Sooner or later, every arbitrator encounters hosting providers and the need to work with them. At this moment, questions arise - what should be done with them to achieve the desired outcome, and how to avoid mistakes.
In this material, we have attempted to answer all questions related to choosing hosting, dissected the most common mistakes, and provided some tips for effective work with them.
What is hosting and why is it needed
Hosting is a place on a server where your website and all its files will be stored. You rent it from a hosting provider, which is a company that offers you a virtual 'platform.' Hosting is necessary so that users can access the website and interact with it. Many things depend on its quality - page load speed, visibility in search results, and more. That's why choosing a hosting provider should be done wisely!
What hosting is best to choose
There are three most common types of hosting: Shared, VPS/VDS, and Dedicated. Let's explore how they differ from each other and which one is better suited for your needs.
- Shared hosting is a very simple and cost-effective option, more suitable for beginners. In fact, for a small cost, you get a fully prepared environment that doesn't require complex administration.
However, there are also downsides - when dealing with high volumes of incoming traffic, your website may face issues. There are limits on the number of domains, and your IP address may be shared with several other hosting clients.
VPS/VDS emulates the operation of a physical server, and this option is suitable for more experienced arbitrators. Here, you have access to root privileges, allowing you to configure the server according to the specific needs of your project with minimal restrictions.
There are also downsides - you need to be technically proficient to understand everything, and they are more expensive than Shared hosting.
- Dedicated hosting involves renting a real physical server and is suitable for very large projects.
By the way, in a separate article, we have already discussed the criteria to consider when choosing hosting and how to upload a website to it.
What difficulties can arise when working with hosting providers?
Let's understand the difficulties that arbitrators may encounter when choosing hosting.
Slow server performance
The speed of server performance is one of the biggest 'pitfalls' when choosing hosting, and it cannot be measured by any specific parameters.
What to do? The only way to check server speed is to seek the opinions of other webmasters who are already using this hosting provider. Explore recent forums and comments to determine whether it's worth using this service.
Hidden fees
Hidden fees are additional charges for specific services, typically detailed in the contract in fine print.
Most often, hidden fees are applied to limit traffic. For example, up to a certain amount of traffic, it will be free, and beyond that, you need to pay for each megabyte. Or restrictions may apply to the use of technologies (PHP or MySQL).
What to do? The most effective way to check for additional fees in hosting is to carefully read the contract.
Customer support service
Every arbitrator will sooner or later need to contact the hosting customer support service. The questions can vary from simple to technical. In a good hosting company, the customer support team communicates politely and responds to inquiries at any time of day.
What to do? Before entering into a contract, try asking a simple question to the customer support team, preferably during the night. Pay attention to how they respond: observe the speed and politeness of their responses.
If the support team communicates poorly with potential customers, what is the likelihood that their attitude will be different towards existing ones?
Deterioration in quality during a high influx of clients
Such an issue can arise for customers of small hosting providers. Over time, the number of hosted websites and traffic increases, leading to a decrease in loading speed. While not an inevitable scenario, it is quite likely.
What to do? If you value good service quality, it's better to choose established and large hosting services. They are more capable of promptly addressing issues related to increasing customer numbers - hiring more staff, improving servers, expanding bandwidth, and so on.
What should you pay attention to when choosing hosting
When choosing hosting, you need to consider many parameters, and we want to share the main ones. You can add or remove something depending on your project's needs.
- Cost of services: Most hosting providers offer their services at a reasonable price, with basic services typically ranging from 200-400 rubles. However, it's important to carefully read the contract for hidden fees or unexpected price increases after the end of a promotional period.
- Availability: One of the main requirements for hosting is that the website should be available at all times. If you frequently encounter access errors, it's a reason to consider changing the hosting provider.
- Security: The hosting company should have the resources to protect your website from cyberattacks and regularly update security protocols.
- Disk space: Hosting providers offer various types of storage depending on your needs.
- Bandwidth: When choosing hosting, consider the volume of data that will be required from the hosting.
- Website creation assistance: Some hosting providers offer tools for professional website creation and may help you register a domain at a low cost or for free.
- Transfer of existing websites: Some hosting providers offer assistance in transferring a website at a low cost, while others do it for free as an incentive to switch to their services.
- Ease of use: Website management should be accessible and easy to understand to regularly update content, monitor traffic, and so on.
- Personal data protection: The chosen hosting should provide specific guarantees on how it will store, protect, and process personal data collected on your website.
When choosing hosting, try to look not only at the cost but also at the other conditions offered by the company. It's better to spend more time on the selection process than to come up with emergency solutions later.