Hello DP Members! First thing I would like to discuss is that price is not everything! Doesn't matter if your paying .99c for hosting and your site is completely unreliable because in the end, you'll lose money over these problems. Let's go through the considerations that you need to ponder in order to ensure that you get what you need. You want to choose the web host that is going to provide your needs as they stand now as well as where they lead to in the future. Here we go: 1. Understand the differing types of hosts: shared, collocated, unmanaged dedicated, and managed dedicated. Is your site brand new with little traffic? In the event your site is a newer domain, you won't need the raw power of a dedicated server unless your site is resource intensive which can include: streaming, video's, proxies and even linking to videos as well can cause a high load on Apache and the CPU(s). 2. Go for stability, not just size. Just because the host if offering you unmetered and unlimited space, doesn't mean you should soley base your decision on that. What good is that account to you when your site is down or the server is overloaded? Research how long the hosting business has been in operation. See if they have recently changed ownership, and if they show positive cash flow. 3. The possession of fully redundant data centers. If you are considering doing business with a smaller hosting vendor, ensure that they have adequate power and connectivity capabilities. Inquire as to the number of lines the facility has. Do they possess an on-site generator? Does the generator receive regular checks and maintenance? What is the average utilization of the connections available? 4. How skilled is their staff? When you need customer service of a technical nature, you need it immediately, right? Find out the availability of their systems administrators. Send them a support ticket and see how fast they respond. 5. Other customer's reviews of the hosting services. Same as any business, the hosting vendor should be able to provide good references. 6. Is the potential host flexible? In the future, your needs may change. Can you upgrade services should the need arise? 7. This step of course, is optional. Make sure that the host does not have blacklisted IPs. The host that you want to do business with would not be one that promotes illegal sites, spammers, or other security issues. You are considering associating your business with this host. You could always ask them what web server they plan to put you on. 8. Begin with and maintain a clear and written understanding of all services and all charges for them. If questions still remain or some terms are unclear it is strongly advised that you ask for clarification before signing up for anything. If you do your research before beginning business, you will find a better avenue to the successful hosting, and thereby promotion, of your online business. Take your time in making this important decision. Hope this helps all of you, Ryan Lunzmann
Well, Thank's for all info posted here... I'm looking for a really great service here in DP, but I've saw many children's of business... a lot of offer with unlimited or unmetered space, bandwidth, etc... I think that's offers are from hacked servers or similar, because it's impossible to offer at low prices if them paid for real price. Oh.... now i have a lot of work to search in DP for a reliable hosting service wich meets my needs. This post would be perfect if it had references to companies that meet these aspects.
Hi P2P, Thanks for the kind feedback! This is true. There are ALOT of "newer" webhosts that are simply resellers through other upstream providers. This mean's you can have delayed times for resolving tickets too. What you pay for is usually what you get. If your getting unlimited this and that for hardly anything, it's bound to be too good to be true. In essence even if it is true for the time being, the server will be oversold quite soon and the profit margin is practically none. All the best! -Ryan L.
This should be in General Chat and has been discussed before. I would not say that all providers that offer unmetered are scams or bad, or will have the servers over loaded..
I highly recommend if going with an ultra budget host daily back-ups - not that anyone is a scammer or anything (tho they do exist), but this is just generally good practice.
Really not ALL hosts are scams... but here in DP many are unsustainable if all accounts reachs them limits (unlimited space) if deals are for beginners of business (less then 6 months), tsc... almost 100% them fail to move on.
agreed, alot of hosts that do offer unlimited this and that offer bad business, proven fact.. Most of the time these offers are from newer web hosts that don't have much of a presence.