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Website Hosting

The first step in creating your website is to choose a hosting service. You need to be prepared to make several decisions. I'll try to cover them here and then recommend some hosts.

So how do you pick a host? It's not easy. I have recommended a few on this page, but that is after spending a lot of time researching it. 

You get what you pay for

This old proverb certainly holds true with website hosting. Cheap hosting usually equates to poor technical service and frequent downtimes. When you have a problem with your site, you don't want to have to wait 24-36 hours for your host to fix it. When you exceed your bandwidth limits, you want a friendly email, not the termination of your account. If a host promises you the moon for pocket change, keep looking because they can't deliver it.

Marketing hype

There is plenty of marketing hype in hosting advertising. Watch out for:

• Unlimited bandwidth — There is no such thing. Somewhere, probably on the terms of service page, the small print will explain the usage restrictions that apply. For instance, no cgi/Perl scripts, download restrictions, no reselling, etc. You may wonder why I recommend Burlee when they have an unlimited plan. I used them for several years. Their service is good, and they go out of their way to point out the limitations of the unlimited plan and to explain that it is for simple sites.
• Discounts for one-year contracts  — If you are unhappy with the service you are receiving six months into your contract, you won't be getting a refund. When you first sign up, pay one month at a time. If you get down the road and like your service, consider paying 3 months at a time, but no longer.
• "Top Ten Hosts" claims are usually bogus. The hosting directories such as TopHosts.com recommend hosts that I wouldn't go near.

Narrow the list

The best way to narrow your list is to spend several weeks reading and participating in discussion forums. Participants in these forums are usually other webmasters who have been through the same process you are going through right now. The two forums below have special sections for hosting issues.

• SitePoint has a forum for Webhosting & Domain Names. I used to serve as a moderator at this excellent board.
• InfoPop.com - This is from the people who bring you the Ultimate Bulletin Board (UBB or InfoPop), one of the most widely used discussion forum software products. InfoPop is a resource hog, so webmasters who have implemented it need fast and reliable hosting. ScriptKeeper.com includes a special forum about Web Hosts and ISPs. I have learned a great deal here.
• Webmaster forums has a special section called Web Hosting.

These sites provide useful information about finding a host:

• forumhosts.com
• Host Compare
• Host Help
• Better Business Bureau

These sites DO NOT provide useful information about finding a host:

• ISPcheck
• TopHosts.com
• Web Host Guild

Resellers

A reseller is someone who does not own his own web server but offers hosting services. There are several different ways to accomplish this:

• Lease a dedicated server and resell virtual accounts. The Server space is dedicated to you as the reseller and to your customers.
• Sign up with a host that allows you to resell virtual hosting. They charge you a discount of 2-50%, and you can resell the accounts at any price. Server space is shared with other resellers or customers.
• Sign up with a host that offers discounts for multiple plans.
• Sign up with a host that allows you to resell sub-domains such as yourname.com/custname. Some even let you redirect custname.com to yourname.com/custname.

So what's the point about a reseller? You may not be able to tell if you are hosting with a reseller or a true hosting company. 

Investigate. Look up the year they got their domain name to try to get an idea of how long they have been in business. Why does it matter? If your reseller doesn't pay the fee for your site or if he goes out of business, you are just as stuck as if the host went out of business. If your reseller has been in business two-three years, you will probably be in good shape. Most business fail within the first year.

You need to evaluate your risk and risk tolerance. If you lose your site for some reason, it will take 2-5 days to get restarted with a new host. 

I host six sites: three with a true host and three with a reseller. The true host sites are key to the operation of my business because they control my email. I want uninterrupted email service. The three reseller sites are important, but not mission critical.