Price – Generally speaking, you should be able to find a good shared hosting plan for between about $2 and $15 per month.
Hosting Technologies – There are different types of server technologies, and a number of “add-on” software products that some web hosting companies bundle into their offerings. Generally speaking, the more software that is included in your plan, the higher the price for your hosting services.
Support – Depending on your level of sophistication in dealing with web technologies, you may want to consider paying a bit extra for a hosting company that provides better support packages. Of course, if you have a friend or family member that has skills in this area, or you are planning to hire a custom website designer or developer, then you can probably forgo paying extra for support.
When you are starting out with a new website, your primary concern with a web hosting company is going to be price. You do not need to pay a lot of money for extra bandwidth or other frills. By the time you need extra bandwidth, you will have the income stream to pay for it.
Web Hosting Technologies
Your primary concern with web hosting technologies is to make sure that the host you select supports the software you plan to use to create and serve your web pages. You will also need to make sure that any additional features you want on your website are supported by the hosting company. Server Technologies – For new site owners this is usually not an issue, since most hosts support all the common website technologies. However, if you are hiring a web developer to build a database-driven web application using PHP, Python, Node.js or ASP.NET, make sure your hosting company supports whatever your developer is using. If you have questions, the sales or support team at your prospective host can probably answer them.
Development Technologies – If you build your site with a particular tool, such as WordPress or a website builder, make sure your host supports it. Most hosts offer one-click WordPress installs, and many include a free site builder. If you are unsure, the sales representative or support team should be able to answer your questions.
E-commerce/Shopping Cart System – If you plan to sell products on your website, then you will want to select a web hosting company that offers a shopping cart system. Most shopping cart systems are customizable for your website. However, you may want to hire a seasoned developer to handle implementing your system to make sure everything goes smoothly.
Contact Forms – One of the most useful features for new websites is a contact form, which collects information from your visitors and sends it to you by email. Today nearly every website builder and WordPress theme includes contact forms, so this is rarely a problem. Since collecting information from visitors is one of the main purposes of most websites, make sure whatever you use supports them.
Different Ways of Hosting Your Site
It is generally recommended that you purchase web hosting from an established web hosting company. There are, however, several options for web hosting.
Shared Hosting – This is the recommended starting point for most websites. With a shared hosting plan, your site shares a server with a number of other sites. By far the cheapest way to get a site started, shared hosting is ideal for low-volume, low-bandwidth sites. Pricing for these types of plans ranges from about $2 to $15 per month. You have no involvement in maintaining the server or its software; all you have to worry about is your website. The negatives of shared hosting are that you share the server’s resources, and you can potentially be affected by other websites on the server. If one of the other sites suddenly receives a lot of traffic, your site’s performance may be affected. It should be noted, however, that this is rarely a problem with good hosts.
Dedicated Web Server – Once your site starts getting a significant volume of traffic (i.e. more than 3,000 unique visitors per day), you may want to think about moving up to a dedicated web server. This is where your site is the only site on the server. The benefits are that you can generally choose what software is installed on the machine, you have access to 100% of its capacity and bandwidth, and you are not affected by other sites on the server. On the negative side, you will pay much more for this sort of service, easily well over $100 per month. Many sites move to a VPS (virtual private server) first, which is a middle ground between shared and dedicated hosting.
Rack Space – Leasing rack space (also called colocation) gives website owners the most flexibility and security, by letting them buy whatever hardware and software they need. On the other hand, you are responsible for buying, installing and maintaining your own server. If your server goes down in the middle of the night, the hosting staff will generally reboot it for you (for a fee), but you are responsible for making sure everything is working correctly. Servers can easily cost several thousand dollars, plus you will pay your hosting company for bandwidth and other services. This option makes the most sense for companies with very high traffic, or for those that need highly specialized server software that must be custom configured.
On-Site Hosting – By far the most expensive option, on-site hosting requires that you are very familiar with maintaining web servers and are available to fix problems 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. With this option, you are your own hosting company, and you pay not only for the servers, software and technical support, but also for business-grade internet connections, DNS services and other complex things that are generally out of reach for small start-up businesses. The most compelling reason to host your own website is security. Organizations such as payment processors, banks and other services that need to audit their own security measures sometimes choose this option.
In conclusion, you can get a website up and running for less than $30 per year. The more traffic your website gets, the more you will pay. You will also pay more for higher levels of service, support and software. Make sure your web host supports the tools and technologies you use. Highly specialized sites, sites with large amounts of traffic, and those that must meet certain security standards may need dedicated servers that cost more than shared hosting plans.