Choosing a Web Host - 3 Questions to Ask Before Signing on the Dotted Line

When you're in the market for a web hosting company your first inclination is to go with the cheapest. After all, when you look at their sales pages they all seem to offer similar features and services. If they're all the same you might as well pay as little as possible right?

Wrong.

You have to compare a lot more than just prices when choosing a web host. Below I've listed 3 questions you should ask yourself before you commit to a hosting provider.

1. Do they provide enough space and bandwidth for your site? Sure your site is tiny now, but its going to grow quickly. Do they offer enough disk space to fit all of your files? If your site becomes really popular will you go over your bandwidth limit?

2. Are they reliable? All web high risk hosting suffer occasional technical problems or server issues that can cause your website to go down. These outages are temporary and can be expected with any host. But if your sites are down for long stretches of time you've got a problem. Look for a host that guarantees uptime of 99% or greater.

3. Will they be available when you need them? If you're having trouble installing a script or your website goes down at 9:30 PM on a Saturday you need to get a hold of customer support. If they are only available from 9 to 5 on weekdays you're out of luck. Look for a hosting company that provides live customer support 24/7. You want to be able to pick up the phone and reach them quickly in case of emergency.

The best way to tell the good hosts from the bad is by reading web host ratings written by actual customers. Read about the good, the bad, and the ugly hosting providers at http://webhosting/youcompareit.com