Best Web Hosting for 2010
What do you look for in a good web hosting company?
You need to consider all of the factors when choosing your web hosting provider - not just cost, but service, reliability, and of course, features.
The last thing you want is to get stuck with a bad web hosting provider. Here are a few things to watch for when choosing:
Cost
Cost is obviously a factor, but it's not the only factor. If you find a hosting company that is charging $3.00 for web hosting - watch out! They will either up-sell you on additional services that you don't need, or charge you extra for services that you thought were included. Even worse - their customer service may be lousy. On the opposite end of the pricing scale, you have hosting companies charging $20+/month - that's outrageous and just too high for most people looking for a web hosting company. So what's a good price? Shoot for somewhere between $6-$15/month. If you find a web hosting company that is priced in that range, chances are, you've found a web hosting company that knows what they're doing.
Control Panel
A good control panel is an absolute MUST. Don't skimp on this. The two best control panels today are cPanel for linux hosting and Parallels Plesk for Windows hosting. If the hosting provider you're looking at doesn't offer one of these, you should look elsewhere.
Customer Service
So you've just set up your small web site and it's humming along nicely. Then, all of a sudden, you start getting an error message on one of your web pages - but you didn't change anything! You'd better hope you your web hosting company offers good customer service or you're in for a roller coaster ride to you know where. Before you sign up, why not test out their customer service? Send them an email or give them a phone call to make sure someone (preferably from your country), picks up the phone. You'll run into issues with even the best web hosting companies, so make sure the one you choose provides outstanding customer service!
Money Back Guarantee
This one goes without saying. If a company doesn't offer a money back guarantee, stay away! When a company offers one, it's like they're saying - "Go ahead, give us a try, we're confident that you'll love our services". Web hosting companies that don't offer a money back guarantee are saying - "We don't care about our customer's experience once we have their money".
