Things to keep in Mind before Opting for a New Web Host

With hundreds of web hosts available today which more or less offer same price and features, it has indeed become very hard to select a reliable web hosting service. Often, webmasters especially the new ones are confused and they tend to make a wrong choice. Here are a few possible things or rather questions which you need to research before selecting any web host for your website :

What is the Up-time ?

This is without a doubt one of the most important thing you need to figure out before selecting a web host. Obviously, it won’t please you to find your website down at the most important days. So what to do ? It is advised that you ask different web hosts what their up-time is. Now obviously web hosts will say that they have close to 99 percent up-time but you should ask for statistics. A reliable and a good host will surely have required stats with some third parties for example Alerta. Ask them how long the stats were recorded and how often the websites were checked.
Also don’t forget to ask about their scheduled downtime.

Is your hosting company a reseller?

This is important. You won’t want to deal with middlemen but deal straight with the host to avoid future problems. Moreover support will be quick and timely.

Do they own their own Data Center or not ?

Sometimes, the web hosting company own the servers but not the data centers. Although, it isn’t absolutely essential to have own data center but it speaks volumes about reliability. A decent web host will always invest money in data centers and will make sure they have control over everything on their servers.

Do they keep their servers up to date?

This is often the case in case of unmanaged servers. Some web hosts may rent you unmanaged server which has not been updated for quite some time so it will be useful for you if you can ask them when was the last update done. his will prevent you from future frustration.

How much time does it take to replace broken hardware?

Sometimes hardware failures can occur. You need to ask your web hosting company how much time does it to take to change the hardware which has been damaged. Ideally you wouldn’t want to wait for more than few hours unless the failure is really severe.

What softwares and services are supported?

Ideally, all web hosts post what all services and softwares they offer but unmanaged won’t especially unmanaged VPS hosting. So in case you are opting for unmanaged hosting you should dig a little more and ask what server software they use either Lightppd or Apache and what sort of control panels do they offer. You won’t want to regret later when you have already spent your money so research more.
There are probably a few more things to keep in mind but the important ones have been listed above. Happy hunting for your potential web host. Good luck.