With the number of web hosting providers on the rise, it often becomes difficult to find the best among the top web hosts. Moreover, as a start-up business, you don’t wish to waste your valuable time away from your core business in finding a web host. You can always look for web hosting providers in a hosting directory, which is a rich source of information about leading hosts. However, before finding a web host, it is important to determine whether you need windows or Linux server or a dynamic or static website. While looking for a web host in a directory, you can make comparison of the following essential criteria:
Your Requirements
If your goal is to provide downloadable files, videos, or high resolution images, you should go for a web host offering large bandwidth, which measures the amount of data transferred to clients downloading the same. On the other hand, if you are blogging to sell products, you should find a web hosting provider offering enhanced security and good e-commerce support.
Evaluate Their Uptime
Uptime is the time when your server runs smoothly without any interruption. Contrarily, downtime is the time when your website or web store is down and out. The top web hosting companies are technically more reliable, offering a high uptime percentage. An uptime of 99% means three days of downtime annually, which is too long for a blog regularly receiving heavy traffic and might cause significant potential daily losses. It is better find a host offering you the best uptime guarantee.
Hosting Features
It is important to read the fine print of what different web hosts promise to offer before making your decision in the favor of one. Your hosting provider must offer all that is promised while ensuring the highest level of service. Try to find out if your web host has set a hidden limit on traffic to your site, which may cause traffic spike or burst of traffic, especially if you use social media platforms for website promotion. Hosting providers often use the �CPU limit� as the limit. Try to question them if there is any such traffic limit, and then try to stay below the line.
Tech Support
While looking for a host in a hosting directory, try to find out the efficacy of the company in terms of remote or tech support. Since the Internet is open every hour of the day and doesn’t have business hours, your web host tech support should be available 24/7 to troubleshoot problems as and when they arise, ensuring your site remains up and running all the time. Try to confirm if they offer you phone support, which is the most reliable form of remote support.
Attractive Pricing
A web hosting directory often has a list of web hosts along with their price packages. You may get a good web host for as low as $4-5 a month. You can always upgrade your package as per your requirements. However, your host must ensure free setup, high uptime and backup, good technical support, and money back guarantee.
Number of Domains
As your business grows, your collection of domains tends to grow. It is smart to make sure your web host allows multiple domains within a single package.
Number of Emails, Databases
With the right web hosting package, you would be able to give each of your employees a separate domain email address as your business continues to grow over time and you have an increased number of staff members.
Bottom Line
In your search for top web hosts, try not to fall into the trap of hosting providers that promise 100% guaranteed uptime, as this is next to impossible by any estimation. A good web hosting provider will have a lesser number of complaints against its name than others.
