Things to Remember When Choosing a Domain Hosting Provider

Updated May 2, 2018

How to Choose a Domain Hosting Provider

Choose the right domain hosting provider by understanding the key differences that will help you decide on which one is right for you.  Questions asked and answered will help you decide right, the first time in choosing a hosting company.

Most business owners know the importance of creating high quality online content and they have finally begun to understand that in order to take their business to greater heights, they must develop a responsive website.  When business owners decide to set up their new website, they face a decision: “Who should I choose for domain hosting?”

Selecting a domain hosting provider is a big deal as everything from the security and speed of your business website, to its uptime and stability depends on the choice you make!  According to the digital director at Wingard Creative, Adam Berry, “Great hosting boils down to the three S’s: speed, support and security”.

If you select a domain host and set up your website only to realize that another host could have provided better services, migrating your website can be extremely difficult.  Choose a wrong host and you’ll end up with hours of headaches and a loss of your valuable dollars.  But, if you choose a great domain hosting provider, you life will be a breeze! So, how do you choose the domain hosting provider that is right for you?

KnownHost’s Shared Hosting offers 99.99%+ Uptime – Packed with Features, Fast and Reliable. Hosting has Never Been So Good!

Domain Registration is Often Paired with Web Hosting

Tandem

Domain registration is generally nothing more than paying a fee for someone to register your blahblah.com or mememe.net type of name so that when that name is searched for, or clicked somewhere, online, it will resolve to your website hosting and your web pages will be served to the masses.

The trouble is, sometimes poor web hosting companies get their hooks into domain registrations and make it extremely difficult to get that domain moved to another domain hosting provider, just as they make it nearly impossible to get files, images, emails, databases, and more, migrated away (once a customer realizes they are of poor quality).

Choosing a domain hosting provider generally means making a smart choice about website hosting – and living with the two (domains and webhosting) with one single company.

The purpose of this article is to help you understand some of the ins and out of deciding about domain hosting, and more importantly the website hosting that goes along with it.

Know the Web Hosting Server Types

Shared Servers

Shared servers provide the cheapest hosting where hundreds of sites are run on a single box. In this case, your site’s performance depends on the total load that all other sides put on the domain host.  Shared hosting can have limitations, so be forewarned.  Also, the differences between the cheapest shared providers and more capable, managed shared hosting and managed shared cloud hosting providers (like KnownHost) are massive.

Virtual Private Server (VPS)

A virtual private server (VPS) is divided into virtual machines acting as independent dedicated servers.  Customers using VPS options are sharing a server, but they all have greater portions and more control than people who use shared servers.  VPS’s can be traditional (physical drives), SSD (with high speed SSD technology) or Cloud (which an vary from NAS to SAN to SSD – check your storage types to see the differences – SSD is what you want in the cloud).

Dedicated Server

If you do not wish to compromise the performance of your site by sharing it with other websites, then a dedicated server is the right option for you.  With a dedicated server, you get an entire server just to power your site or applications. You have total control over the architecture meaning that you can customize load balancers, operating system, security systems, and more.

However, this kind of dedicated love does not come cheaply and you’ll have to spend dollars if you want to choose a dedicated server.

What Kind of Site You Are Building?

The total amount of server load or expected traffic affects the type of domain hosting server plan you would want while the type of site you are building determines the features that are most important for it. For example, some domain hosting providers, promote functionality of eCommerce websites while others are more focused on SEO and blogging.

How Much Traffic Do You Expect?

Generally domain hosting providers will charge you based on bandwidth and storage usage. If you expect that only few people will visit your website then bandwidth will obliviously be low. But if you somehow make it to the first page of a Google search and your services go viral, your website visitors will increase and you requirements of bandwidth will increase.

If you think that your website will attract a huge amount of traffic, don’t pick a web server or virtual private server as you won’t be able to get the performance you desire from these servers with large amount of visitors. Instead, choose a dedicated server to meet your requirements.

How Much Storage Does the Domain Host Provide?

The total space your site is given for its content is called storage. This includes all your databases, web pages, videos, images, etc. If your site is not heavy in content, you likely won’t need a large storage.

• Many hosting companies claim that they provide unlimited space. However, you must ask yourself, “Do I really need unlimited space?” If you are not creating a content-rich site, you really don’t need unlimited space.
• You must choose a domain hosting provider that gives you room to grow and expand. We recommend that you find a host who offers you a storage space that can handle 20 percent growth within one year. Some domain hosting providers offer more space as businesses expands, so choose after carefully considering your storage requirements.

Consider the Support Features

When it comes to choosing a domain hosting provider, customer service factor is often ignored as many people don’t realize that technical issues and down-time can seriously impact their visitors. Always check the customer support section of each domain host provider to determine the type of customer service they offer.

• 24/7 live support is an ideal customer service and you should search for a domain hosting provider that offers this level of service.
• Never choose a domain hosting provider which only offers a support form. You most likely won’t get any response to your requests and suffer from endless hours of headache.

Consider the Speed of Connection

Speed is one of the critical components of great hosting. If the server takes too long to respond, your website will be slow and the visitors will click that ‘X’ button before your webpage even loads.

Server’s speed is often linked with the total bandwidth limit. What this means is that if a particular server is offering unlimited bandwidth to customers, it will put many websites on a single server which will reduce the speed. To test the speed of connection, find some websites that the domain hosting provider is hosting and test the time it takes for the website to load.

• Ping a website to determine the time it takes to send and receive packets. This will give you an idea about the speed of the server.
• Some domain hosting providers also feature popular website to advertise their hosting services. These websites can also be used to test the host, but don’t think that your website will have the same speed as those websites.

Consider the Cost

Cost Must be Balanced Against Features

When you compare hosting packages, check the extra features that might not be required by you. Domain hosting providers bundle different kinds of expensive services and products with their packages, but they aren’t always useful. Make sure to pay for only what you need- nothing extra!

Free Hosting Isn’t a Good Idea

Many companies offer free hosting, but the features and services that come with free hosting are severely limited. Moreover, free hosting is much slower   than paid hosting.

Now that you know the essentials of choosing a domain hosting provider, you are all set to get your website up onto the internet. Focus on all the things discussed above to choose a domain hosting provider who is willing to stick by your side in your team of need and will make your life a breeze with its hosting services!