Choosing a hosting provider is one of the most crucial decisions you will make for your business. Choosing the right hosting provider can be a tough decision. Invest some time up front in the future well-being of your business. What are the qualities you need in a hosting company?
What should I know about choosing a hosting provider?
Hosting is the most crucial part of the success of your digital business. Choosing the right hosting provider can be challenging. You must be sure that the services they offer fit your business needs. Here are six key criteria to consider when weighing up the options.
Reliability and Uptime
Reliability is key when choosing a hosting provider and is measured as uptime. Uptime measures the time a service is available and plays a significant role in the well-being of your business. The recommended uptime score is 99.5% and anything below 99% is unacceptable. Service outages cost time and in the case of downtime, customers lose time trying to get a hold of you and your business. Make sure to check how committed the hosting provider is in maintaining your business stability and reliability.
Security policy
Keeping your website secure should be extremely important to your hosting provider. Lack of security can result in damage to your business. In today’s climate of hacking and data breaches, what is the hosting provider doing to keep your business secure? When considering shared hosting, the policy of a hosting provider should address it. The same implies to cloud hosting as dedicated hosting. It is good to ask how often they conduct malware/virus scans. The hosting provider you choose should have proper security processes in place (SSL certifications etc.) to protect any sensitive data.
If your website is e-commerce or stores any sensitive customer/employee data at all, you need a good Shared Secure Socket Layer (SSL) certificate. Make sure that the SSL covers all your security bases. If not, a multitude of third-party SSL providers exist for you to turn to.
Scalability
Do you expect to need significantly more resources over time as your business grows? If so, it is better to find a hosting provider that can accommodate that expansion rather than one you’ll soon outgrow.
Multiple Add-on Domains
When owning more than one domain, make sure to choose a hosting provider that allows adding multiple domains so that you can accommodate these extra domains. Double-check the domain capacity before you purchase. Generally, hosting companies allow at least 25 add-on domains to one account, but some web hosts allow only one domain.
Customer service and tech support
It is hard to evaluate customer support until you run into errors, complications and queries and contact them. Ideally technical support should be always accessible via phone, chat, email or ticketing system. Make sure to check what the company’s response time is for resolving issues. The support staff must be on standby 24/7 and ready to support you.
How many customers are on each server?
When you are opting for a shared hosting solution, you will share server space with other websites as well. The number of websites on each server will influence the speed of your site. Ask your hosting provider about the number of customers that share each server.
What if I am not satisfied?
Ask whether the hosting provider offer any kind of guarantee or trial period offer. There are various kinds of satisfaction guarantee policies available. Make sure that you have looked at the satisfaction guarantee of the hosting provider.
Determining the best requirements for your hosting needs can be challenging. Whether you are looking at dedicated server hosting or perhaps going cloud, establishing the requirements for your business can help save you time and money. An experienced hosting provider should give you all the tools you need to be successful. Make sure to check out our blogpost: When and Why Should You Change Your Hosting Provider?
Find out your hosting options
Netrouting is here to help you make the right decision for your business needs. Our experts are happy to assess your business needs with you to help you improve your business IT infrastructure. Please contact us at sales@netrouting.com or +31 (0)88 270 02 00
