What kind of hosting to choose? What should I pay attention to when choosing hosting?

Properly selected hosting is a guarantee of security and proper operation of every website. It also includes assistance and care from the service provider, as well as a quick response in the event of emergencies and crises. In the era of universal access to the Internet practically every company and more and more private individuals want to have their own website, so they face a choice - which hosting will be the best for me? There are a lot of offers on the market. Some tempt with a very low price or sometimes even no fees at all, others offer a very large amount of resources, yet others attractive additional packages and promotions. Which of the hosts to choose? This article is an attempt to answer that question.

What is hosting?

Before you start choosing the right hosting, it is worth explaining what it is. For many Internet users this knowledge is obvious, but for a person who is looking for a place for their first website, it is worth giving at least a shortened definition.

Hosting is a type of service that consists in making some resources of the server (in a simplified way - a computer) available to the needs of a given user. Speaking of resources, one should mean its computing power, as well as available memory. On the server that is offered as part of the hosting you can put your website. The quality of the server depends on how fast the website works, whether it is always accessible and whether it can be used at all during heavy traffic. As part of hosting, in addition to the server sharing itself, you can count on a number of additional services - data backup, support and technical support, disk space in the cloud and others.

Hosting - how much is it worth to pay for?

For many users, the basic criterion for choosing hosting is usually the price. However, you should remember that the most expensive offers are not always the best. On the other hand, many companies offer free hosting. However, it is risky to decide on such a solution, even if you want to put your own small private website on the server. In most cases, the quality of service is the same as the price and there is no guarantee that everything will work properly, and in case of problems the user will receive proper support.

Hosting for private use should not cost much - however, everyone should set their own maximum price, which they are able to pay. The maximum price for hosting, on which a company website or a website with high traffic intensity is to be placed, is about a few hundred zlotys. There is no point in paying more, because you can already count on a comprehensive service for such an amount. This does not mean, however, that such a service cannot be purchased cheaper. Much depends on the current market situation.

What can we expect from hosting?

A server that is rented out is usually an ordinary computer that has a certain amount of ram memory, processor and specific computing power. The ideal situation is when only one user uses a given server, but this is a more expensive solution. Most often the server (learn about server solutions) is shared with other users. Before buying the service it is worth asking how many users are sharing the server and what can be the effect when everyone is using the maximum available resources at the same time.

Parameters worth noting are also the amount of available disk space and the amount of transfer. More storage space is a guarantee that you can put a lot of data, high quality graphics or other files there with confidence. The amount of transfer should be given special attention by people whose websites generate a lot of traffic. The bigger the transfer, the more users can comfortably use the service.

These are the basic parameters, the proper selection of which will allow you to comfortably use the hosting for the majority of users. More advanced users should also pay attention to the number of domains supported (if they want to have more pages on one server), FTP accounts, number of email accounts or database accounts.

Additional hosting services

In addition to the price and technical parameters, it is worth paying attention to additional services in hosting. This includes data backup - the more frequent the data, the more secure the data. It is also worth asking for technical support and its scope. You can also find out if there is a 24-hour telephone service or if there are only certain hours of help available. Generally speaking, the quality of service is no less important than the technical possibilities offered, so before making the final choice, it is worthwhile to get information, for example in Internet forums, about the service offered by a given hosting.

Tailor-made hosting

The offer of hosting services on the market is very wide. Each of our clients has a very large possibility of adjusting the hosting to their needs. Therefore, before making the final choice it is worth to carefully trace the market and decide on a "tailor-made" hosting needs. Sometimes a more important aspect will be the price, sometimes the technical possibilities offered and sometimes the assistance offered, which may be useful especially for novice users.