Choosing a host can be a daunting task, especially with so many options out there promising the best performance, support, and features. But making the wrong choice can lead to slow load times, frequent downtimes, and endless frustration!
This blog post will go over some of the common mistakes people make and end up regretting:
1. Focusing Solely on Price
While it’s important to stay within your budget, choosing a web host based solely on price can lead to subpar performance and features. Cheaper hosts often cut corners in areas like having poorly trained offshore customer support (if you can even get ahold of them!), questionable security, and slower overloaded servers.
Instead of focusing solely on price, consider the overall value you’re getting and the expectations you are after. Sometimes, spending a little more can save you significant headaches and additional costs down the line!
2. Not Checking for Hidden Fees
Sometimes the advertised price isn’t what you’ll end up paying. Look out for hidden fees for things like no free migration’s, marked up domain registration, and expensive renewal costs several times the initial sign-up price.
Some other questionable practices bad hosts will try is charging basic expected functionality as addons like:
- Charging for Backup’s and restores
- Charging for DNS Hosting
- Not offering free LetsEncrypt SSL certificates
- Domain privacy is not complementary
- Low artificial limits, ie 5 email accounts
- Limiting advanced features for higher plans (SSH, addon domains)
Make sure you understand the total cost of ownership before committing to a plan.
3. Not Reviewing Server Location
The physical location of your server will affect the website’s loading speed and choosing a web-host closest to your audience is essential.
Some hosting providers such as Cosmos Hosting allow you to choose the location of your server to best meet your requirements. In their blog article What Hosting Location Is Best they discussed how to use tools such as Google Analytics to find where your audience is located and use Wonder Networks – Global Ping Statistics to find the best country to host from.
4. Not Investigating Customer Support
High quality customer support is crucial if you cannot afford to be stuck in the dark over a technical issue, especially if you’re not very technical or if you run into issues outside regular business hours.
Many people make the mistake of choosing an web-host with unsatisfactory support and end up waiting days for a fix.
Look for providers that:
- Offer 24/7 support through multiple channels such as live chat, phone, and email
- Have local staff and not offshore call-centres
- Staff are well training and don’t simply escalate issues into a blackhole!
- Test their responsiveness and expertise by asking a few questions before signing up.
5. Not Reading Genuine Customer Reviews and Testimonials
Research customer reviews and testimonials to gauge the reputation of the hosting provider is essential.
Do be careful that reviews you read are genuine, some hosts incentivise reviewers to leave feedback through affiliate programs and even post fake reviews themselves!
Look for feedback on performance, customer support, overall satisfaction and how they handle incidents. Reliable third-party review sites such as Trust Pilot and Product Review can provide unbiased opinions.
Conclusion
By doing due diligence and avoiding these common traps you are likely to find a high quality web host.
If you haven’t already, consider looking over our Recommended Providers for suggestions on the best hosts we deal with