Web hosting: what it is and how to choose the most suitable for you

Like most choices, making a decision on which web hosting company to choose can be quite difficult. Internet is full of companies that promises impeccable service and reliability guarantees using catchy yet vague terms, and the truth is that it is really hard (if you are not an expert) to make an informed decision. With this article, we want to help you better understand what a web hosting is, and evaluate the truly important aspects to focus on before choosing the hosting that best suits your website.

What is web hosting?

A web hosting is a service that makes your website visible on Internet. It’s the real web space where are stored the database and files (contents, images, style sheets etc. etc.) that make up your site. This service (that, as you can imagine, is really important) is provided by specialized companies (often defined “web host”) that make their own servers available (exclusively or shared) to host websites. Every time that you call up a web page through a URL, this operation involves the web server that hosts the page or site you are looking for, loading its content and making it visible.

What should be considered while choosing a web hosting?

As we mentioned earlier, web hosting companies often compete to see who can make the biggest claims. In an increasingly saturated and competitive market, web hosts have become true marketing strategists and try to use every possible trick to convince you that they are the best providers. You can easily see this by typing “web hosting” or “best web hosting” on Google and browsing on the first links that appears. You’ll see rows of landing pages, with lists of services with confusing names and discounted prices. So, in such a “terminology jungle”, it is important to understand the truly important thing to consider before choosing a web hosting. We have gathered 4 of them.

1 – Performances

It may seem obvious, but it’s clear that overall performances and guarantees of efficiency throughout the year are fundamental in making a decision like this. Setting aside strange definitions and fancy terms, the elements to consider are the following:

• Available space on server
• Shared or dedicated server offer
• Bandwidth
• Guaranteed uptime
• Available amount of RAM

Everything else (depending on the cases and specific needs) is unnecessary, or at least not important enough to make your choice lean towards one web hosting over another.

2 – Assistance

Speed in providing support for technical issues is extremely important, and it is precisely when problems arise that the difference between a good web hosting and a mediocre one becomes evident. Ideally, try to choose a service that offers live customer support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. An excellent indicator of reliability is also the availability of chat support, in addition to the possibility of receiving assistance also through social media channels. If you can, prioritize companies with an internal customer service department, as they provide a better understanding of the service functionalities, compared to an external customer support center, thus being able to assist you more effectively.

3 – Price

After discussing two central aspects in the choice of a web hosting, it is time to talk about costs. Of course, as important as the available services, the price is a factor to take into consideration before relying on one provider rather than another. Many web host provide interesting offers at the time of registration, and even for the first year of use. However, you shouldn’t forget that renewal costs and web space management can often increase after the initial activation, and therefore it’s your responsibility to ensure that you check the costs trends proposed by the various web host in the medium-long term. In this perspective, understanding how many and which costs a future upgrade of your website (more space, better performance, etc. etc.) will require, is a detail not to be overlooked.

4 – Additional services

We have already explained how the majority of web host offer subscription plans including services under terminology that is not particularly clear. Despite this, it is important that you also pay attention to the “additional” services offered by the provider with your hosting subscription. There are some services that, while not essential, can be quite useful. The presence of an included database, for example: a database is not only important, but even essential for websites that need to manage an important amount of data and files, and having one included in the price, is surely a significant advantage. Another interesting feature can be the presence of an email box to have an email address connected to your main domain and last, but not least, the possibility of having a SSL certificate included in the hosting price to obtain a secure URL with the https protocol.