Web hosting has become such a huge business nowadays, with multiple companies offering ridiculous prices on their hosting packages, that it has become extremely difficult to pick a winner from a pool of several candidates. Almost all hosting companies offer multiple freebies and features with their web hosting packages. In addition, shared and virtual server hosting has become so incredibly cheap that anyone with a tight budget can still buy the hosting and keep them for years.
This article goes over the main features to look out for in any hosting packages to determine the most appropriate solution for your business or personal needs. Some website projects can run efficiently on shared hosting which some websites demand no less than a virtual private server. In other occasions, the operating system requirements may differ. Linux is the most widely used hosting platform, however, some specialized needs may only work on a windows server.
Disk Space
Some web hosting companies tend to advertise their plans as unlimited or unmetered. That, however, does not mean that you have petabytes upon petabytes of space at your disposal. Disk space usage goes together with how much memory and processor cycles the website scripts consume. It is always advisable to go for a web hosting space that meets or slightly exceeds your requirements. You can always upgrade your packages later as the website grows.
Bandwidth
Once again, many web hosts advertise their bandwidth offering as unlimited, but at the same time restrict your usage based on CPU and memory cycles. For a personal website, 10 megabytes to 50 megabytes of bandwidth per month may suffice. A corporate website may consume anywhere between 20 megabytes to 100 gigabytes of bandwidth per month.
As with the case of disk pace, it is best to choose a bandwidth package that slightly exceeds your current demand and upgrade this feature as needed in the future.
Uptime
The holy grail of hosting is uptime, and this is considered the main feature of any web hosting package. 99.9% uptime per month is considered the industry standard nowadays; anything below this percentage is unwelcome. However, majority of companies falsely advertise their uptime percentage, even if they do not succeed in meeting this promise.
Industry experts recommend reading reviews about hosting companies on review sites, blogs and forums before signing up with any hosting plans with any company.
