Choosing Web Hosting Companies Without Making a Costly Mistake
Web hosting companies all promise incredible features for next to nothing. Then you launch, traffic spikes, and your site collapses under the pressure. A baker I know ran a holiday promotion, emailed two thousand people, and watched her order page go down within minutes. Support replied three days later. The cakes sold out anyway, but only because she started taking orders by text message. Cute story. Expensive lesson. 
Read the Uptime Promise With Suspicion "99.9% uptime" sounds flawless. It actually allows nearly nine hours of downtime a sf website design year. The next tier, 99.99%, shrinks that to less than an hour. More important is what happens when the company fails to meet that guarantee. Do you get a service credit? How much? A promise with no penalty is just a marketing claim. Check the Support Team First Open a chat window and ask something a little uncomfortable. "What's involved in moving my site here, and what happens if the site goes down?" Time the reply. Judge the tone. Did you get a link, or an actual explanation from an actual person? Someday you'll be typing to these folks at two in the morning, trying to fix an emergency. Pick people who sound human. Look at the Renewal Price The intro price is only the beginning. Plenty of plans increase substantially after the first term. The renewal rate hides in the small print, so check it carefully. Then ask yourself whether you'll still be happy with the deal in year two. Ask Where the Backups Live Daily backups stored on the same server as your site are like storing your only spare key right outside the same house. Ask for backups stored somewhere separate from the hosting server. Ask how long a restore takes. Ask whether it costs extra. If the answer to that last one is a vague response, walk away. Pick a Hosting Plan That Fits Your Needs Shared hosting suits a small website or a new blog. Your neighbors share the same resources, though, and one resource-hungry site can slow everybody down. If you sell products or expect traffic spikes, look at a VPS or a managed plan. Upgrade paths matter too, so find out how straightforward it is to switch tiers later. Always Have an Exit Strategy Can you move your files and database without a headache? Are there fees to leave? Keep your domain name registered in your own account, separate from the host. That way, if things go sour, you can leave with everything you need instead of trying to negotiate your way out of a locked warehouse.
Read the Uptime Promise With Suspicion "99.9% uptime" sounds flawless. It actually allows nearly nine hours of downtime a sf website design year. The next tier, 99.99%, shrinks that to less than an hour. More important is what happens when the company fails to meet that guarantee. Do you get a service credit? How much? A promise with no penalty is just a marketing claim. Check the Support Team First Open a chat window and ask something a little uncomfortable. "What's involved in moving my site here, and what happens if the site goes down?" Time the reply. Judge the tone. Did you get a link, or an actual explanation from an actual person? Someday you'll be typing to these folks at two in the morning, trying to fix an emergency. Pick people who sound human. Look at the Renewal Price The intro price is only the beginning. Plenty of plans increase substantially after the first term. The renewal rate hides in the small print, so check it carefully. Then ask yourself whether you'll still be happy with the deal in year two. Ask Where the Backups Live Daily backups stored on the same server as your site are like storing your only spare key right outside the same house. Ask for backups stored somewhere separate from the hosting server. Ask how long a restore takes. Ask whether it costs extra. If the answer to that last one is a vague response, walk away. Pick a Hosting Plan That Fits Your Needs Shared hosting suits a small website or a new blog. Your neighbors share the same resources, though, and one resource-hungry site can slow everybody down. If you sell products or expect traffic spikes, look at a VPS or a managed plan. Upgrade paths matter too, so find out how straightforward it is to switch tiers later. Always Have an Exit Strategy Can you move your files and database without a headache? Are there fees to leave? Keep your domain name registered in your own account, separate from the host. That way, if things go sour, you can leave with everything you need instead of trying to negotiate your way out of a locked warehouse.