Deciding on a web hosting company nowadays can be confusing with all the options to choose from. It used to be that making the choice was easy since it only involved settling on a hosting company that had been in the business for a long time. However, things have changed. Now, you need to be pickier with your choices and do a bit of homework if you want to hook yourself up with a dependable hosting company.

If you have made the initial step in setting up an Internet business, you are now probably in the stage where you have to choose a web hosting company to house your site. Doing relevant research will prove valuable for you and your company. It is always an advantage to be able to make the right choice the first time since moving to another web hosting company can equate to additional costs, lost time and loss of valued customers due to the downtime involved in setting up another web host.
 
These are some of the essential factors to consider when choosing a web hosting service.

1) Type of hosting services. A web hosting company may offer two kinds of services: free hosting and virtual, or shared, hosting. Free hosting is for whose with small, non-business sites and do not expect much traffic. Disadvantages include: no usage of domain names, limited technical support, unreliability of servers and software, limited web space and technical support, and host may shut down without notice.

Virtual hosting, which is also known as domain or shared hosting, is the commonly used and the most cost effective hosting form. It offers good technical support and is great for average business sites. However, there are multiple number of sites utilizing the server so updates are slow. Security and control are likewise limited due to large number of sites on a single server.

2) Features. When doing research for a web hosting service, check the features offered. The following are some of the features that a web hosting should have: adequate disk space, 2,000 GB bandwidth, site builder, instant backups, no contract, 99.9% uptime guarantee, 30 day money back guarantee, free/instant setup, FTP accounts, MySQL databases, CGI, Php4 & 5, SSH, Perl, Chilisoft ASP, Python, SSI, Email, Control Panel Features, Web/FTP statistics, and E-Commerce features, among others.

3) Speed and reliability of the servers and hardware. Make sure that the web hosting company you’re planning to employ has a high-speed connections, preferably T3 or higher.

4) Backup systems. Verify with the web hosting company if it has a back up system on standby to guard against power failures.

5) Quality of the support services. Inquire if the web hosting company has big customers using the service. Ask existing customers for feedback on the company’s reliability and support. Also, be sure you can indeed contact them anytime by phone or email.