Good web hosting: How to find the perfect web hosting provider for your website.

If you have asked yourself this question many times, it’s because you understand that choosing a good hosting for your website depends on different factors. In this article, we will clarify your doubts and help you choose the most suitable for you. Relax. Learn how to choose a good web hosting?

If you don’t know what web hosting is, you have come to the right place. Today we will give you the knowledge to be the next expert to choose the best for their business or next venture. We know that there are a lot of free advertisements and announcements, and these can confuse you. But don’t worry, what you will learn in this article will prevent you from misstepping. What’s important about all of this, is that from the first step, you will know what you want for the company you’re trying to carry towards digital platforms.

First, it’s important to know whether a business already exists or is about to be established. Then, no matter what type of business it is, it can be a movie forum, a travel blog, or even an online clothing store. The best way to carry out a business is with open source applications based on PHP, such as WordPress, Joomla, phpBB, Prestashop, and Magento.

What is open source?

It’s a software development model based on open collaboration. It focuses on the practical benefits that we can get and on ethical or freedom issues in which free software can stand out.

We should remember that open source and free software are different elements. As stated earlier, open-source focuses on the practical benefits that we can get.

Free software, on the other hand, emphasizes ethical and moral issues related to software. However, both the software and the open-source are installed on a hosting server.

How is the Hosting server market? how to choose a good web hosting?

This stands out for being a low-cost market in which prices fluctuate. Therefore, there is a lot of competition.

The vast majority of providers compete for the price with sometimes very aggressive offers.

As a result, it speeds up the use of resources to propose prices for either small or large brands, which then results in the very usual practice of overselling.

What is overselling?

This practice is very common in many industries and within web hosting. It consists of allocating excessively limited resources to get a greater profit from the exploitation of said resources.

Now, once we have determined some key concepts of web hosting, we will define this term. Simply put, web hosting is an online service that allows you to make a website or application public on the Internet.

When you sign up for a limited hosting service, you are renting a space on a server containing all the files and data necessary for your website to function properly.

Do you know what a server is? how to choose a good web hosting?

It’s a computer that works so that your website is available all the time for netizens who want to visit it. Therefore, your hosting provider keeps the server running, protecting it from malicious attacks, and transferring its content from the server to your visitors’ web browsers.

Do you understand why it’s so important?

Choosing the wrong host can cost you your entire website, your visits, and more, so choosing the right one is vital.

Types of good Hosting

There are four types of server hosting that we will define later. These are shared dedicated, VPS, and cloud hosting.

Each of these accommodations has advantages and disadvantages. They differ from each other by their functionality, performance, and price.

In case you didn’t know, hosting providers offer plans based on a single type of server, on different types of servers, or on hosting services dedicated to some platforms, such as WordPress, which is one of the most used on the web.

Shared accommodation:

This is one of the most used accommodations and also one of the cheapest. With shared hosting, your website will be on a physical server that also hosts other clients. 

Among the points against this accommodation, we find that this type of hosting limits the client’s access to the server configuration and distributes the server. This then affects the connection, its speed, and also affects the Page loading speed.

How to choose a good web hosting?, Advantages:

• Low-cost service
• Easy to use for beginners, as it doesn’t require technical knowledge.
• Pre-configured server
• User-friendly control panel
• The provider maintains and administrates the server

Disadvantages:

• Little to no control over server settings.
• Increased traffic on other websites can slow down the speed of your site.

This is a good solution for a limited budget or for a website that doesn’t need constant updates.

Suppliers: Webempresa, Banahosting, Nominal.

Dedicated hosting

With dedicated hosting, the price increases significantly. You will get a server that’s not shared with anyone and you will have full access to the server’s configurations. However, this last aspect requires having skills and expertise to know how to manage network access or maintenance. Therefore, we recommend hiring experienced professionals if you don’t have these skills.

Advantages:

• Reliable and exclusive
• Very secure

Disadvantages:

• High-cost service
• It requires Technical and server administration skills.

Providers:SiteGround, Banahosting, Raiola NetWorks.

How to choose a good web hosting? VPS hosting

This hosting is a virtual private server (VPS for its acronym in English) that is shared on a physical server. This includes several virtual servers that host different websites of different clients.

Because it’s a private service, the cost is also higher, but it’s a good choice if your web project grows over time.

Advantages:

• Dedicated server space (without having to pay the price of a dedicated server)
• Increases in traffic to other sites doesn’t affect your website.
• Root access to the server
• Easily adaptable
• High level of customization

Disadvantages:

• Very expensive
• Must have technical knowledge (programming, certain applications) and server administration.

Providers: OVH, Nicalia, Time4vps, Raiola Networks, Hostinger.

Cloud hosting

We usually compare this to VPS hosting since the cloud server uses different servers and not just a physical one, so it is always active. So if one server fails, another takes over. Useful, right?

It also allows you to spread the load appropriately if your website traffic noticeably grows.

Advantages:

• Little to no service downtime.
• Server failures do not affect your site.
• Assign resources according to the demand of your web pages.
• You only pay for your use of the service.
• More flexible than a VPS.

Disadvantage:

• High costs.
• It doesn’t always provide primary access easily.

Suppliers: OVH, Vultr, FastComet.

Three basic things you should know before hiring a good hosting

Before hiring a hosting service, there are several questions you have to remember to choose the right one for you.

The domain could be part of the hosting service

To contract the domain for your hosting server you have two options:

Contract it as part of the hosting package, which has the advantage of simplicity because it’s all in one package. This way, you won’t have to worry.

Providers specialized in domains, such as GoDaddy or Namecheap, offer the advantage that they can be cheaper. They offer other possibilities and their interfaces are easier to use.

However, in case of having the domain and the hosting in different providers, through a simple configuration, the domain directs from its provider to its respective hosting server.

Different applications, different needs

One reason you could incorrectly choose the hosting service is by ignoring the difference between a “static” and a   “Dynamic” website. A static website consists of a collection of very simple HTML pages with fixed content. While a dynamic website generates its content on the server executing script programming language. This allows your website to change continuously.

Do you still have questions about what is a dynamic website?

Some examples could be discussion forums, wikis like Wikipedia, a WordPress blog, or an online store created with tools like Prestashop or Magento. They develop all these tools with PHP (hypertext preprocessor) and they present the same drawback: they usually use databases to collect all the dynamic information and because they execute PHP, these tools are much more demanding for the server.

On a static website, every time a user clicks on a page they are simply loading the corresponding HTML file, which is a simple process for the server. In contrast, on a dynamic website, such as a WordPress blog, every time they enter a page, a restart process occurs that updates the content of that website.

A server that receives many users from a static website can crash very quickly if what is hosting is a (dynamic) web application like WordPress. This is one of the most common mistakes when hiring a hosting provider: you contract a very cheap and small service that doesn’t cover the needs of the client.

A suitable operating system for your server

At this point many providers allow you to choose between Linux and Windows. However, for most users, Linux will be the best option since it’s considered the best operating system for web servers. To give you an idea: Wikipedia, for example, is installed on a Linux system.

If you intend to install web applications that use PHP, Perl, Python, and to use MySQL databases like WordPress or Joomla, Linux is the best option.

The reason for choosing Windows could be that you want to install applications based on Microsoft technology such as ASP.NET and SQL Server databases. In this case, they simply could not run on a Linux server.

Remember that if you have doubts or questions, you can ask them in the comments section.

How to distinguish good hosting

First, when you find the typical offers of “Hosting for $1.99 per month”, be cautious: no accommodation can have this cost. This is because good hosting needs good servers, good communication lines, and good technical support since sometimes technical problems will arise. Be wary of any hosting that costs less than $4-5 a month. This is the margin from which it’s possible to provide a quality service.

Many providers affirm in their basic offers that they support PHP applications and MySQL databases. Implying that everything is prepared to support applications like WordPress with no problem. However, what they don’t tell you is that the scarce resources of your servers will get you nowhere. As soon as you have a few users entering your blog at the same time, the server will be very slow and could even fail more than once.

It often happens with these providers that when moving to the “professional” options, resources are still scarce for what good hosting needs, not to mention that the service becomes expensive.

However, you can also get cheap and good quality hosting. Follow our advice and find it!

Criteria for choosing good hosting, how to choose a good web hosting?

• Refund guarantee

Of all the benefits of hosting, the most important is that it offers a refund guarantee.

Why?

This is because hosting cannot be valued with the naked eye and you may not be happy with your choice.

What does this mean?

That you cannot test the quality of hosting until you hire it. Then, you will have to find out if at any point in the service there is a refund guarantee to recover it and change hosting.

• The loading speed of the pages

The most obvious difference between bad and good hosting is the loading speed of the pages. We know that nobody likes a page that loads slowly and the longer it takes to load, the more likely it is that we will abandon it.

The effective speed of your website will depend on two factors:

• The quality of the servers and the communications network (Internet access) of your hosting.
• The size of your web pages
• Technical support

Technical support is one of the most underrated benefits in hosting contracts. People look at things that don’t contribute to anything like unlimited disk space. But they don’t value something as important as good technical support. Sometimes there will be many tasks and incidents that you may find difficult, which would make you waste a lot of time that good support could save you.

For example, when you gain visibility on your site, you may realize that you may be unlucky with attacks on your website and other aspects of your website. We recommend that you don’t leave out this last point, as a Good technical team can solve many complicated situations.

Very cheap hosting is impossible to have support to match it. The salaries of excellent technicians are an investment that you cannot afford not to do. It’s unlikely that hosting for $3 a month can offer you excellent support.

Regarding technical support routes, these are the most common:

• Through an online chat
• Via telephone.
• Via ticket system

In this last modality, you receive a service ticket to your request with a maximum response time of less than one hour.

Regarding this modality, after years of experience, at BluCactus we consider that this route is the best option. The reason is simple: it’s the most efficient if you have good support.

This is because phone calls waste a lot of time. For the inconveniences that aren’t solved instantly, phone calls and chats aren’t an option, since the constant interaction of these means doesn’t let the technicians work.

Therefore, it’s much more efficient describing the problem on the ticket and wait for them to resolve it without you pressuring them.

In summary, support is the most delicate part of hosting. This is where you will find out if you have bad or good hosting.

Here is an important tip: take advantage of the warranty period and test the support. Doing it is very easy: even if you don’t need it, pose some “silly question” or ask them to carry out a slightly more complex task, even if you already know how to do it. 

For example, make them explain to you how to create a second WordPress installation in a sub-folder and with a sub-domain. This way, you will know how they work and if it doesn’t convince you, you will be in time to claim your money back.

• Additional support for WordPress, Joomla, and Prestashop

The vast majority of users who want to create a web page, for example, a blog with WordPress, a website in Joomla, or an online store with Prestashop, have no technical knowledge.

Conventional hosting can be a problem because although most of them (except for free services) have a technical support service, conventional hosting doesn’t cover those things that go beyond the hosting problem.

What do we mean by this? how to choose a good web hosting?

They will help you with aspects such as the correct configuration of a domain, an attack on your website, and problems with the email of your domain, among others. However, if you find errors or other problems specific to the application, such as the “white screen” after installing a plugin with errors in WordPress. I am sorry to say that in this case, they won’t help you.

Therefore, if you don’t have good technical knowledge, we recommend hiring a service with additional support for popular applications such as WordPress, Joomla, or Prestashop. With good support you can solve any problem that comes your way, giving you peace of mind besides saving you a lot of time.

• Disk space, SSD drives, and unlimited space

Users highly value disk space. When they see an offer at the same price with 10Gb of space versus another with 1Gb of space they tend to almost automatically sentence the first as the best option. We’ll explain why:

First of all, apps rarely need a lot of space. For example, a newly installed WordPress blog takes up about 100 Mb of space. To use 1Gb of space you would have to have at least hundreds of posts published.

So with 10Gb or more, you would have much more space than 99% of users need over many years. The hosting providers know this perfectly, and that is why they even speak of “unlimited” space. This is, of course, a marketing trick to increase their sales.

Providers know that no one will consume a significant amount of space. If you consume a lot of space, you may get a notification with some kind of “unlimited” space offer.

There is cheap and slow storage, and expensive and quick storage such as SSD hard drives for high-service storage, which is what suits your website best for the additional speed it provides.

• MySQL and PHP databases, how to choose a good web hosting?

Almost all popular web applications such as WordPress, Joomla, or Prestashop are programmed in PHP and use a MySQL database, which means a strong pattern type in free software. For this reason, hosting also takes into account MySQL databases to allow executing applications developed in PHP.

However, there are two exceptions to this:

• Hostings specialized in other technologies such as Java or Microsoft .Net need a specific hosting. The applications developed with these technologies aren’t supported by the vast majority of standard hosting services.
• In very cheap plans, they sometimes exclude the use of MySQL and PHP databases. Therefore, in this plan, you will only be able to use simple HTML web pages.

Likewise, to hire a good hosting, review these two exceptions, or contact a Marketing agency to advise you.

• Administration tools

A suitable administration tool for your server is essential to work in excellent conditions.

We recommend cPanel, an excellent tool recognized in the web industry.

This tool makes it easy for you to switch from one hosting to another when you’re using both.

You will remain in an environment you already know, which also means further independence from your web hosting provider.

• Mail accounts, how to choose a good web hosting?

Another criterion when choosing good hosting is to check how many corporate email accounts they allow you to use.

We recommend remembering, once again, the needs of your project and the expectations for long-term growth.

It’s convenient that you also keep this in mind, despite not being as decisive as the previous ones.

• Security

This aspect is essential today because hackers are increasingly interested in invading people’s lives and discovering how they can harm it.

Now we will mention some ways to have secure hosting:

• “Anti-hacking” measures: these are elements of the hosting infrastructure, such as firewalls, that detect attempts to find out your administrator username and password. This would allow a third party to access your site to carry out wrong actions intentionally.
• How to choose a good web hosting? Protection against DDoS attacks: these are denial of service attacks, and can occur the moment you gain a little visibility. These are frequent and their only intention is to disable your website.

They are perpetrated by a group of people dedicated to this type of aggression. Sometimes there may be a more direct intention towards your website by “haters”, competitors or people who want to harm you.

• Automatic backups: a good hosting will carry out automatic backups frequently, at least once a day. That way you can recover your site with little to no loss of information.

We can implement these measures as if they were a simple application. But they can consume resources apart from those destined for installation and constant maintenance work.

• Unlimited domains, how to choose a good web hosting?

If you intend to create a second website or need to install a second application at some point. Consider the possibility of your hosting plan allowing you to use several domains. This is because they limit many of the basic plans to using a single domain. A second website will then require hiring an alternative plan.

However, good providers make it easy for you to create different domains even on the most basic plans with everything installed in the same hosting account. This will then save you that amount of money.

• Bandwidth, how to choose a good web hosting?

What do we mean by bandwidth?

This represents the physical capacity of the Internet connection that the web hosting provider has. The web-server on which we host our site influences this by the amount of information it supports and transfers.

We should divide the bandwidth between the sites that are hosted on the same server. We should analyze what type of information or file our website transmits. This information is available when we purchase a hosting solution, as providers usually provide it to us.

Choose the best hosting for WordPress. Which provider to choose.

After reading the criteria for choosing a good quality hosting. We’ll mention several WordPress hosting providers:

• SiteGround

This is the best premium option at prices that aren’t Premium category. Besides, this provider is very affordable thanks to a great initial discount for its excellent service and support.

It differs from the competition for its “premium” approach. This is manifested by the inclusion of features such as specialized application support or “staging”, which allows managing uncommon scenarios. All these features can be included from the smallest plans to a hosting offer designed only for very large sites with millions of visits.

Here we’ll leave the link to the official SiteGround page in case you want to investigate on your own: https://es.siteground.com

• Webempresa, how to choose a good web hosting?

In this hosting, besides providing the best web hosting services, it has a perfect balance:

affordable price, excellent loading speed, stability, security, and general support.

It’s specialized in applications such as WordPress, Joomla, and Prestashop.

It has been in the market for over 20 years, which manifests in its good operation, and it carries out backups approximately every 4 hours to avoid total loss of information.

• Raiola Networks

Raiola is a young Spanish company that in a short time has built a great reputation, like the other options we recommend.

Their general philosophy is like that of Webempresal. This company also has good technical support but doesn’t include support through live chat and they only address administrative or billing questions during office hours.

However, they have telephone numbers with their corresponding prefix for those who are within Spain, but if you’re abroad the cost of the call will be very expensive.

Because of this, we would place Raiola Networks slightly below Webempresa and SiteGround if we refer to services. However, it’s a little cheaper and has a much wider range of plans than that of Webempresa.

• Hostgator, how to choose a good web hosting?

Its main advantages are space, domains, databases, and unlimited data transfer.

Besides, it has technical support at very affordable prices in the initial discount

Finally

We want the best for you, so these are our best recommendations!

If you have any questions, you can express them in the comments section where we will gladly assist you. Also, you can tell us if you like our topics.

We also invite you to subscribe to our daily newsletter to receive news every week about what’s new in digital marketing and expand your knowledge.

At BluCactus we differentiate ourselves from the rest by solving your problems and providing you with a unique experience, as we want to see you grow and evolve in your next business or venture.

If, on the contrary, you already have your company and are looking to take it to the next level. Don’t miss the opportunity to buy our primary hosting and I assure you, you won’t regret it, we only recommend the best.

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