There are thousands of different companies and plans, and a lot of information about web hosting. Therefore, it is not easy to decide on what will fit one best, especially when he/she does not understand all the hosting related terminology. At this point, should one just close his/her eyes and pick a company Or Pick the cheapest one or the average one? This editorial will help one by providing a list of the items one should consider when choosing a hosting company for his/her small business website. It is important to know that one should avoid free hosting services for his/her business website. If one uses free hosting services for his/her business website then customers may think that either he/she is not serious at business or cannot afford to pay for hosting. The free hosting services should be preferred only for personal websites.

1) Space

Space can be measured in units of MB (Megabytes) or GB (Gigabytes), where one gigabyte is equivalent to 1024 Megabytes, thus having a huge difference. The space required depends on the website characteristics. Websites having image files require more space as images consume more space than web pages themselves. To calculate the approximate amount of space required one should add up the sizes of all his/her website files. If one is not sure about the amount of space required then it is advisable to start with plans that include less space and upgrade later according to requirements.

2) Programming language

This item in the checklist does not hold importance if the site is written using only plain html. If the website is written in ASP, Php, Cold Fusion, Perl, Java or any other programming language, one needs to check the hosting plan to see if it supports that particular programming language. If one is not sure about the programming language used he/she should ask his/her programmer about it. If one buys a script or uses an open source one, he/she should check its requirements.

3) Web Server and Operating System

Web server requirements may vary from one script to other, some scripts require Apache web server to run while others need IIS running on a Windows server. One needs to decide if he/she requires Linux or Windows based hosting only after verifying his/her script requirements or checking with his/her programmer. One may also need to see whether choice of web server makes a difference.

4) Monthly Traffic

Monthly traffic is associated with the number of people that visit one’s website per month. This should be enough unless one chooses a strange hosting package or his/her website is very popular. This can also be upgraded as and when required like space.

5) Database

One needs a database, if his/her website uses a database. The databases that may be included in a hosting package are MySQL database, PostgreSQL, SQLServer, or Access. Script requirements should also be verified or one should check with his/her programmer to see which database he/she needs. It is always good if he/she is provided with a utility to manage the database, so one should look in the hosting plan details to see if they offer a tool like phpMyAdmin. PhpMyAdmin is one of the most commonly used admin tool for MySQL databases.

6) Common aspects

Some common features that are normally present in most hosting plans nowadays are as follows

-FTP: to upload files to his/her server.

-POP Email addresses: email accounts one can receive in his/her email client, not only view online. The number of pop accounts provided may be different for one plan to another.

-Web mail interface: This interface provides the facility of accessing one’s email from any computer. It’s most useful if one travels.

7) Customer service

It is necessary that the company answer one’s queries promptly. One should take care about the means that are offered to contact them. One should see if he/she would have a ticketing system to ask questions and inform about problems once he/she is their customer?

SSL

This is a basic requirement if one needs to have secure pages, for example to process transactions online. It should be checked whether the plan already includes this service, or if it can be added to the plan. Usually one needs to pay an extra fee for this service. One should keep in mind that he/she will also need a digital certificate so the browsers don’t display an alert when visitors access any of the secure pages. A digital certificate is responsible for verification of one’s identity; it is issued by a trusted entity. One may need to buy it permanently or get it renewed on periodic basis.

9) Front Page extensions

Front Page extensions are required in a hosting plan for proper functioning of websites built using Front Page.

10) Parked Domains, Sub Domains and Redirects

The hosting plan needs to allow creation of sub domains for a site to have sub domains, like sales.your-domain.com and support.your-domain.com. If one has more than one domain pointed to the same website, he/she needs to confirm if the plan admits him/her to park additional domains. One needs to be able to create redirects if there is a requirement of redirecting a page (URL) to another page.

11) Control Panel

Control panel is quite important and is needed to manage the website efficiently.



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