The process of selecting a web host for your website can be quite confusing for many people.  After all, there are countless different hosting providers advertised on the internet.  And if you do a a web search for ‘web hosting’, you will see hundreds of pages of results (if not more).  You need a way to simplify the process of selecting your website host.  The best method for this is to visit sites that were created for rating web hosting.

Not all websites that rate hosting plans are alike, however. Many are created with the purpose of getting people to sign up for the web hosts that they have rated as being best–in other words, these sites are affiliated with those particular web hosts and have skewed their results so as to make those hosts appear at the top of the ratings list.  They often do this by posting their own positive reviews of the host.

How can you tell if you have found a website that is legitimately rating web hosting plans? First of all, if you see only positive reviews on a website, be wary.  Any trustworthy website will have both positive and negative reviews.  In addition, take note of the content of the reviews.  If the reviews are all very simple and do not contain any specifics, it is likely that they were not written by actual customers of those web hosts.  Real reviews will contain details, such as a comment about how a technical issue with the host was resolved or an opinion about how easy the control panel is to navigate and why.

Another way to tell if you have found a good website that that rates hosting providers is to see if the site has advertising from web hosts.  Any site that does have advertising from web hosting providers is likely going to be biased toward those web hosts.  It is probably that a site like this is getting paid each time a site visitor clicks on either an advertisement or a link for a certain web host.  This certainly won’t help you to find the best website.  You need to find an unbiased site.

Once you have found a credible and trustworthy website that is rating web hosting, choosing a web host provider for your website will be much easier.  You will know that the reviews on the site–both positive and negative–have been written by actual customers of each web host.  These reviews can be quite helpful in determining which host will work best for your website.

Legitimate host rating websites will also break down the ratings into categories.  These categories can include types of hosts, such as shared hosts, dedicated server hosts, and reseller hosts.  They may also include features, such as cPanel hosts, Fantastico hosts, E-Commerce hosts, Green hosts, and more.

By carefully reading through host rating websites, you can get a clear picture of many different web host providers–and, therefore, easily choose the best web host for your website.

Some people are leery of using reseller web hosts.  This is often because many resellers often disguise the fact that they are resellers (due to some people’s reluctance to use resellers).  It may also be because some people are not comfortable with the idea of purchasing web hosting from an individual person who is simply selling his extra disk space and bandwidth.

There is actually no legitimate reason to be distrustful and skeptical of reseller web hosts.  Reseller web hosting involves purchasing disk space or servers and then dividing that into smaller sections (or accounts) to sell as hosting packages.  This is what even the large hosting companies do, isn’t it?  Big companies with thousands of servers are doing the exact same thing as smaller reseller web hosts that may have only one server or a certain amount of disk space to sell.  So, perhaps it isn’t fair to feel doubtful and wary of the small reseller just because his business is small.

Choosing cheap reseller web hosting for your website may, in fact, be a very wise move.  Some of the large website hosting companies have grown so large that they have become quite impersonal.  It may be difficult to get assistance from these companies if it is needed.  This can affect the success of your website if, for example, you are unable to resolve an issue with your shopping cart and customers are unable to check out with their purchases.

On the other hand, resellers typically have fewer clients than the web hosting company whose services they resell; therefore, they are usually able to provide a superior level of support to clients.  This often personalized level of support may not be evident until you need it, but you will certainly appreciate it when it becomes necessary.

Another benefit of choosing a reseller web host is the money it can save you.  While many larger web hosts do offer specials from time to time, resellers can almost always beat those prices.  And, the lower prices charged by resellers are their regular, everyday prices–not discounts that will only last for your first three or six months of hosting.  Also, because resellers receive a large discount from the hosting company whose services they resell, they are often able to provide clients with more services than their hosting company could provide…and at a lower price!

When selecting a reseller web hosting package, it is best to do some research.  Look at customer reviews of the reseller and don’t be afraid to ask questions.  This will allow you to choose the best reseller host for you.

Let’s guess; you don’t believe that, do you? Of course not, it’s ludicrous, yet many a web hosting company sells their services on the very premise that if they write it, customers will believe it’s true. And why do they do that? Because, in most cases, they’re right.

The point here is that, when searching for reliable web hosting, don’t believe everything you read – especially if it’s the web host that are saying it. While every company on the world exagerrates in their advertising campaigns, web hosting companies are infamous for it due to the fierce competition in the market place. They’ll say things and claim things that just aren’t true, while storing the facts away in the small print terms and conditions so they’re covered legally should anyone challenge their claims.

One of the biggest claims made by web hosting companies is to super-technological feats of reliability. Everyone wants reliable web hosting – that’s a given – so by claiming something like 99% up time, a web host knows they’re going to get potential customer’s attention. What they don’t tell you is how often that 99% is; is it 99% uptime per day, per week, per year? If it’s per year, that’s still a lot of down time you’re going to have to deal with.

Finding reliable web hosting is all about asking around on internet forums and websites for true customer feedback on the offers available. Never, ever believe everything a web hosting company says.

The promise is usually something along the lines of “unlimited space” or perhaps “unlimited bandwidth”. And you immediately think: wow! That’s a good deal! I’m going to get server space, a web host and everything I need – and I don’t need to worry about my site becoming too big, because my space and bandwidth is unlimited! So that’s the company you sign up for.

Well, it pains us to burst your bubble, but there’s no such thing as unlimited web space.

When these companies advertise ‘unlimited’ space, they are relying on their consumers to only use a small amount of space. Even with limited web hosting plans, few consumers ever use more than 75% of the space provided – so a web host company knows that they can offer ‘unlimited’ service because it’s unlikely they will ever be required to supply unlimited web space.

In reality, they have just the same server storage capabilities as anyone, and they are limited – it just so happens their limits are wide, and they can afford to entice people with an ‘unlimited’ offer. The moral here is do not be fooled by the offer of ‘unlimited’ space; only ever buy the amount of web space you need, because you’ll probably find you don’t even need that much.

So, yes, getting a bargain is good – but one question you have to ask yourself if you’re searching for cheap web hosting is this: Can I really afford cheap web hosting?

That may so ridiculous – of course you can afford it! It’s cheap! That’s the whole point, right? – but there are different ways and means of ‘affording’ things. For example, can you afford – can you allow yourself, your website and your business interests – to be subjected to a poor service from your web hosting company?

While everyone likes a bargain, it’s only a bargain if it’s good value for money. If you pay $20 per year for web hosting, that might sound great, but the associated problems – down time, server crashes and perhaps worse – suddenly makes the deal seem less attractive. If you are only running a small personal site, maybe you can afford to put up with those issues for the sake of saving the pennies – but if you’re looking to make your website a money-making scheme, then you definitely cannot.

The key here is affordability. Don’t look for cheap web hosting providers, just affordable ones that still offer a high, consistent level of good service. Your business will thank you for it in the long run.

However, if you are trying to run your site on a shared server that is too small to host your site, you’ll notice quickly. For a start, loading times on your site will fall dramatically, and you’ll probably start to lose visitor numbers, too. You will also experienced a slow down of uploading times to the server, making your site a pain to update, and server crashes will become a more frequent worry. If any of this sounds familiar, you may need to consider a dedicated server.

Rather than sharing your server with other users, a dedicated server works exactly as the name suggested: the server is dedicated to your site, and yours alone. Transferring a big site to a dedicated server will eliminate all of the aforementioned problems, and your site will load and run quickly once again.

As you would expect given the nature of the service being provided, dedicated servers are more expensive than their shared counterparts. Costs vary, but anything around $70 to $120 per month is a usual pricing structure for a dedicated server.

Before you make this outlay, you need to ensure you really need it. If you make money on your site and rely on it, you cannot afford for the down time that a shared server may bring. If, however, your site is just a hobby, it may be worth exploring other alternatives first.

Mostly, web host companies back ups are a good thing – they provide stability and allow the website owner to relax. However, these packages do promote laziness; and many a business owner ceases to create their own back up files when they know their web hosting company are doing it too. This is a dangerous trap to get in to; while no one is looking to discourage you from buying a hosting plan that includes back ups by the web hosts, you should be aware of the continued necessity to create your own copies, too.

Web hosting companies are usually reliable. However, in the case of a server crash and you needing to restore your site from nothing, you don’t want to take any chances. You definitely don’t want to discover they have been reneging on their side of the deal, and have not been making back ups, after you’ve lost your site.

There’s no real way to verify your site is being backed up beyond requesting copies of those back ups. Some web hosts will do this, but even if they do, always keep making your own back up copies of your website – without fail.

Spotting web hosting companies advertising jargon is fairly simple. The most obvious ruse is used on pricing.

For example, a company may bill their web hosting as “$9.99 per month” – which may sound like a good deal. Many people starting up with their own website will like the idea of paying monthly for their web hosting, as it is less of an financial outlay initially.

However, in most cases, the “per month” figure is just the year figure divided by 12 – you still have to pay up front for an entire year, which in this case would be $119.88. That is a substantial financial outlay; and by that point, you might be ‘sold’ on other aspects of the plan and will just go ahead and pay it – even though you may be able to find cheaper elsewhere. The initial low figure of “per month” is used to attract the eye and drag you in, and then hit you with the full price when you don’t expect it.

Always watch out any asterisk use in web hosting advertising. Most companies will cram the truth of what they are offering underneath the main sales text; so if you see asterisks, go and find their corresponding section in the terms and conditions. That way, you’ll always be immune to flashy advertising banners, and will get a better deal because of it.

Hopefully, this list should provide some answers to that very question…

- Check webmaster forums.

Webmaster forums are the best place to get recommendations for web hosting providers. The users of the forum rely on their website as their income, so they’ll know who is worth hosting with and who is a waste of time. Start a thread asking for recommendations, or just browse through until you have a general idea of which companies are worth trusting.

- Run Google searches.

As soon as you find a company you are interested in, it’s time to start checking them out. Run a Google search for their company name and sift through the results; if there’s anything bad to be said about them, you’ll find it. Add in words like ‘bad’, ‘poor’, ‘terrible’ and ‘useless’ to increase the chances of finding any poor user experiences of the company.

- Read the small print.

This is a truism in life, and it applies to web hosting too. Before you hand over your money to buy web hosting, you should always read the terms and conditions of the arrangement. If there’s anything you don’t like, either contact the web host for clarification, or go elsewhere. There are good web hosts out there, and by being diligent and following the above steps, you’ll find one.

- You will be restricted.

The amount of web space, bandwidth and even visitors you can receive will be massively restricted if you use a free web hosting provider. However, the space offered is usually perfectly adequate for a small business or a fun fan site.

- You will most likely have to have a add-on domain name.

Instead of www.yoursite.com, your domain name with a free web hosting provider is likely to be something like: www.yourfreewebhostingprovider.com/yoursite or http://yoursite.freewebhostingprovider.com – meaning your site is immediately associated with another company. It isn’t a specific problem, just something to be aware of.

- The meaning of ‘free’.

While you may be getting the web space for free, with most free web hosting companies you will be expected to run adverts on the site. Usually these are generated and placed on your site without you needing to do anything – and you have no way of removing them. Running the ads is essentially how you ‘pay’ for your ‘free’ service. There’s no workaround for this; the web host has to make money somehow.

If you are looking to host a small, easy website with only a few pages, it may be worth considering free web hosting. For another more, you’re going to need to self-host.

The Good Side of Free Web Hosting

In a world that is dismiss anything that is labelled ‘free’ as suspicious, when users are looking to build a website they will likely give the concept of free web hosting short shrift. However, there are some significant upsides to using a free web hosting provider – so before you dismiss the concept, take a read of the list below.

- It’s free!

It may seem like an odd point to include in this list – isn’t it obvious that ‘free’ web hosting is, er, free?! – but it’s the aspect you should focus your attention on. No, free web hosting is not going to work if you are looking to make a lot of money from that website – but if you just want a small corner on the web, somewhere personal or as a small business listing, then the free aspect is important.

Essentially, there’s no point investing a lot of money in a website if you are not intending for that website to make you money – so it may be worth putting up with the minor inconveniences a free web host provides, and using your money elsewhere.

- Support for beginners.

Most free web hosting providers have their own support forums, which are moderated by their own staff as well as including posts from users of the service. This means you’ll have an immediate support base should you run in to any trouble.

- You don’t need to be technically experienced to build a website.

A lot of free web hosts offer WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) website building, meaning you don’t need to learn HTML or anything else complicated. You can just plug and play.