With so many hosting companies to choose from today, it’s difficult to make the right choice. So many hosting companies offer you incredible amounts of disk space and monthly data transfer at extremely low prices that it’s almost seems to good to be true. If your instincts are telling you there’s a cache here, your instincts are correct. As always, it’s what were not being told that concerns us the most. Here are some of the things hosting companies do not want you to know:
- Oversubscribing – What most hosting companies do not tell you is the excessive number of web sites they will be hosting along with yours on the same system, all competing with your site for a limited amount of CPU time and Memory. CPU and Memory are the two most critical components enabling your web site to load quickly. In most cases, these resources are oversubscribed such that there isn’t enough to go around, hence the affect is apparent with slower than average web page load times. Unless you’ve ever had your site hosted with a truly superior hosting company, you may not know how slow your site really is.
- Truth About Disk Space & Data Transfer – Hosting companies promise allocation to unlimited resources such as storage space and monthly data transfer (throughput) because most of their customers will never reach 10% of these capacities and these resources are oversubscribed with this in mind. The fact is, they really can not guarantee that you will actually be able to utilize these resources at full capacity. Companies that limit these resources are more likely to guarantee what they promise.
- When Support Needs Support – The less you pay, the worse off the support will be. It’s just the nature of the business. In almost every case, phone support is out of the question and online ticket systems are annoying especially when dealing with incompetent individuals that waste your time with protocol based responses and questions. It’s not ticketed based support that’s the issue, it’s simply the non-qualified individuals you deal with most of the time. If your dealing with competent support technicians, a ticketed based system is the most efficient method for getting issues resolved. In addition, a ticketed based support system keeps track of issues for you in order that you may utilize past tickets as a reference in the event that you run into the same issue again in the future.
- Thank You Customer #15,345,123 – The bigger they are, the smaller you are. Simply put, the minute you have an issue that’s specific to your needs, good luck. The major hosting providers follow specific guidelines and protocols and are not going to bend any rules to accommodate you especially when your needs to not meet the norm.
- Are You Getting What You Pay For? When choosing a cheap hosting company, usually you get exactly what you pay for, cheap hosting and nothing more. Most cheap hosting packages barely provide the minimum components needed to even run a web site let alone a site of todays standards and you’ll be nickled and dimed for any additional items needed. On the flip side, if your paying too much, your likely getting ripped off. It’s best to consider a company that has mid-range prices. Not the most expensive, but not the cheapest either.
- Finding The Right Company -The best way to find a hosting company is either by word of mouth or extensive research. I recommend reading review based sites that do not rate hosting companies as ratings are almost always biased, but simply list personal opinions about hosting companies. However, it is important to note that many times reviews can be tainted and/or submitted by a biased party from the company being reviewed, so beware. Be sure to base your final decision on reviews taken from multiple sites (3 or 4). You can use any of the major search engines to search for “web hosting reviews” to find sites that will assist you with your research. Try to narrow your top pics to three companies and make an effort to call each company and discuss any concerns you may have. In addition and if at all possible, I recommend a trial run in regards to accessing any available support resources provided prior to signing up.