I am often asked how to find a web hosting provider and what to look for. You might have already gone through a handful of web hosting providers. Or maybe a dozen? So you probably have gone through all the stages of frustration. In this post, I will walk through all the frustrations, I will tell you which ones can be controlled by your hosting provider and which cannot. And I will give you tips on managing the challenges your hosting provider cannot control. But above all – I will tell you which web hosting provider is the best where it counts most.
As a general rule, you want to look for security, performance, cost, and features/services. Most of all, look for a managed provider. When the going gets rough, a good managed hosting provider will guide you and support all the issues you face when you need it most. We have found Green Geeks VPS Web Hosting to be the best managed host provider.
What Is Hosting?
Web hosting is required to broadcast a website. Think of it like needing a TV Station to broadcast a TV Show, or needing a theatre to play a movie. Web hosting companies have servers where many customers websites are served for public presentation.
Web hosting providers have the necessary internet backbone, server systems and software to host websites with the appropriate security, performance and maintenance capabilities.
There are a lot of more mainstream web hosting companies as well as local, smaller web hosting companies. Both will properly broadcast your website, but pricing and capabilities will vary.
Some of the more well-known hosts are:
- GoDaddy
- BlueHost
- 1 And 1
- DreamHost
- Host Gator
- Host Papa
- Ionos
These hosts typically offer Shared Hosting Services where your site is hosted next to other customers, all on the same server space. As explained later in this article, this can cause challenges and problems in some cases.
Many of these providers do offer other types of hosting such as VPS and Dedicated services. However, they are not always apples to apples in terms of features. For example, GoDaddy offers VPS hosting, but it does not provide managed hosting with this service like other providers do. I’ll explain the differences in managed versus unmanaged services later in the article.
What Does A Web Host Do?
Managed Hosting vs Unmanaged
Steps On How To Find A Web Hosting Provider
Jotting down a list of your requirements is the first step in how to find a web hosting provider that can meet your expectations. The requirements I typically look for are as follows:
1 – Security
I have tried many, many different hosting companies and the various services they provide. Many of these companies offer some sort of security, but there are several things to consider.
- Don’t put your faith completely in your host for security. Be sure to have a multi-tiered plan that includes your host, but also has a strategy that includes your website technology and your own monitoring processes.
- Ensure your host has a reputable platform for malware and virus scanning. You want to run these scans regularly and keep a calendar.
- You want a host that can take snapshot backups of your cPanel. If your host has another solution other than cPanel, you want to be sure they can take a backup of it. The key here is that you may have multiple sites hosted in a single cPanel or other platform and you want to be sure you can take backups of these to easily restore them should there be a virus in your current configuration. Remember, a virus hitting a cPanel holding multiple sites can easily impact all of those sites in one fell swoop.
- Managed support is critical during compromises caused by a hacker, malware, or virus on your host servers. With managed support you can likely get quick responses in these situations and you could save yourself a lot of time, headaches, and lost data.
- Multi-Factor Authentication is another must-have when choosing a web host provider. It’s a hassle to have to get a code and enter it after already entering your username and password, but this little inconvenience can mean a lot to protecting you from countless lost hours of time and money.
There are more considerations when it comes to security, but many of these will be controlled by you, not your web host. Putting too much in their hands will leave you with a false sense of protection and you will find yourself waking up to the reality that only you have your best interests at heart. Check my other articles where I focus on the topic of security in depth.
2 – Performance
3 – Storage
4 – Bandwidth
5 – VPS Servers
As we’ve discussed earlier in this article, there are different kinds of hosting solutions. Shared Hosting, VPS and Dedicated are the most common. Shared hosting comes with some pitfalls and while it is the cheaper solution, it is also ripe with problems. Shared hosting is where the provider sets up multiple customers’ sites together on a shared server. Without delving too much into the technical jargon and aspects, this can create issues for you or other customers’ websites in the event that a hacker, virus or malware is introduced into one site on shared server. A domino effect can ensue and cause devastating results to many or all the customers in the shared space.