What do you look for most when choosing a web host?

J

JamesCWilson

New member
Just out of my personal curiosity, I was wondering what everyone looks for the most when you pick a web host.

Do you look for options and flexibility,free tools included with your hosting package, deals on domain names, storage space, bandwidth,customer service, or what exactly?

Obviously all of these things are great to have, but what is the most important to YOU personally?

As for myself, I think prompt Customer Service is certainly near the top.
 
agreed

JamesCWilson said:
Just out of my personal curiosity, I was wondering what everyone looks for the most when you pick a web host.

Do you look for options and flexibility,free tools included with your hosting package, deals on domain names, storage space, bandwidth,customer service, or what exactly?

Obviously all of these things are great to have, but what is the most important to YOU personally?

As for myself, I think prompt Customer Service is certainly near the top.
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James I must agree, support is the main priority. generally speaking though, I'd look for what I need more than what is offered. Writing down exactly what your requirements are and then searching is an efficient way to research. Reading reviews always helps too.

In regards to the topic, I's say support and a knowledgeable one at that is the main thing I would look for.

Cheers
 
For me, it would have to be uptime and performance. Give me that, and I'm likely to never contact support. :)
 
ldcdc said:
For me, it would have to be uptime and performance. Give me that, and I'm likely to never contact support. :)
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Same. Personally, I've never had much problem with the hosts I've had, so I'd never really dealt with customer service at all. I pay them...they host my stuff...end of story. After watching a couple friends go through disastrous messes with hosts, though, I can definitely see why support is a huge priority for some.
 
Uptime and performance are at the top of my list with customer service initially. Once I get the hang of hosting my own site I'd be liable to be less concerned with customer service. Some of the other things offered might be nice, but since I'm not sure I'd ever have need to use them its not a priority for me.
 
Uptime is highly important, and I agree even more-so after struggling with a bit of it tonight!

Thankfully that downtime didn't last too long, but it was still definitely irritating...considering i'm trying to grow my forum community and all!!!

Ahh well, what can you do I guess :(
 
Good support tools to let me help myself, and good support people to help me when I've gone as far as I can on my own.

Fair, sound, ethical policies and methods of doing business.
 
I guess the most important thing in choosing a hosting company is the work of the servers,their stability and professionalism of the support team.
 
I've noticed alot of people focused on the support of a company, as a company with no/bad support can lead to a whole mess if you are prone to needing assistance with alot of things.
 
A company with bad support can be a problem for someone who's starting out off of, say, Geocities or Livejournal, and has little or no web page experience outside of using FrontPage.

A company with no support can also be bad for the small businessperson, who may really need a web presence but (depending on their business) may not have the experience to create one themselves, and may be too busy working on their own business/learning their own industry to learn how to create and maintain their website. Sure, there's always Google; but there are only so many hours in a day. An entrepreneuer has to have some idea of what's going on everywhere in their business. They may not have the time to learn how to fix their own transmission or build their own quality web site.

A company with no, or bad support, can also be problematic for those folks who only have occasional - and more advanced - problems and questions. Many times I can google the answer to a question. Other times I've found conflicting information and need to know what will work...and don't care to test possible solutions on a live server. Still other times, the problem is time-sensitive enough that I need someone to fix it right away.

So yes, good support is important. The definition of "good support" will change from person to person, though - just as will the definition of "good web host" or "good reseller provider".
 
Agreed. I look for the following:

1) Features (space,b/w,freebies)
2) Support (phone support is a must)
3) Prices
4) Number of years in the industry
5) Uptime
6) Reputation (need to know if they are known to be a poor/lousy host or a known-to-be-good host)
 
I also advise the people who start buying new hosting plans somewhere to pay attention to the AUP of the company with which they sign up a contract because this is also a very important issue. :)
 
My starting point is reliability. I find out the uptime, performance of a potential web host through un-biased reviews. I find out the experience of existing clients. I then look at other factors like customer support, hosting features, cpanel of web host, security, price etc.
 
My starting point is reliability. I find out the uptime, performance of a potential web host through un-biased reviews. I find out the experience of existing clients. I then look at other factors like customer support, hosting features, cpanel of web host, security, price etc.
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You are right,megawebs :D
 
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