A mate of mine is starting paid webhosting, he currently provides free hosting (on his own server - not a reseller account) he has asked for my help so i thought i would ask you. What do u look for when choosing a hosting provider?
Bandwidth, Storage, Price and for me the most important is Up-time. No one what possible customer to find a server down message when trying to view your site.
i duno what his space/bandwidth packages will be but i know it has gd uptime since thats where my sites are hosted.
Hard to start a new host these days. so many good hosts out there. I wouldnt go with ANYONE who just started really.
Aside from good uptime, customer service is VERY important. I've been with dozens of website hosting providers and less than 1% of them have good customer service. Then again, when you have thousands of hosting providers charging $5 for 500MB of space and 10GB of bandwidth, they tend to provide careless support. Regardless of whatever you're charging, you must continue to service your customers or they will leave. Some obvious channels of communications are email, telephone support, and live chat. These features are all important, but some small hosting providers do not have the resources to do this. Just do the best you can.
As long as things are running, I just pay my bills and the server is up. Things get serious when something happens (harddrive crash, config messed up, network down, stuff like that). Then I want to be able to CALL (not email) a person that I can explain my situation to. I want him (it's never a she, wonder why) to take a look, fix it or at least tell me what's up. Hosting companies call that 24/7 support, I call it "always somebody around my machines". If your friend is trying to start this business on his own, he can never offer 24/7 support. What he can do is to claim "99% uptime". That means 1% downtime at a max, which is 3.56 days in a year, that's a lot easier to manage for one person. But to get back to your question, things that are important (at least to me): * Helpdesk/support (phone) * Bandwidth (unlimited or limited at some level I'll never reach) * 100mpbs connection (not a 10mbps ehternet) * backups (not on the same machine!! tape/dvd/external machine) * Not in a bad neighbourhood: I don't want IP's up and down me sending spam * dedicated IP ranges * price (not that important, but ok. it's a factor) * scalability: can I get more servers/ip's/disks/support if I need it (I must add that I only rent/buy dedicated servers) good luck, and please post the URL if this new hosting co starts its business.
I agree with frankm. Support is #1. I had an account with United Hosting. It was very stable but support was only OK. They once took down a domain with very little warning because it was getting bombarded with spam. I now host with ServInt on a VPS. They have fantastic support. I've tested them with a number of minor tasks and bigger ones. They never complain and things are done quickly and professionally. I think they're really great and it will take a lot for me to move from them.
country of ip, speed, reliability cost is not an important factor unless your on a tight budget or they are taking the mick