Choosing the best Website Hosting can be a daunting task for even those who have been in this game for a while. There is a lot involved. So let’s start at the beginning.
What is web hosting?
Hosting simply refers to where your website gets delivered from. For a website to exist and be accessible to the world, it must be on a web server. That web server must be always connected to the internet and running so that your website is available to anyone at any time around the world. Hosting is just who or what machine is going to be doing that for your site. Most site operators choose to let a hosting company do this for them. These companies go by a few different names such as web host, or ISP (Internet Service Provider). (Definition from xcauction.com)
The web pages you design on your computer must be transferred to a server (host) so that they are available to the rest of the world over the Internet. The host is simply a computer (or server) that has a constant, high speed connection to the Internet 24/7/365.
The three different types of web hosting services are:
Free Hosting
Free web hosting is a service which provides users with the ability to store web sites and media on the Internet for no cost. Sometimes the service provider will ask to place advertising on your site in lieu of payment for their free service. Cottageinthecountry.blogspot.com is on Blogger’s free hosting.
Shared Hosting
The best choice is shared server hosting for normal websites and smaller e-commerce websites. Your site is located on one of the super fast Web Servers. It is the equivalent of leasing office space. A certain portion of the building is yours, with your name on the door, and you can rely on the building manager for security, maintenance, and facilities management. This is called “shared” hosting because your home page has its own domain name. For example I am on shared hosting and I use my own domain name Newbielifeline.com. Shared Hosting also doesn’t have any advertisements, like Free Hosting can, your space is totally your own. You want shared hosting.
Dedicated Hosting
Also known as a Dedicated Server. This type of hosting allows a webmaster to rent an entire server. The server is not shared with anybody. This gives the webmasters more freedom. Large companies and e-commerce sites will use Dedicated Hosting. Amazon.com has dedicated hosting.
What you want from your web host.
Now when I said there was a lot involved, I meant ALOT involved in choosing a Host that is just right.
- Price. Hosting companies charge a monthly fee for their service. You want to pay a fair price for their service.
- Space. You want unlimited space on the server to conduct your business.
- Bandwidth. You want unlimited bandwidth; the amount of traffic that is allowed to occur between your website and the rest of the internet.
- Time. You want the server to guarantee that they will be in operation all of the time.
- Service. You want to be able to call your server 24/7 and get good quick service.
- Domains. You want to be able to put as many domains (sites) as you want on this service.
- CPanel. You want a control panel (cpanel) because it gives you control over your site.
What is CPanel and why is it important.
Simply put, CPanel is a fully featured web-based control panel that allows you to manage your domain through a web interface. The idea is to transfer as much of the control and responsibility of managing your web site to you. You have the ability to manage all aspects of e-mail, files, backup, scripts,web site statistics and more.
I asked Connie Regan Green of EbookWritingandMarketingSecrets.com, why having a CPanel is important, she said, “C-panel is best because it offers every feature you will need when running an online business. I use 3 different companies for hosting, all with c-panel.” Hostgator gives a good view of what a CPanel is.
The Best Web Hosting.
Hostgator.com and BlueHost.com are THE BEST web hosting companies. Both offer exactly what you need: Good Price, Unlimited Space, 99.10% Operating Time, Fabulous Service, Unlimited Bandwidth, Unlimited Domains and CPanel.
Emory Roland of Clickfire.com has done a complete independent review of a web hosing companies. Hostgator and Blue Host came out on top. You can go to his site to see the complete review and how it was conducted. Amazing! his reviews confirmed my two top choices.
Get your hosting account. Your next step is very exciting, choosing a theme and…..actually putting up your website.
To your success!
Sheila
P.S. Choosing the best can be confusing because there is a lot involved. So keep it simple as possible. Trust me, you will be happy with the choices.
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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
When I purchased my domain name… I purchased a hosting account from Go Daddy. It wasn’t long before I needed to change. At the time… the Go Daddy hosting was not compatible with Wordpress.
I changed to Hostgator. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve called them for one reason or another… especially when I was setting up my site. Their customer services is just the best… so helpful and kind. “They don’t bat an eye” when I ask “Duh” questions.
Hostgator get’s my vote!
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Service is very important to me. I am with bluehost and i had few incidents with them
Fortunately the response was very quick and I appreciate it.
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Yes, I agree, bluehost is one of the best.
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Hi Sheila,
I have to agree that cPanel is great.
To be honest though, I started out with Hostmonster (which is owned by Matt Heaton – mattheaton.com. He also owns Bluehost and FastDomain). After a while, my server got slower and slower. Now that the major players are offering unlimited space and bandwidth, it allows other people on the server to take advantage of that fact and slow down your own site.
The unlimited space and bandwidth also is NOT unlimited. There are thousands of sites on the server, and only a few terabytes of disk drives. Also, the network isn’t unlimited. When I signed up with Hostmonster, I took into account their network capability and the amount of bandwidth they provided (6 TB) to calculate that they can really only host eight sites if all eight sites used the 6 TB of bandwidth.
Right before I left Hostmonster, I got onto a live chat and asked the person how much bandwidth I had to use before my account got banned. After some pressing, he said “if you keep it under 200 GB/month, you will be fine.”
I ended up moving to a much smaller host that is EXTREMELY fast. I only get 5 GB of space and 120 GB of bandwidth, but to be honest, I don’t use all of that. The main difference is that my site is faster than it was with Hostmonster. Sometimes the page would take over 20 seconds to load on Hostmonster, which is inexcusable.
Hostmonster also guarantees 99.9% uptime, but I had it monitored for over a year with an independent company, and they were around 99.7%. One month, it was 98.5%.
Sorry for the long comment, I just get annoyed by the companies that sell you unlimited space and then ban you when you try to use it.
Lastly, your friend Emory Roland of Clickfire has not done an unbiased review. He gets $90 every time someone signs up with Bluehost through that link. He also gets paid commissions on all of the other hosting links. That is why there is so much “Web Site Hosting Review” spam sites out there — they just want the referral cash.
[Reply]
sheila Reply:
March 27th, 2009 at 3:56 am
@ Tom,
Thanks for the information. I would really be interested to know about the company you chose and like. That company could be a good choice for others also. Checking out the what is meant by unlimited band width and space with a hosting company is a good idea.
I have come from my personal experience with the hosting companies I have chosen to feature. For this site I have just moved over Hostgator from a small company, for the CPanel, and service. Other bloggers work with have been very happy with them.
I felt like Roland did a good job in reviewing all of the different hosting companies. I do understand that he makes money when someone chooses a hosting company through his site. More power to him. He is a good example of someone making money from blogging.
I really appreciate your input. I don’t know everything so I love it when someone has something better for those who are new to this game.
Sheila
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