Best Web Hosting Service - How to Find It.

Endless space on blogs, forums and chat rooms is taken up with people asking the same question - "What Is the Best Web Hosting Service".

The truth is - THERE ISN'T ONE.

There are literally tens of thousands of companies selling web hosting.

None of them are the "BEST" at everything.

It's the old story - Good, Fast, Cheap - pick any two.

Trouble is, just about everyone wants all three.

You need to decide what out what are the most important things to YOU, and then choose one of the hundreds of companies that provide the services you need, at a price that you are prepared to pay. Unless you have unreasonable demands, this is usually pretty easy to do.

Some things to consider when choosing a Web Hosting Service:

• Is Price important - you'll find that charges can range from free to hundreds of dollars a month
• How Much Disk Space do you need - many sites need only a few megabytes - others need hundreds or even thousands of times as much.
• How much bandwidth do you need - A mom and pop craft store would need only a tiny fraction of what a video streaming site would need.
• How important is reliability. If it doesn't matter that your site is unavailable 99.999% of the time then a cheaper host could be fine for you.
• What sort of site do you have? Some cheaper hosting sites put a thousand or more websites onto one server. If you have static web pages, this may be fine. If you run a busy database driven blog or forum, expect many complaints about the S--L--O--W ness of your site.
• What is the service like? Contact a few hosts with a query, and see what response you get.
  You're more likely to receive good service from a larger, recognised company than from a 16 year old kid running a hosting server from his wardrobe.

DO:

• Ask your friends, business colleagues or industry association who THEY host with, and whether they are happy with their Web Host.
• Pay a visit to http://www.webhostingtalk.com and read customers' experiences with their web hosting companies. Often the reality is very different from what they tell you in the advertisements.

• Remember that choosing a host is an important business decision.
  You're not just buying a cup of coffee - you're selecting a partner in your business.
  If your host has problems - your business suffers. And it can be a real hassle to move elsewhere.

DON'T

• Take much notice of web hosting service review sites.
  These sites imply that they provide independent, objective reviews of web hosting services.
  In reality, they earn large commissions when people click a link on their site, or sign up with a recommended company. Some even charge hosting companies fees on a sliding scale, based on the level of recommendation.
• Buy solely on price. The old saying "you only get what you pay for" certainly applies to web hosting.
• Generally, higher priced hosting companies offer higher reliability, faster speeds, and better service.

For information about the different type of web hosting available, see my other hub at http://hubpages.com/hub/hosting_for_small_business

Good luck, Eric G.