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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Aug 2005
    Posts
    39

    What do you look for when purchasing web hosting?

    I've been working with web sites and web hosts for a while now and I'm trying to compile a list of qualities one would look for in searching for a web host.

    Please feel free to throw any more suggestions you have when searching for a web host.

    Here's what I got:

    1. Price
    2. Uptime
    3. Customer Service Quality and 24/7 Support
    4. Bandwidth & Storage
    5. Control Panel
    6. Features (Domains, Sub Domains, MySQL DB, IP Addresses etc.)
    7. Money Back Guarantee

  2. #2
    8. Live chat

  3. #3
    Quality over quantity.
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  4. #4
    Join Date
    Feb 2006
    Location
    India
    Posts
    858
    How long the company has been in business
    Quality of technical support.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jun 2010
    Location
    Modesto California
    Posts
    6,858
    Quote Originally Posted by clark05 View Post
    I've been working with web sites and web hosts for a while now and I'm trying to compile a list of qualities one would look for in searching for a web host.

    Please feel free to throw any more suggestions you have when searching for a web host.

    Here's what I got:

    1. Price
    2. Uptime
    3. Customer Service Quality and 24/7 Support
    4. Bandwidth & Storage
    5. Control Panel
    6. Features (Domains, Sub Domains, MySQL DB, IP Addresses etc.)
    7. Money Back Guarantee
    I think you pretty much covered all of the bases, however I think its important to know that depending on the client, the needs are going to be very different. Personally I always like to break it down into two categories, A.) what the company is offering and B.) The history of the company (length of time in business, reputation..ect).
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  6. #6
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    1,785
    The first page I visit is the about us page. If they can't tell me something about the company without regurgitating more of what they offer, I move on.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Jun 2003
    Location
    California
    Posts
    2,786
    I would add:

    8. Data Protection Features
    8.A. RAID 10 (hardware redundancy)
    8.B. Daily off-site backups
    8.C. Data Center w/Fire Protection, Power Backup, etc.

  8. #8
    I will know about-
    * Any Connectivity Problems Ever?
    * The FTP (File Transfer Protocol)
    * Hosting Reliability
    * Having SSL (Secure Sockets Layer?
    * The Right Web Hosting Price
    * Web Hosting Customer And Technical Support

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Jan 2011
    Posts
    296
    I'm into Quality over Quantity as well. If that particular Web Hosting offers quality and it suits my standards then I'll go over them!

  10. #10
    Hi Mate,

    I would add support+ Customer reviews + Age of the company.

    Thanking you,
    David.
    Transition to wordpress today!!:wordpressmonk.com
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    Gmail :abacies@gmail.com
    Skype :abacies

  11. #11

    Non Affiliate Reviews

    I am looking for reviews without affiliate links to the company. Real reviews of people wanting to share their experience using that particular web hosting company.

    Antonia

  12. #12
    Join Date
    May 2010
    Posts
    615
    When i look for hosting i look at the following

    Reviews of the company (if they get good feedback Great, if they get bad feedback what if any are there responses?)

    Price (does it seem to good to be true?)

    support ( i fire off a few emails to support departments and sales and ask questions, this also allows me to check the response times)

    Live chat is a plus but a lot of the time it's not manned 24X7 and sometimes it's outsourced to another country to people who may or may not have access on any level to the hardware (so it proves useless if they cant help when you need it)

    again it's a case of quality over quantity. i don't believe the biggest company is always the best they just have the biggest advertising budget a lot of the time small-medium sized companies are best because they have a smaller client base and want to do best for their customers as all smaller companies have is their reputation for customer service and quality (this can be said about alot of smaller companies in a lot of industries)

    joe
    www.JGwebhosting.co.uk - CPanel Control panel, domain registration, Reseller packages And 24X7 Technical support! - Now Taking in Hosting Refugee's

    www.JGpcrepair.co.uk - Computer repair, New Systems, Software, Hardware

  13. #13
    I look for a lot

    Price is important but not as important as a MYSQL Server PHP5

    if you cannot have a database you can not build much!

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Aug 2005
    Posts
    39
    Thanks for the replies everyone, this is some good stuff.

  15. #15
    Join Date
    Mar 2009
    Posts
    3,816
    Customer service - Don't treat me like I'm stupid
    Price - Reasonable, but not ultra low
    Bandwidth and storage - ^
    Features - SSH must be by default with no further BS, must have RAID, the usual: python, ruby/rails, latest php (5.3.6, iirc)

    I don't care about a money back guarantee - never do long periods, always month to month anyways. the amount is negligible for shared hosting.

    I don't care about live chat. I don't think I'm the "average customer" - absolutely despise cPanel/Plesk, and dislike Directadmin. Would much prefer command line.

  16. #16
    Join Date
    Aug 2007
    Posts
    6,884
    Quote Originally Posted by clark05 View Post
    Here's what I got:

    1. Price
    2. Uptime
    3. Customer Service Quality and 24/7 Support
    4. Bandwidth & Storage
    5. Control Panel
    6. Features (Domains, Sub Domains, MySQL DB, IP Addresses etc.)
    7. Money Back Guarantee
    If you have written that in priority basis, I have disagreement. The first point would not be price in my list. Definitely price is a factor. But I would always make adjustment in my budget if I get best service. Yeah reliability, uptime, track record and all such points will follow as others said.
    iHubNet Ltd - Premium Hosting Solutions 4 ALL
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    Shared Hosting / Reseller Hosting / Managed Server
    Matt A.

  17. #17
    Join Date
    Oct 2002
    Location
    EU - east side
    Posts
    21,920
    Generally, when I judge a hosting company I will look at customer reviews. As much as possible, I try to find well written, nicely balanced ones. The overly enthusiastic or the ones that are overly negative often hold little actual information. They either try to sell you too much, or they're just venting and partially irrational.

    I then try to see how company representatives present themselves and communicate on forums.

    The cost, the features and all that stuff is of course important, but those things are so in your face that there's little to talk about it. There's much talk about the control panel, which one's more user friendly etc., but I have rarely found the control panel to be an insurmountable problem. Most of them will do most things you need just fine, even if it will take longer than it really should.

    Things like the guarantees often don't really matter to me. I will try and take advantage of them if necessary, but in my purchasing decision I will assume the worst (i.e. money spent is money gone), and I won't spend more than I can afford to lose.
    Last edited by ldcdc; 03-23-2011 at 10:02 PM.

  18. #18
    Join Date
    Feb 2011
    Location
    Bogor, Indonesia
    Posts
    5
    don't forget to green powered hosting.

  19. #19
    Quote Originally Posted by andrew_k View Post
    8. Live chat
    I think it is really a most important things because every one wants a quick solution.

  20. #20
    Join Date
    Feb 2011
    Location
    Bogor, Indonesia
    Posts
    5
    absolutely right. they must accommodate chat support, would be better if there phone number to call for free.

  21. #21
    Join Date
    Nov 2009
    Posts
    544

    What to look for in shared hosting...

    Hhmmm... I just have to jump in here on this one. It seems that many folks want to attach qualities that are unneeded to a commodity product. The common nickname for this product is cheap hosting.

    First you have to know that your project will work in this environment. After that has been determined, just find one that has the capabilities that you will need to run your project - at the lowest possible price - Then buy two (1ea from two different vendors) they are cheap. Build your site on one and then copy it to the other, continually back up the first to the second so they are closely synced. Then finally have a fail over policy in place.

    Up time history is really not important, this type of product is going to be down from time to time. Be sure your policies (not the vendor) take this into account and mitigate your exposure.

    Customer service and support are truly useless in this arena, purchase the service and use it. Why pay to be able to call some one who will only say "Yep, it is down". The hardware providers of the service will be looking after their hardware, they don't need you to call and say they are down. If you need help building your project, look elsewhere.

    Bandwidth and storage are of minor importance but if your site is going to take gigabytes of space you are probably barking up the wrong tree anyway (even a 3GB WordPress Blog is a nightmare to keep backed up). CPU, memory and other resources will be so limited that reaching even the lowest advertised bandwidth limits will be nearly impossible.

    Control panels can be fun but are tremendously resource intensive, using cpanel to back up your multi-gigabyte site (10GB limit) every night will not only take you inordinate amounts of time, it will violate most TOS's. Just find one you like if you must.

    Domains purchased through a hosting vendor (even if they are free upfront) become a pain in the posterior when you want to move your project, and you will.

    Sub domains are really a DNS issue, using the DNS servers on a shared host is not a good idea anyway.

    Databases, Dedicated IP availability, etc... are a part of even the cheapest providers offerings... Watch your project, don't bet the bank on this product.

    I'll just throw in that if you think the mail servers on a shared host will be good enough for any business use, think again.

    You are going to pay for any money back offer, whether you use it or not. This is certainly not important, this is cheap hosting.

    Well, that is my opinion anyway.

  22. #22
    Join Date
    Aug 2007
    Posts
    6,884
    Quote Originally Posted by nancysmith View Post
    I think it is really a most important things because every one wants a quick solution.
    Most often that is true in case of L1 tickets. But if in case of advanced issues or issues which needs further investigation, they will guide you to open tickets.
    iHubNet Ltd - Premium Hosting Solutions 4 ALL
    Solid Support Solid Equipment Solid Network
    Shared Hosting / Reseller Hosting / Managed Server
    Matt A.

  23. #23
    Please check reviews on that company too.

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