How to Choose the Best Domain Hosting Service for Your Business

Learn how to choose the best domain host for your business with this comprehensive guide! We cover all aspects from price & performance to security & customer support.

How to Choose the Best Domain Hosting Service for Your Business

Choosing the best web hosting service for your business is an important decision. It is essential to understand what your website needs are, confirm the subscription period for hosting contracts, check the server reliability and uptime guarantees, confirm the refund policy and host guarantees, understand what your upgrade options are, and check the main features. This list of web hosting services presented in Table A is not in any particular order and only represents a sample of the services available. The features offered by each provider, as well as the cost of their services, change over time, so it's important that you perform your own verification before deciding which service works best for your business. To be successful in the long term, a company must choose the best web hosting service for its particular set of circumstances.

There are many criteria to consider when choosing a web hosting service; some are obvious and measurable (for example, speed of performance), while others are more subjective (for example, customer support). This TechRepublic cheatsheet will explain what web hosting is, why it could benefit your business, and what features you should consider when choosing your web hosting service partner. Advanced features, such as scripting support, shopping cart processing infrastructure, and guaranteed uptime, will vary by web hosting company. These additional and advanced features are what separate one web hosting service from another and will be the factors that determine which service is right for your business needs. It is understandable that additional services beyond basic levels will increase the total cost of the service and will vary, so companies that require advanced features will want to get everything in writing, most likely in the form of a service level agreement (SLA). Beyond the speed of performance, some companies require a web hosting service that can scale performance in an instant when requested and reduce it when demand decreases.

A retailer, for example, may have a season during the year when thousands of orders arrive in a matter of weeks; the hosting service must be able to be scaled up and down as needed. This is an advanced feature that not all web hosting services can provide. Once you establish your website, you would like it to be up and accessible 100% of the time, but no web hosting service can guarantee perfection, so most providers commit to 99.9% uptime. If your company is willing to spend a little more on additional uptime guarantees, you may be able to negotiate 99.99% uptime. Whichever level you agree on, make sure it is commemorated in an SLA. While all the technical considerations when choosing a web hosting service provider are important to the decision-making process, customer support and the depth of the relationship your company can establish with that provider is often the most important factor.

The ability to establish a beneficial working response with the customer service department of your web hosting service provider will often be the deciding factor when choosing a service. A web hosting service must have the means and resources to deliver a secure website infrastructure, complete with the latest updates, patches and active security protocols needed to prevent the onslaught of daily cyberattacks. Security features, guarantees and expectations must be negotiated as part of an SLA. Most web hosting services can handle a multitude of scenarios, but will adjust prices based on the bandwidth requested. An SLA that sets exactly how much bandwidth your website will need and that provides any increase in bandwidth requests that may occur will go a long way towards avoiding unexpected service charges. If you need to implement special scripts, insert specific code, add ad tracking widgets or access other functions requiring technical expertise from your vendor's in-house technicians, it can add significantly to the overall hassle and cost. When considering whether a potential service complies with GDPR and other regulations, you should ask questions about data encryption, SSL certificate support, security of your web hosting automation platform, firewall implementation and internal security measures such as strong passwords and authentication protocols.

This information must be detailed and documented in an SLA. Hiring a security analyst with the right mix of technical knowledge and experience will require a comprehensive selection process. This TechRepublic Premium hiring kit includes a job description, sample interview questions and a basic search ad that you can customize for your company to find, interview recruit and hire the best candidates for a security analyst role. Choose a portable content management system to avoid crashes. Most hosts are pretty good but times change.

Changes in management, acquisitions and technological changes can alter your web hosting plans. Make sure that your site is not blocked to any host and that you have a backup practice in place. In this post we introduce you to 10 factors to teach you how to choose a web hosting service for your business:

  • Uptime: This factor also called uptime can be measured by a number. The closer to 100%, the better the guarantees of service availability. When choosing your website hosting provider keep this in mind and prioritize options that offer uptime greater than 99%.
  • Price: Price is an important factor when selecting shared hosting services.

    Consider other differentiators such as e-commerce offerings free domain options along with benefits such as advertising credits website builder and updated hardware.

  • Reliability: An experienced and professional host will guarantee a certain level of “uptime” (days without site being unavailable). You typically want to look for 99.99 percent uptime guarantees (more if you're hosting mission-critical application).
  • Research: Research check fine print ultimately make decision based on reliability reputation services.
  • Cheap Hosting: Cheap web hosting is everywhere but spending little more money can mean difference between consistently available website weeks downtime.
  • Unrestricted Features: Hostinger extends routine expected metrics wider reach: number websites databases FTP users subdomains parked domains unrestricted most customers.
  • Scripts & Code: If need implement special scripts insert specific code add ad tracking widgets etc access these functions requires services vendors' in-house technicians add significantly overall hassle cost.
  • Security: When considering whether potential service complies GDPR other regulations should ask questions data encryption SSL certificate support security web hosting automation platform firewall implementation internal security measures such strong passwords authentication protocols.
  • Bandwidth: Most web hosting services handle multitude scenarios adjust prices based bandwidth requested.
  • Backup Practice: Make sure have backup practice place avoid crashes changes management acquisitions technological changes alter plans.
If you pay attention to these 10 tips you will surely have lot more confidence when choosing best web hosting. However Hostinger extends routine expected metrics wider reach: number websites databases FTP users subdomains parked domains unrestricted most customers. Price support storage performance important features consider buying shared hosting service. Other differentiators e-commerce offerings free domain options along benefits such advertising credits website builder updated hardware. An experienced professional host guarantee certain level “uptime” (days without site being unavailable).

You typically want look 99.99 percent uptime guarantees (more if you're hosting mission-critical application). Research check fine print ultimately make decision based reliability reputation services. Cheap web hosting everywhere but spending little more money can mean difference between consistently available website weeks downtime. However Hostinger extends routine expected metrics wider reach: number websites databases FTP users subdomains parked domains unrestricted most customers. If need implement special scripts insert specific code add ad tracking widgets etc access these functions requires services vendors' in-house technicians add significantly overall hassle cost. When considering whether potential service complies GDPR other regulations should ask questions data encryption SSL certificate support security web hosting automation platform firewall implementation internal security measures such strong passwords authentication protocols. Most web hosting services handle multitude scenarios adjust prices based bandwidth requested. An SLA sets exactly how much bandwidth website need provides increase bandwidth requests may occur go long way towards avoiding unexpected service charges. Make sure have backup practice place avoid crashes changes management acquisitions technological changes alter plans.

If pay attention 10 tips surely have lot more confidence when choosing best web hosting.

Thomas Grote
Thomas Grote

Amateur food maven. General sushi practitioner. Incurable internet aficionado. Amateur beer scholar. Hardcore internet buff. Freelance web evangelist.

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