Web hosting is the service that lets you store and show your website on the internet. Web hosting is one of the most important choices you need to make when creating your website, as it affects your website’s performance, security, reliability and scalability.
But how do you pick the best web hosting platform for your website? There are many web hosting platforms in the market, each with different features, plans and prices. How do you compare and judge them to find the one that fits your needs and budget?
Here are some of the steps you can follow to pick a web hosting platform for your website:
Step 1: Know Your Website Needs and Goals Before you look for a web hosting platform, you need to know what your website needs and goals are. This will help you find the web hosting platform that can meet your expectations. Some of the questions you need to ask yourself are:
What is the purpose and objective of your website?
What kind of website are you making? Is it a blog, an e-commerce store, a portfolio, a news site, etc.?
How much traffic do you expect to get on your website?
How much storage space and bandwidth do you need for your website?
How much control and flexibility do you want over your website?
How much technical knowledge and support do you have or need for your website?
Based on your answers, you can decide what type of web hosting platform you need, such as shared hosting, VPS hosting, dedicated hosting, cloud hosting, etc. You can also decide what features and services you need from your web hosting platform, such as SSL certificates, backups, email accounts, domain names, etc.
Step 2: Compare Different Web Hosting Platforms Once you know your website needs and goals, you can compare different web hosting platforms based on their features, plans and prices. You can use online tools like HostingAdvice.com, HostingFacts.com or HostAdvice.com to find and compare different web hosting platforms. You can also read reviews and testimonials from other users to know their experiences and satisfaction with different web hosting platforms.
Some of the factors you need to compare and judge are:
Performance: How fast and reliable is the web hosting platform? What is their uptime promise and speed test results?
Security: How secure is the web hosting platform? What security measures and tools do they offer to protect your website from hackers, malware, spam, etc.?
Customer Support: How responsive and helpful is the web hosting platform’s customer support team? What channels and methods do they offer to contact them? Do they have 24/7 support and live chat options?
Scalability: How easy and flexible is it to change or upgrade your web hosting plan as your website grows or changes? Do they offer any discounts or incentives for long-term contracts or referrals?
User-Friendliness: How easy and intuitive is it to use the web hosting platform’s interface and tools? Do they offer any tutorials or guides to help you set up and manage your website?
Based on your comparison and judgment, you can shortlist the web hosting platforms that match your criteria and preferences.
Step 3: Test and Pick Your Web Hosting Platform The last step is to test and pick your web hosting platform. You can do this by signing up for a free trial or a money-back guarantee period from some web hosting platforms. This will let you test their features, services and performance before committing to a long-term contract. You can also ask for a demo or a consultation from their customer support team to get more information and guidance.
Some of the things you need to test and check are:
Loading speed: How fast does your website load on different devices and browsers? Do they offer any caching or CDN services to make your loading speed faster?
Downtime: How often does your website face downtime or errors? How quickly do they fix them? Do they offer any compensation or refunds for downtime?
Backup: How often do they backup your website data? How easy is it to restore your website from a backup in case of an emergency?
Migration: How easy is it to move your website from another web hosting platform or domain name? Do they offer any free or paid migration services?
Customer Support: How happy are you with their customer support team? How quickly and effectively do they answer your questions and solve your problems?
Based on your testing and checking, you can pick the web hosting platform that offers the best value, quality and service for your website.