Choosing the best web hosting for small business can be a somewhat daunting task. The key is to have the basic knowledge of what the many different resources and features can do for you. Here you will learn what you need to look out for when looking at various web hosting companies.
Know Your Project
There is no shortcut for this. The first thing you need to do is take a good, honest look at your own product and decide what your needs are, what traffic you expect and how complex it might be. This step, having thought about the need for future scalability, current needs, and other points is what will be the most helpful when deciding the other factors. Here are some things you want to consider:
- How many websites you will need.
- The size of your project will require.
- The expected traffic.
- The level of complexity.
- How self-sufficient you are.
Once these are out of the way, the picture will be much more precise. Now here’s what you need to look for when trying to find the best web hosting company for you.
The Resources
The first thing you need to consider is the raw resources that you will be starting out with. If you need a little bit of help deciding, chances are you will be looking towards shared hosting options. For this article, we will set aside VPS, Cloud hosting and other high-end, high-power services. When looking into shared hosting, the main things to consider are bandwidth, the number of websites and the amount of processing power, memory and disk space.
The processing power and RAM will dictate how fast certain applications work on your website. The disk space will govern the actual size while having good bandwidth will ensure that you won’t run into any downtime during high-traffic periods. The balance of these resources depending on your needs are a large part of what can make or break a potential best web hosting for small business.
Features, Databases, Emails and Other Whistles
First of all, we should take a look at the basic options, that touch on fundamental website building. In this case, it would be database management systems, the ability to gain FTP access, SSH access and the quality of the control panel.
Depending on your project, the control panel might be the most important aspect of this. That’s where you are most likely to spend most of your time navigating. Having a panel that will be powerful, functional and easily navigable, may be the difference between a service that will be good for you and not work at all. Next up, database access software should be taken into account.
A good benchmark is checking if the provider supports PHPMyAdmin, which is arguably the most popular database management tool. From there you can see whether FTP access is available or can you only use a file browser, and a similar factor.
With the main technical things out of the way, lastly, you should consider extra features. Maybe you need a domain-based email client? That’s an integral part of an online brand presence. What about SSL security? Might be worth investing into a provider that gives this feature for free. WordPress optimization, other CMS use should also be a significant factor in making your decision.
Decide what you wish to work on and whether the web hosting provider you are looking at works well with that platform. While you’re at it, look for extra goodies, like a free domain name that might come with a plan, an SSL certificate or daily/weekly backups. Going back to the very start, you need to know your project and what are it’s needs. If you’re a beginner webmaster considering the need for a fully managed service with customer support can be crucial.
The Verdict
There can’t be a definitive answer to the question “which is the best web hosting for small business?” Projects are different, features are different, and needs are different. Having that in mind, some places are better to start out with or maintain a long-term relationship with. In this case, the two major factors are scalability and flexibility.
A great option we want to mention is Hostinger’s shared hosting service. It covers all the basis mentioned in this article, offers unlimited bandwidth, websites and a host of other features. Hostinger makes scaling easy and offers other services like VPS hosting, CMS hosting and cloud hosting. Beginner, intermediate or advanced webmaster, you should Hostinger out.
Now’s the right time to choose the best web hosting for small business. A 90% discount is something you should not miss. Huge price cuts do not affect the available features and overall web performance. 🙂 A great deal on great tools, what more could you need?
Features & Benefits:
- Guaranteed 99.9% uptime.
- Superior speed performance.
- Powerful & user-friendly control panel.
- Free website transfer, they will help you.
- Unlimited hosting means truly unlimited.
- Easy-to-use website builder.
- 30-day money-back guarantee.
- Daily backups (Cloud, VPS), weekly backups (Shared).
- 24/7 dedicated live-chat customer support.
PS: This post is a guest post and contributed by Rafael Hertel, a passionate writer on web hosting. To start a new blog or a website, hosting partner have an important role. Thanks for providing a bit more clarity on choosing the best web hosting for small business.