The biggest challenge to anyone providing a service on the Internet is one of customer knowledge. It's helping customers to compare apples with apples. A phenomenon when dealing with online products, which appear to be more intangible, is people tend to forget that while these products are provided online, they are built on physical technology. This means that with hosting you most definitely get what you pay for. Expensive doesn't always mean best, but certainly cheap will generally mean cheap. Web hosting is competitive, and recently the basis of competition has tended to be price above everything else. As with any business decision, you should consider all the elements when choosing your hosting. I'm making the case that while price is a factor, it should be fifth on your list.
Packages from different providers mostly match features, so what distinguishes them? Lets have a look.
Speed - Web site speed is crucial. This is your company's face and you must make a good impression. The worst thing to have is a slow Web site. The key question is, in which country is your Web site hosted? If you target South Africa then you simply must have local hosting. Ironically, locally hosted is more expensive, but this is as a result of the low cost of US bandwidth. However non-local hosting means slow Web sites.
Traffic Allowance - How busy will your Web site be? The busier your Web site, and the more content, the more traffic is served. Most providers give you a certain traffic allowance and then charge you per Mb thereafter. This is fair as providers buy in the bandwidth. Bundled traffic is based on expected average usage, so what you must do is keep an eye on your traffic and ensure you are on a cost effective package with an economical amount of bundled traffic.
Disk Space - Space for your site is separate from the traffic served, and the amount of content you have will determine the disk space you need. You will be given an amount of space and then be charged for extra.
Reliability of the company - You should ask questions you would ask any supplier. However, being an online product with particular needs, there are specifics you should know, such as: Does the company have a landline number? Can you visit their premises? Check that you can. What is the company's main focus? Is this what they do or is it a sideline? How many people work there? Will you get qualified support 24x7?
Price - Once you've found hosting that meets your needs in terms of speed, traffic, space and reliability, only then compare on price. Then you'll be comparing apples with apples.
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