Choosing a web hosting company - what to consider

[temi]

Just like I have done with the domain name section, I want to compile list of things you should consider when choosing a web hosting company. It would be nice if experienced webmasters can add their valuable comments and recommendation to this list so that we can have it as a sticky for newbies:

So, what are the things you should look for in web hosting before signing up?

[KingPin]

When I am choosing a hosting company I pick ones that are established with a good name in the industry.

I look for me uptime and bandwidth are the main thing but the most important is customer service.

I recommend SoftLayer.com and Rackspace.co.uk for hosting. I recently have CoLo with Rackspace and they have been excellent.

KP

[temi]

Your CoLo with rackspace, do you just inserted you own server into their network? do you do the maintenance and stuff yourself?

I had a quote for them for managed dedicated last year, it was very pricey.

[KingPin]

Yeah in a nutshell. I have just brought a "Half Rack" which is getting installed at Rackspace on Monday.

I have chosen to have them manage the rack, it's a little extra but it saves me doing all the fiddly stuff.

They can be pricey, I guess it depends on what you're looking for.

KP

[TnT]

We can only share a limited experiance, but it might help a few newbies. Our host is based in the UK, and is part of a vast network worldwide. They claim a 99% uptime, and have value, mid range, a resellar packages. Support is key, and the length of time it takes for the support to work, which in our case is normally within the hour depending on what time it is submitted.

We've actually had more social chats than that of support chats, and they have really helped and over the years we've managed to build up a good relationship with them and put names to faces. They also 'share' in house news, upgrades, future plans with us also.

A good friendly personal service I think on small to medium sites outways price / speed and features. Knowing that a quick email will result in a fix and a quick fix at that I find to be much more important. We're only using their value packages at the moment, and can't complain one little bit, the sites are fast enough for what they need to be, and they're reliable, this is shared hosting at it's best.

In time I'm sure we'll be moving up to a dedicated server, but for now we can't complain. If in doubt, email the host, see what sort of response they give, is it warm? Do they welcome you? Or is it a robotic automated scripted response and you're just another customer paying the bills?

Good customer service shows, as there is a lack of it these days, so check for reviews of the host, email the host, weigh up the costs and features of others, check where the servers are, if backups are done, and how friendly they are, and I'm sure in time loyalty will pay off for you.

Hope some of that helps.

[Andyrose]

A first step should be to send an email with a few fairly basic questions. Things that are general, and yet fairly important and potentially incommode, like "How long have you been in business?".

The first email allows you to introduce yourself and to see what's their first reaction. Do they want your business or not? Do they answer your questions carefully and in detail or just skimp them? Are they polite? Do they use English the right way (spelling and grammar)?

[arunpattnaik]

Nice discussion. . The first thing i look for is the quality of support. A good hosting never asks you to place an order before providing support. I have used one which has live support system and it works great for me.
Though they dont have an actual support forum, but i'd really suggest you to choose one with support forums or support ticketing system.

Now a days most of the hosts allow a 48 hours - 7 days trial/ money back. Grab one and you can see the uptime and speed.

The next thing i look for is the control panel. I am quite familiar with cpanel, so i prefer a cpanel host.


BTW, i'm pretty much satisfied with my current host, but i wont spam here .

[dman_2007]

Another important thing to look is whether they have monthly payment options or not, even if it is a bit expensive then when you're paying for a year two in advance. It is quite tempting to pay for a year or two upfront in advance when it saves you some money, but don't do it. You'd be stuck with that hosting provider even if you start getting bad service.

[djpassion]

I love bluehost.com been with this company for just over 2 years now.....

-great customer support
-you can do what you want with the php.ini like can use 1gb upload max size for example. a lot of hosts limit it you to something ridiculous like 5mb
-you have cpanel which is really good
-can put in for a dedicated ip address for just $15 extra a year
-42028.23 MB diskspace / 100606.56 MB monthly bandwitdh transfer
-upto 2500 email accounts
-999 subdomains
-999 parked domains
- 999 addon domains
- 1000 ftp accounts
- can use php version 4/5 and 5+fastcgi
-mysql version 5.0.45-community-log
- can use linux or windows
- apache version 2.2.8 (Unix)
- 100 mailing lists
- 50 sql database

the ammount of stuff you can use in cpanel is very good too

there uptime is very good too

plus they have support forums

go with bluehost

[Andyrose]

I don't want to convince you to choose a certain web hosting company. I want you to decide on your own which is the right hosting company for you. I actually encourage you to investigate other companies than the one I recommend Drupalvaluehosting.com