There is no doubt that some hosting suppliers are better than others, so how do you ensure that you sign up with a good one?

 

The first point to remember when looking for cheap web site hosting is that the price heavily advertised is the cheapest price offered by that company and although they quote a monthly fee it is not quite that simple. To get the cheap web site hosting you will need to sign up for a long period (up to three years) and pay a significant period in advance. You may not be able to cancel during this contract period. If you do not wish to commit for such a long period the monthly cost will go up. There are suppliers who will let you actually pay monthly with no ongoing contract but this will not be at the cheap web site hosting rate you see advertised.

 

You might think that cheap web site hosting means a compromise in quality. This is not necessarily the case. There are many reputable companies offering a fully functional service at a low cost. Unfortunately there are also some just out to make a quick buck.

 

Cheap web site hosting is based on shared hosting which means that many users are hosted on a single server sharing the resources of the server. Such website hosting plans can offer excellent capacity, quality and security and offer cPanel with email, FTP, MySQL databases and in some cases even a free domain name. A good shared hosting service is all that is needed by most websites as this will provide the cheap web site hosting you want (but businesses should consider virtual private server hosting). To find good cheap web site hosting you should consider the following:

 

As you are sharing a server with other users you can be affected by the actions of others. It is important that the hosting supplier doesn’t try to maximise profits by putting too many users on one server.

 

Many packages now included “Unlimited” disk space and bandwidth. Obviously this is impossible and should be thought of as meaning “reasonable”.

 

Support is a key issue that can be overlooked at the outset. Very cheap web site hosting will not look such good value when you have a major problem with your website and you cannot get a sensible response from your website hosting company.

 

Choosing a cheap web site hosting service can be a nightmare simply due to the number of options. There are many review sites as well but they cannot cover all the market and tend cover the same major players but then reach different conclusions.

 

You should look at sites like hostjury.com that collect information on hosts and look for independent feedback on the web. Ultimately I would recommend making good support a higher priority that price when making the final decision.