Introduction
Web Hosting is the body without which the web and digital online industry simply couldn’t exist.
What started as hosting simple code to display text and pictures on the Internet’s pioneering pages has, over the years, transformed into an ever expanding maze. Serving terabytes of picture and video content, processing millions of simultaneous chat requests, now even hosting custom AI models on their dedicated GPUs.
The hosting industry itself, since the inception of the internet, underwent many, often turbulent changes when it comes to the ever evolving technology, costs or legal requirements.
While everyone’s requirements for hosting will vary in size and complexity. The following are ten practical questions that can be applied universally, when looking for a new web host. A step-by-step guide pointing out the most common mistakes to avoid when choosing a reliable web host for your website and business.
1) Do I understand from the specifications what I'm buying?
Many service specifications may get a bit complex and tricky with fine print. Whether it’s restrictions regarding the domains, websites, nodes, bandwidth and storage or other add-ons that are or aren’t included in the plan - always verify that you understand the terms correctly.
This applies to pretty much any limitations and specifications with any given plan, and being straightforward and clear about the conditions should be a no questions asked, essential business practice.
2) What are the payment terms - are there any hidden fees or incoming price shifts?
There are plenty of hosts offering special promotions for new customers as a default. The risk there is, that once the promo period is over, the client is to end up getting charged notably more, often also future additional fees for extras, that may have been deemed as included.
Think of this as the “Loss Leader” theory in marketing and sales, advertising something at a break even or even below the break even price, only to get the customer into the shop in order to buy more. In this case more means another billing period, or additional fees for extras.
Being upfront about the price and what is included in it should again be a common sense business practice.
3) Is the sales and support team easy to reach for feedback and clarifications?
This, of course, is always a huge plus - once you send a request for a new hosting plan, you'll need a qualified, and ideally a timely answer. The more concrete you are in your specifications, the more detailed answer you should get.
This is also a way to put the staff qualifications on trial and get a better idea about their knowledge and availability alike.
4) Is my line of business legally compatible with where the host has its company registration?
This is important especially for those in the high-risk industries. The regulations will vary country by country, and hosts will be obliged to adhere to them. In some jurisdictions, it may be regulated to a large degree, or not allowed, to host websites catering to a certain industry.
Some hosts may be able to serve a larger pool of potential clients, including those operating in higher-risk industries. Or operate in multiple jurisdictions, such as to have an EU entity available for an EU counterpart seeking clients.
If you operate in a high-risk industry, or if in doubt, always verify with the host that your web service and business model is compliant with their terms and conditions, and with law and regulations they have to abide by.
5) if I'm not satisfied with the service, will it be easy to cancel and switch?
This is to reiterate the current, widespread practice of offering a major discount for any type of a long-term, auto-renewing contract. This would mean prepaying for one year or even more, with little to no option to get any sort of a refund, in case of a sub-par service.
Also, keep in mind that trying to acquire as many clients as possible based on low price and special conditions may just lead exactly to that - overselling. Putting too many clients on existing infrastructure. Which in turn leads to performance issues, and an overloaded support.
Straightforward, flat fee pricing and no auto-renewed long term commitments are a way to mitigate the risk of such a scenario happening.
6) What's the variety of services offered, can the host support my needs, as my requirements grow?
Say that your traffic grows, and you need to serve globally, which means you'll need additional services like CDN, cloud, to upgrade your server - make your due diligence and check what the host offers going forward, and under which conditions.
An established host with a customer first mentality should not miss a beat, and be eager to deliver for any of their existing clients. To support their business span and growth, without having to rent or share infrastructure from other hosts, which leads to the next point.
7) Does the Host own their infrastructure?
It's not that difficult to advertise a cheaper, lower end, pre-packaged hosting service as a reseller, and it may turn out to be lucrative for many, especially if they offer hosting as an add-on to their complementary business.
But of course, if you want to invest into any slightly more complex setup, and assure that you’re getting the market corresponding price / value ratio, you need to look into hosts that actually own their infrastructure, and go direct (not to pay the middleman).
The data centers location is also important, not only due to connectivity and back up setup, but optionally also due to the legal landscape, that may affect various types of online businesses (especially high risk).
8) Is there a solid CDN option available?
As your site grows, if you want to do numbers, or even if you're a media buyer that moves volume and wants a super fast and stable loading time with his landers. You may want to search for a solid CDN with straightforward, per usage pricing.
Using widespread solutions such as AWS Cloudfront may end up being costly, with bandwidth costs being tens of times more than market rates. Choose a CDN that automatically selects the best delivery options and reduces S3 egress. Avoid complex pricing models and commitments.
9) Is there a solid Cloud option available?
Pretty much any enterprise these days uses some form of cloud. Once you come to the point of needing a professional cloud solution for your organization, you should look for low hourly pricing and a great data transfer value.
Even the most widespread cloud providers such as AWS may end up costing you exorbitant data transfer costs, should you need to move volume. In addition, look for an instant provision, as opposed to waiting for scheduled access to CPU cores. Request a particular setup, relevant to your detailed cloud support needs and evaluate it based on your expected usage.
10) How experienced is the team when it comes to assisting with your needs, or migrating your existing websites from another host?
An experienced team hosting hundreds and thousands of web setups can even advise you, regarding various scripts or setup for your intended website use, to fit the purpose and requirements of your particular needs.
Free website migration should be a given, and the process itself to be handled by experienced and time-tested experts, ready to take on migrations of properties of any complexity.
Don't forget to put the above to use when selecting a new web host for your business - good luck!
