Web Hosting Plans

Every webmaster needs a web hosting plan. If you’re only running a few websites off one or two domains, then you might be able to get by self-hosting. But, once you own and park ten or twenty domains, most of which have their own website, you’ll need a web hosting plan with some strength to it, one that uses contracted resources to supply your web hosting needs.

Affordability is not the sole consideration for a website hosting plan. You must be certain that the plan you pick has all the features you need. Two criteria you must consider when judging a plan are reliability and availability. Will the web host be up 24×7 year round? Will anyone trying to reach your website be able to do so? If the web host you select cannot meet these criteria, you will lose potential customers and you will lose actual revenue. You want to have people all over the world able to access your website at any time of the day; you want a customer working their way through your order process to complete the process.

Know the basics of web hosting and evaluate the offerings of a web hosting service against those basics. Consider both the cost and the operational aspects of the service. A service that is almost free will likely not measure up on the operational side. A service that is expensive might provide more function than you can ever use. Neither is a good choice — your choice must be based on how your own web hosting needs will be satisfied at an appropriate cost.

Unlimited web hosting for a flat monthly rate with no limits on bandwidth, on data storage or on the number of domains may sound like a great deal. But, understand that, if an offer seems too good to be true, then it IS too good to be true. A web hosting service may offer all these parameters, but what you get will not be what’s been promised.

Unlimited plans are usually based on a shared server model, where what you get is your own Virtual Private Server along with everyone else on that set of hardware. Sharing a server means that data storage is shared, bandwidth is shared and individual website performance is reduced. A web host oversells the service, betting that not everyone will be using all the hardware resources at the same time — do you want to risk your business on someone else’s bet? One huge website on that server will make performance awful for every other website on that shared server.

It is possible that an unlimited plan may place you on a dedicated server that’s just for you. Still, the operational performance of your websites will depend on the limits of that piece of hardware — and you cannot be guaranteed, unless you’re paying thousands of dollars a month, that the hardware is a four-star top-of-the-line high-performance server.

Buying a limited shared-hosting plan will cost much less than any of the unlimited plans and will delineate the exact terms of availability, storage, bandwidth and uptime that you will receive. The web host company is required to meet those terms — if the company do not, then they must pay you a penalty or reduce your monthly fee, whichever is spelled out in your contract.

Let’s look at a typical example. Say that the total storage for all your websites and databases is about 1 Gb in size. The bandwidth you need for customer access to your site is the same order of magnitude. You own ten or twenty domains that all point to the same website or you have twenty or so domains each with its own website — it won’t make much difference which way you go because, to the web hosting service, parked domains and add-on domains are treated the same way. What type of web hosting plan would suit you then?

In a good web hosting plan for the above example, both data storage and bandwidth should be specified for at least 1Gb with options for expansion as needed. FTP and email accounts should be unlimited. Both parked and add-on domains should be allowed up to a number both you and the web host find acceptable. Configuration should allow for ten or so separate databases, with an option to graduate to a new maximum number of databases. If your website structure requires much more than fifty 1 Gb+ databases, then you should consider using a dedicated server rather than participating on a shared server, though the costs of going dedicated can be 20-30 times as much as going shared.

The effort spent in researching and evaluating web hosting plans will be well worth the time spent. After all, we’re talking about the success or failure of your business.