Webmaster Knows all

Shared hosting is a phrase used to describe hosting many web sites on a single server. Finding the right shared web hosting provider can be crucial to your web site. Features, reliability and price will all be important factors in your eventual decision.

Haphazardly grabbing the cheapest hosting plan you find without taking time to do proper research may cost you more hair than you originally intended. It really is all fun and games until you spend hours on a major push or promotion to get your site moving only to discover that your hosting provider is having technical issues that may not be resolved for a couple of days.

That being said people tend to focus on three main things when considering shared hosting plans. Bandwidth, storage and price. While it is good to make sure each of these vitals match your needs and financial limits there are other things to consider in your search.

Important Features

When considering a new place to host your site make sure the prospective provider has all of the features you need. Things like web based email, unlimited email accounts and unlimited add-on domains can be important to how you will be able to manage your web based properties.

Advanced scripting and database technologies like PHP, MySQL and ASP should be considered as well. The hosting companies support of these technologies may increase the range of open source and commercial software you have to choose from should you decide to base your site on a content management system, e-commerce platform or blogging script.

Good Support and Well Maintained Servers

Make sure your new prospective hosting provider will be able to provide the support you need. This is variable depending on how comfortable you are with hosting. Some will need twenty four - seven and 7 day per week phone, email and ticket support while others are comfortable with just being able to submit tickets.

If a host does not maintain the software and hardware it uses to host your site you will find that you suffer more from down time and may even be more susceptible to hacking attempts. Save yourself the frustration and make sure your hosting provider is running current versions of the features mentioned above. If the software is old it is an even bet the hardware is leaning toward ancient as well.

Conclusion

There are plenty of solid hosting companies out there that offer amazing features for a very respectable price. Technologies have worked together to make web hosting cheaper than ever and with a little research you should be able to find good home for your web site.