Offering web hosting services today is as easy as purchasing reseller hosting account from another webhost and you are into business. You will easily find lots of web hosting complaints or discussions by frustrated bloggers or webmasters on forums or social media sites like Facebook.
It’s always sad when your site goes offline due to server downtime or any other problems from your webhost. I once had a site deleted by my webhost without prior warning due to high resource usage on a shared hosting as a result of spike in traffic to my site.
A good web hosting is very important to the success of any website or business. Server downtime could potentially hurt your search engine ranking, user experience and could ruin all your hard work in general. The popularity of a web hosting company as a result of their consistent advertisements online does not necessary guarantee good services.
In this article I want to explain to you what most web hosting companies don’t tell you so you will be better informed while choosing a web hosting service for your website.
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How Limited is “Unlimited”?
It is common to see web hosting companies advertise “Unlimited This”, “Unlimited That. Be careful when you are falling for the unlimited features advertised on web hosting packages as most of them are just to lure you in.
There are always limitations in most “Unlimited” features in web hosting packages. It’s common to see unlimited bandwidths, unlimited disk space, unlimited Mysql Database, unlimited emails etc.
Most Shared hosting servers hosts other websites other than yours and as thus are allocated with server resources but sometimes you see some sites hog the server resources as a result of spike in traffic, poorly coded themes, plugins etc and this affects other websites hosted on same server.
Some web hosting companies like Arvixe will monitor your site for some days and then send you an email warning you of high resource usage and an impending site suspension if same problem persists.
Some other web hosting companies won’t hesitate to delete your site without prior warning. No web hosting company will tell you beforehand what actions they will take in such situation. So before you place that web hosting order, ensure to read the company’s terms and conditions or better yet contact the support and make your enquiries.
Find out from them how they have tackled other problems like this and what support they can offer in case such problem comes up from you someday.
So to avoid confusion and frustrations most web hosting companies have defined clearly the limitations of their hosting packages but you will never find them on the advertisement pages. So ensure to find out the limitations in the unlimited features before you purchase a web hosting plan.
How free are the “Free Domains”?
You often hear of web hosting services offering free domains once you can buy a hosting plan but what they will never tell you is that the free domain may not be really yours. Some web hosting companies will never tell you that you will have to pay a hefty sum of money to buy back a domain they gave you freely if you ever decide to abandon them.
You business may have been known by such domain name and now you are dissatisfied with their web hosting service, you can’t just walk away easily with the free domain they offered you, you may have to pay a huge sum of money if you want it or stay back with them.
So before you agree to a free domain, find out what will happen to it if you ever decide to leave. Ask questions and read reviews online for people that may have had an experience of such with the hosting company.
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Why The Higher Renewal Costs?
Another thing most web hosting companies may not tell you about their services is how much you may really be paying during your next renewals. While you may be enticed with a cheap first time hosting cost, the subsequent renewals may actually cost higher.
Ensure to read the full package description to find out exactly how much you will be paying for renewals. If you can’t find such information, ask the support via email or live chat.
How supportive is the Support?
You need to be sure there is a capable hand to help you solve your hosting problems when the need arises. Some web hosting services have a large and capable support staff to help its customers solve their technical issues while some others are run by just one person, no matter how capable they may be it may definitely take a very long time to address once problems.
You need to be sure you can reach the support at any time of the day and what methods you can use for fast support contact such as phone calls, emails or live chat.
Why don’t you really test how supportive the support can really be even before you purchase their service?
Conclusion:
From experience I have learnt not to obtain web hosting service from a reseller. The reseller does not really have control of the servers; he is simply being hosted by someone else. Always get as much information about a web hosting service provider before you buy any web hosting plan.
I have to admit that no web hosting service is perfect, no one can boast of 100% uptime; in fact anyone that claims to have a 100% uptime is only lying. Once in awhile there may be server downtime for some moments and a good support can easily find what the problem is and quickly fix it to get everyone back online just within the shortest period of time.
As you know I have been using Arvixe web hosting for a long while now, not just because of their awesome service but mostly because of their support. Arvixe has one of the best support staff I have seen in this business.
Sometimes they get your problem fixed even before you know of it. Arvixe may have it flaws but for their technical capability I may be here for a while longer.
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It pays to pay more ;) I pay for premium hosting these days because hey, I’d rather be live, than offline. Good points bro!
These are the things we must know before buying a web host. Being smart, wise and aware about this matter could help us work productively for the fact the they are easy to purchase.
Renewal prices are one important issue to consider. Many hosts will offer obscenely low prices to get you in the door, yet they are less than forthcoming about their renewal prices.
I believe, we should take time reading the terms and conditions before hitting the checkbox.
I have shared this comment in the content syndication and social bookmarking and networking website for Internet marketers – kingged.com where this post was found.
For me, I chose to host my blog on a web hosting provider that clearly defines their packages. It’s easier that as I know what the limitations are and as you said in your article unlimited doesn’t really mean unlimited with some web hosting companies.
I don’t use web hosting from reseller and never recommend it to anyone. Instead pay directly to web hosting company and get full support. Though its always better to clearly know about all features of your web hosting plans.
Thanks Nwosu, For sharing this vital information with us. I do agree with with you “Unlimited This”, “Unlimited That” are vague marketing words they used. So it is better to check all the limitations before buying any plan.
hi desmond. indeed i recommend this post to be sticky in your blog. you just wrote sensible “think before” case that should be considered before ordering webhosting. i really love arvixe. there good, render help and even give you grace period. most NIGERIANS Love any thing CHEAP AND FREE thats why we always have difficulties. thanks again for the post.
Before buying hosting service from any company, I read reviews to know what people have experienced and I have made very good decisions about my hosting needs that way.
Nice post.
Yes, that is why i never, i mean, never opt in for the freee domain stuffs from hosting companies, because when you decide to port, they’ll show you their real color and might go as far as telling you to pay +$100 for the domain movement from their host.
So anytime i come across issues like this, i always buy a testing domain name..
Great article, very very useful!
I’m agree with all you’ve said. Hosts tend to hide a lot of things. Maybe too things.
My friend was on BlueHost because he paid arund $5 per month with a free domain… imagine his face after one year when BH send him a $140+ of renewal costs!
This article can save money and time of a lot of people, great job!