Find The Best Web Host:
Finding the best web host for your website or blog can seem like a daunting task however we’ve designed this guide to help you find a cheap and reliable hosting provider with ease so let’s get started!
What to look for in a potential hosting provider:
Web Hosting Uptime: Your website is your online presence and you need a host with great uptime. There are thousands of web hosts out there but not all of them have a great reputation for uptime. Uptime is measured in a percentile. A web host that offers 99.9% uptime what you’re looking for to ensure your website is online and operational. That being said, you as a consumer have no way of independently verifying if the host actually has a 99.9% uptime rate. Your first approach should be to ask the hosting company if they offer an uptime guarantee and if so what does that entail. Do they actually you credit you back for downtime and is it a credit on your account or an actual refund? You’d rather choose a host that has a better uptime percentage than a host with a lower percentage that offers a credit or refund because in the end the refund would work out to a few dollars or even less depending on your price plan with them.
To give you an idea of how much downtime you can expect with specific percentages take a look below:
- 98% uptime = 28.8 minutes/day or 3.4 hours/week or 14.4 hours/month or 7.3 days/year
- 99% uptime = 14.4 minutes/day or 1.7 hours/week or 7.2 hours/month or 3.65 days/year
- 99.5% uptime = 7.2 minutes/day or 0.84 hours/week or 3.6 hours/month or 1.83 days/year
- 99.9% uptime = 1.44 minutes/day or 0.17 hours/week or 0.72 hours/month or 8.8 hours/year
In reality every server goes down at some point. Whether your host is doing maintenance or having actual server issues you’ll experience downtime in some form. The goal is to choose a web host that offers a minimum of 98% uptime and has a good track record. We review hosts constantly at HostReviewSite so check out our hosting reviews section to get the latest information on uptime/downtime. Another thing to consider is how well your host keeps their customers informed of server issues and downtime. There’s nothing worse than going to your website and finding out it is down without any insight or updates from your hosting company.
Most web hosts have a status page where you can see the history of their server issues and how fast the issues were resolved. Checking a web hosts server status page will give you a good indication of their past issues. If your host informs you that they are doing maintenance your website will be offline but at least you can prepare your visitors and possibly even put a notice on your website so your customers are informed. In general communication from your web host is key.
Hosting Plan Cost:
In general cheap hosting is considered paying $5.00/month or less. Almost all hosting companies offer monthly, 1 year, 2 year and 3 year billing cycles. The longer term you choose the cheaper the monthly price point will be. Since almost all hosts or at least the ones we review offer a full 30 day money back guarantee I always advise people to choose the longest billing cycle based on their budget so you can get the best band for your buck and if you’re not satisfied you can always request a refund within the money back period.
Hosting companies will also give you a free domain name if you signup for a 1 year plan or higher which is a savings of $15 right off the bat. Knowing your budget and choosing a billing cycle to match that is the best approach. If you’re on a tight budget you can always choose a monthly billing cycle which may be slightly higher and then switch to a longer billing period down the road.
The cost can go up substantially as you move to a VPS or dedicated server but for shared hosting plans any host that offers a plan with the features you need under $5/month is a suitable option. Prices will vary from host to host but one thing you want to make sure is that your price is locked in. many hosts advertise a low price for the first year but you’ll later find that the price jumps upon renewal. As your potential host if your price is locked in and if the price stays the same as long as you host with them.
Hosting Plan Features: