Posted on Sep 17, 2014

What Metrics Are Important When Choosing Your Hosting Plan?

What Metrics Are Important When Choosing Your Hosting Plan?

 

When you’re buying hosting for your website you’ll have to decide which package to buy. They will vary in price and also performance. But what metrics are important when choosing your hosting plan? And what features and add-ons can you ignore?

 

One thing you won’t be short on is choice. It’s like someone going into a coffee shop for the first time. They will see a board containing loads of options with indecipherable names. But it is still all coffee. And if the coffee shop chooses they can make the choices simple: big cup or small; sweetened or not; almond milk or soy; strong or subtle.

 

This article explains the important features of a web hosting plan.

 

Technical Specs

 

The main technical specifications that you should find out about are disk space and bandwidth. This applies to all servers. If you’re buying a higher end hosting package you will also need to consider RAM.

Simply put: the bigger the number, the better the performance. Bigger numbers also mean a higher price. Disk space is about the size of your website, while bandwidth and RAM are about the amount of traffic that you get.

 

Types of Server

 

The most basic type of server is a shared server. They typically have smaller disk space and bandwidth allocations than other types of server. They are also usually the cheapest option.

 

The next stage up is often a VPS. On this sort of server your website is allocated more of the resources. The values of those resources can vary though, which means you will probably have several VPS options to choose from.

 

A dedicated server is up another stage. With a dedicated server your website gets all the resources, which is why it is also the most expensive option.

 

You can also get specialist hosting tailored for certain uses. Managed WordPress hosting is one of the most common. It makes the job of building and managing a website using WordPress easier.

 

Room to Grow

 

The decision you make on all these options will depend on the traffic you currently get to your website and the amount of traffic that you’re anticipating. Your website hosting provider can help you make these estimates.

 

But you can get estimates wrong, particularly if your website is more popular than you anticipate. It is therefore important that you can scale up your hosting to add more resources as your site gets bigger.

 

FTP Access

 

FTP access is important if you or your developers need a high level of control over the files and configuration of your website. Most modern websites will need FTP access.

 

Email Functionality

 

If you want your emails formatted like yourname@yourcompanyname.com your hosting provider will need to provide email functionality. The biggest consideration with email is the level of security your host has in place to prevent spam.

 

How You're Going to Build the Website

 

If you plan to build your website with a site builder then consider the tools included with your hosting plan. Many people use a CMS like WordPress or something similar. If this is your approach, it’s helpful if your hosting provider includes simple installers so you can get up and running quickly.

 

Technical Support

 

The levels of technical support available for your hosting plan will vary, usually depending on how much you are paying. This can range from 9-5 email support to 24-hour telephone support.

 

Price

 

Finally you’ll have to consider your budget. This is about finding the sweet spot – cheapest is rarely best, and the most expensive often contains more power and features than you’ll ever use.

 

After reading this you’re probably envious of the baffled coffee shop visitor mentioned earlier – at least she gets to drink a nice cup of coffee once she’s made her choice. So let’s join her – grab a cup and then follow this plan:

 

  1. Decide on the type of website you are going to build (platform, size, etc.)
  2. Think about how much traffic you’re likely to get
  3. Talk to your website host about your options, focusing on the key points mentioned in this article

 

So get caffeinated. And make sure you buy the right plan.

 

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