When choosing the webhost, I had to consider many things. There are a lot of webhosts available and the choice is daunting. Doing some background research has proved to be very beneficial.
I dont want to name the bad companies that I experienced as the internet is full of stories about the bad ones. What I will do is describe why I thought they were bad and hence - what made me choose the host I am currently with. My specific requirement was for a shared hosting service.
I generally have 3 main concerns :
- Options available ( PHP, ASP? SQL Server, MYSQL? Bandwidth? Hard disk space?)
- Uptime /Reliability
- Support
These are essentially the main things that you should have to worry about. Next I will explain my adventures in each section:
1. Options Available.
It was very important for me to ensure that I would choose a webhost that provided everything that I needed from a technology sense. Every webhost will offer its customers a specific set of options. When I was reviewing potential service providers I made this my top priority. I wanted an option that would allow me to grow to a comfortable size. I didnt want to feel restricted.
Needing PHP, MySQL, good HD space and a lot of bandwidth were fundamental requirements as I would be introducing many websites under the same account. I found a lot of hosts that offered what I needed, so my decision required additional parameters to weigh up the best option.
2. Uptime/Reliability
When a customer comes to my websites, I want it to be active. I want it to be available. There is nothing more unprofessional than a service that stutters. Therefore the reliability of my hosting company and its certified uptime guarantee is important to me.
This is a difficult one to measure accurately. I tried to look up some sites that were hosted by the webhosts, as well as determining their own sites uptime. NetCraft have the ability to check the uptime of websites, as well as a check to see what technology they use. I find it particularly interesting to find out the Operating System and Webserver used by the big companies.
The companies that I had narrowed down from the “Options” list all seemed to offer the 99.9% uptime default. So at this stage it was hard to rule any others out.
3. Support
This was the big one for me. Customer support is without doubt the most under-rated function within business. Sure the developers make a good product that is a dumb proof as possible, the marketeers get it into the public eye for as long as a 20 second commercial can and the Sales folks finalise the deal - but Customer support has a big part to play in satisfying the customer through the tough times and in turn helping to create renewed income through a yearly support contract.
In short, I tested the customer support of the shortlist I had created to ensure that they were both responsive and accurate. In one instance a webhost offered real time interaction with one of their support personnel. This was prior to setting up an account with them. I am sure they had the best intentions and the theory was good - but the execution was awful. I asked a few basic questions before pushing them with a few more technical ones. To say the least, very long pauses between me hitting enter for the question to be posed and a reply materialisinig was the norm. Another company just didnt reply to a comment posted on their websites contact form and an email sent to their support service.
In the end only one company remained standing. Its support service was cheerful, helpful, dedicated, technically accurate and quick to respond. I just couldnt say no.
In order not to seem terribly bias and just writing this to give the company a plug, I will refuse to name them here. Needless to say it wouldnt be to hard to find out who they are, should you dig in the right places.