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What you need to know before you choose a Web hosting company

These are some tips based upon my experiences, which should help eliminate unexpected grief when considering a new Web hosting plan for your own Web site. If you are a blogger, developer, or designer who already has a Web site, then you probably know that the journey to finding a quality Web host can often be a frustrating experience. If you are not proficient with Web technologies, and are instead a bit more budget oriented, then you may have already discovered that with a Web hosting plan, what you pay for is exactly what you get.

In the previous seven years I have hosted my site with numerous Web hosts, taking advantage of the most basic, to the more advanced features offered. It has taken almost as long to learn what truly makes a great host, as well as how to find one. It is no coincidence that as I write this I am researching a new hosting plan for myself. If this Web site crashes again amidst a flurry of traffic, then you will know why. I hope the following tips help prevent for you some of the stress I have suffered over the years.

Awards are a marketing tool, not a measurement of success

The Consumers’ Choice Award™, Good Housekeeping Seal, Motor Trend Car of the Year — receiving these recognitions elicits a warm-and-fuzzy response across the Internet. You may not take them completely at their word, but you are more trusting of a recommendation from one of those institutions. Unfortunately, with Web hosting companies, awards like this are not so helpful. Of those hosting companies I surveyed, from the highly prestigious, to the fly-by-night, many boast awards that are unrecognizable by name alone. I have my doubts even for the few that claim fame based upon a solid review from the likes of CNet.com or PC Magazine. Hosting infrastructures change so rapidly, that an award last year could carry little weight at the present time. Never base your choice upon awards alone.

Bandwidth is not an exact science

A major selling point among Web hosting companies is bandwidth. The bandwidth usage limit for a mid-level shared hosting plan will be around 1500 GB. Doing the math for a single page that has a total weight of 100 KB, including all images, scripts, CSS, and HTML, will equate to approximately 500,000 visits per month, or an average of 16,130 visits per day. At first glance, that is not too shabby. Yet, how many people do you know that only have a Web site containing a single page? You are also forgetting that several people may visit your site frequently. If the user has caching turned off in their browser, then every time they visit they are using up your bandwidth. Also, if you are running dynamic applications on your server, then you need to consider the bandwidth used by database queries. An inefficient query may pull extraneous information that is never rendered in the browser, which uses bandwidth unnecessarily.

Finally, remember that although you may be well within your limits, a spike in bandwidth can quickly crash a server or bring it to a crawl. Web hosting companies are quick to point out that you are on a shared hosting plan, and that receiving a better than average number of simultaneous users in any given day will create congestion. Before you finalize a hosting plan, inquire about this scenario. You will either get a guarantee in writing, be directed to a Terms of Use agreement, be asked to consider a dedicated server, or find yourself researching another host.

The dark secret behind database query limits

If you ever wanted a refund for your current Web hosting plan based solely upon an undisclosed technicality, then I would start with database queries. You will not find any mention of database query limits advertised with the plan you purchased, and the Terms of Use is probably silent on the subject as well. For those of you unfamiliar with the concept — any time a Web application (e.g. - Wordpress) gets, updates, or inserts information into a database, it is considered a query. If you are on a shared hosting plan, then the number of queries that can be made to your database is likely limited. Even if you never surpass your bandwidth limit, if you exceed the number of queries allowed, then your Web site will crash.

The limit with my current Web hosting plan is 50,000 queries every hour. At first glance, this seems to be an adequate level to sustain an average, steady stream of traffic. However, as bloggers recognize, it is rare that traffic is steady. More often than not, some posts garner a significant amount of attention compared to others. If I estimate that Wordpress uses 10 queries for every user that hits the homepage of this blog, I can sustain 5,000 users in an hour. Not surprising then, that the two times this site has crashed, it has been because StumbleUpon featured a post under the Computer tag, and Digg featured a post on the Digg.com homepage. I garnered on average, 7,000 visitors for each of those separate instances within an hour. Be sure you get the details on these database query limits before you sign up with a Web host.

99.9% uptime means 3+ days of downtime, not including maintenance

As much as we dislike reading the long-winded Terms of Use associated with almost any paid membership, when choosing a Web host, this is the one time you should read them. The primary legal protection set forth is that there is a strong possibility your site could be down for more than a day, and the Web host will not be responsible for financial losses incurred during that time. Any Web hosting provider that promises 99.9% uptime, is actually indicating that during the course of a year, your site will go down without recourse, for up to 3+ days. The caveat is that this does not include scheduled maintenance for servers. A quality host will notify all members when maintenance is scheduled in the event that your Web site could be affected. However, there is little you can do to stop this from happening.

Your best defense — read the Terms of Use. Sometimes, these will include provisions stating that if the span of downtime is greater than 24 consecutive hours, they will refund one day. This is an important aspect of any Web hosting plan, and you should consider it carefully.

Customer service is a necessity, not a nicety

I would love to believe that I will never have to call customer support or technical support after choosing a Web host, but my experience tells me otherwise. The best method for determining how good (or bad) customer support is with any Web host is to use Google. You will need to narrow your choice of hosts down to two or three options. Then, search for the name of each company followed by several combinations of keywords, like “customer support”, “customer service”, “technical support”, “experience”, “bad experience”. You get the point. No Web host is perfect, but you can quickly weed out those companies who have a less than stellar performance.

With my current Web host, customer support by phone is horrible, and the wait time has never been under 25 minutes. However, I did eventually figure out that support via Live Chat is outstanding. I never wait more than a few minutes, and the majority of issues are resolved immediately. I discovered this fact by searching on Web forums, which I arrived at through a search engine. You will need this type of information to make an informed decision.

Prepayment is almost always a relinquishment of the right to a refund

For all those budget conscious small business owners out there, you need to avoid the temptation to pay in full for a year on your Web hosting plan in order to save a few extra dollars. This is a gimmick with almost every Web host I know of, and it is unfortunately a setup. If you pay in full, you will receive a discount, and maybe some perks like additional storage space or bandwidth. However, you have unwittingly entered into a game of chance. If you are unsatisfied, and decide to cancel your contract before the year has expired, then getting your money back is hardly a given. If you want to be sure, again, read the Terms of Use before you buy. You may not find specifics, but instead you will read a broad interpretation of the conditions surrounding a possible refund. If you still are not sure, then call the sales department. Better still, utilize Live Chat, since many give you the option to email the transcript of the chat to yourself. If you are promised a refund in this context, then you have hassle-free proof of the conversation. This will give you the assurances you need in choosing a Web host.

A backup plan is the only permanent solution

I do not mean to insinuate that all Web hosting companies are crooks. There is simply an inherent risk in doing business with any service provider. The reason is that with any service offered, you typically lose the one thing you cannot get back — time. Occasionally, in the worst of these times, you even lose data. That is why a backup plan is so necessary. The first step after choosing a Web host, is to search for an alternative. You could find yourself in a situation where you need to make a switch at the spur of the moment. Spending a week to do the research is rarely an option.

Next, you need to know how to backup your files, and any data stored in a database. Ask your Web host about phpMyAdmin, a popular PHP application that can easily backup and restore a MySQL database. If you do not have the technical aptitude, then find a friend who is a Web developer that can assist you with the task. Several basic instructions can be found online demonstrating how to use phpMyAdmin for this purpose. You should perform backups often, probably once every week if you feel your data is sensitive! A backup plan like this should be a permanent solution.

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