I may be in the market for a new hosting plan. What are some key points to look for from a technical viewpoint? I think most of them charge competitive hosting rates. I'd a little more "oomph" with my hosting company.
What makes a good hosting service/plan?
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That's a great question! Many of them are competitive when it comes to both price and features, so it can be tough to choose, but in my opinion there are two factors that stand out from the rest.
The first is good technical support. I would only consider a company that has 24x7 tech support, preferably by a toll-free number. I have used hosting companies in the past that offer support via live chat, which is okay, but not great. When I need help I just want to get someone on the phone. Some hosting companies outsource their tech support - outsourcing by itself is not a bad thing, but it's important that the people who staff the phones are highly trained and able to help solve my problem or answer my question. So tech support is my #1 priority and I'll call them to test the waters before I set up an account with them.
The second most important thing in my opinion is their "control panel" - your user interface that you log into in order to manage your account and site hosting. How easy is it to use? How good is their documentation? Do they have a good FAQ for how to access and use each of the features? If the control panel is difficult to use, then you won't get the most out of the features that you're paying for. So ask to see a demo of their control panel, and see if they have a user manual online also.
Outside of that, the other tech specs of an account are going to be competitive, and unless you're a large corporation then it doesn't really matter if they offer you 100 email addresses or 1000, since you'll likely only use a couple. So don't let huge numbers on email accounts, file storage size, or bandwidth limits sway your decision. As long as they are adequate for your needs, you don't need to pay extra for capacity that you'll never use.
And do be sure to check out Rebecca's post on WHIR (the Website Hosting Industry Review) - they may help you to compare a number of possible hosting companies and figure out what you want to do.
Posted 2 years ago #
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