Special Offers
Although the cost of hosting a Website differs from one provider to another and while there are so many cheap options available, it is worth pointing out that there is not very much difference between the overall hosting price charged by many excellent host. As a result, it may be difficult to choose a host based on price alone. However, finding good deals and special hosting discounts from quality Web hosts may just make it easier to make up your mind.
Package Features
This refers to what you get in exchange for the price you paid. A quality hosting provider will make use of the latest technology and implement it in a simple and easy-to-use fashion. There is no point in paying for a service that you cannot work with. I have seen this so many times when a client pays so much for hosting without the developers consent and then finds out that the platform and interface are almost totally unworkable.
cPanel
A cPanel is a Web hosting control panel that consist of various graphical Web management tools for tasks such as adding/ removing email accounts, file management, administering SQL databases, online HTML editors and templates. As far as I know, an excellent Web host should provide easy Web management tools therefore a cPanel is a must have.
Unlimited Space
Always look out for unlimited SQL databases, Subdomains, FTP accounts, Bandwith Email accounts, Mailing lists and so on although many Web administrators (including myself) have found out that this is not always very practical in certain cases which I will discuss in other articles. This is particularly useful for scalability purposes.
Customer Support
This is a very important factor to consider particularly because you will need technical assistance from time to time. Although many Web host have 24hours telephone line service, some of them are quite expensive and you might be put on hold for a long time before actually speaking to an agent depending on how busy they are. To get around this, always look for hosts that have a 24 hours chat line where you can discuss various issues bothering on Account, Billing, Sales or Technical matters.
Windows or Linux
When it comes to choosing between a Windows or Linux hosting platform, particular requirements will have to be considered. Watch this space for more on this Windows and Linux hosting platforms.
Talking Point
What factors influenced choosing your current Web host and what is the single most important point that new Web administrators should look out for when finding an excellent host?