - free hosts, cheap hosts and good hosts - and there is more than a grain of truth in this. Having said that there is very good value to be had for entry-level requirements and shopping around will pay dividends.

Whatever the cost check whether there is a money back guarantee, whether there is a requirement to sign up for a minimum period and if it is easy to upgrade your hosting should the need arise. 

Useful Links

Find a Host Tool from CNet
This useful service allows you to input your requirements and then returns a page detailing what you need and how to go about getting it. 

Host Compare
An extensive site with a lot of useful information about a huge number of hosts. 

21 Things You Need to Know
A useful check list for those choosing a host.

A Web Hosting Nightmare
Learn from one webmaster's unhappy experiences. 

Back to: Part II- Who Provides Hosting
Back to:  Part I - Deciding what you need