When searching for the hosting package for your site, you stumble upon a huge number of different packages with significant price variations. So how you compare, and most importantly how you choose what’s best for you.
The most important parameter is, off course, the total GB of storage provided. This will be, and keep in mind, not only the storage that will use for you site, but also for the mailboxes associated with the account. So even though you can, and surely will upgrade in the future, you have to accommodate also for this. A simple corporate site has little storage requirements, but e-shops and other services are more demanding in space. For normal email usage must have about 1GB per user/per year.
There is also mentioned in the hosting services another number that is critical for the uninterrupted functionality of the site: Bandwidth. This number is the total data transferred from the hosting server to the visitor and back. Although big enough for most cases, better prefer an unlimited option if available. A high traffic web site is benefited from this option, but if there are many concurrent users, an dedicated not shared hosting option is what you need.
Databases provided is a must in order to use any modern platform for creation (eg WordPress) and should match the number of sites on the package so there is not a site in the account lacking functionality. A simple thing to check but usually neglected.
Some hosting companies add value to their services with small additions. SSL certificates are a must to have from the start, as web sites are displayed as non secure at the browser’s input field, and some also create a warning screen. So SSL is provided for free (even the basic function) is a big plus.
Cpanel or Plesk are the User Interface that you control all the settings of your services. Both are using graphical interfaces, and are simple to use but due to the amount of control that provide are a bit intimidating for new users. Better leave the control of the option to more experienced users or professionals.
There are also 2 very important aspects of hosting services: speed & up time. Both are based on the infrastructure of the hosting company. Speed of the server is very important because it greatly affects user experience and up time is critical on some applications like e-shops and payment gateways as they have to be 100% of the time available.
With this small intro on Web Hosting Services you have a starting point to make your own compares.
