Sunday, April 1, 2012

Is The Cheapest Web Host The Best?

By Troy Jones


If this is the first time you look for a web host, you are probably looking at some of the cheapest ones. People that only own one site, both for personal or non profit, don't want to spend a lot of money on web hosting. So, what choices do you have, and what do you need to look out for?

The Cheapest Web Host Is Free

If you only have one site in mind, free is better than cheap, no matter how you look at it. There are many choices available, and free hosting has greatly improved over time. You can find plenty of free templates and tools offered by on line giants such as Google and Yahoo, that you can use to build your site with little hassle.

The only thing that could be considered a stumble in free web hosting is that you can't apply your own domain name. You have to operate within their domain and it is clear to savvy visitors to your site that you have set up on free hosting. Your site might also display ads for the free host. This is usually not a problem for someone owning a personal site, but it could pose a problem for a commercial site.

Shared Hosting Packages

Another cheap alternative to free hosting is shared hosting, which means that you will have your site on a server that also hosts others. There is no disadvantage to this in terms of your image, because somebody looking at your site would not know.

Shared hosting packages are available as low as $3 per month. But, some problems are possible.

Should you select depending on cost or quality?

If you are really hung up about cost, and you select the cheapest web host, you might possibly run into a few problems. The cheapest packages are usually trimmed somewhere, and that's usually in service. Downtime (no one can access your site) and less than desirable support are two of the most common problems found with some of the cheapest hosts.

Good technical support is essential when it comes to running a website. You will almost certainly have questions that you will want answered quickly and helpfully. And, certainly, good technicians cannot be hired by web hosts for cheap. This is one area where many cheap web host companies cut corners, and it can result in a lot of frustration for you.

It can be maddening enough that you will have no choice but change hosts. This means a lot of extra work and hassle. Moving sites is no easy thing, and you may end up experiencing some downtime while you wait for the DNS to resolve to the new host.

Staying away from the cheapest companies will avoid this type of hassle. You can get good shared hosting for a couple of extra dollars each month.

You can purchase the Hatchling plan offered by Hostgator for $4.95 a month, and have one domain with unlimited disk space and bandwidth. However, if you think that you will be hosting more than just one site, you might be better off with the Baby package. It will let you host unlimited domains for only $1 more a month. This company is not the cheapest you can find, but it is fairly inexpensive and reliable, and it ranks toward the top of our recommendations.




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