Hosting

Change Web Hosting Providers in 2020 and Use These 8 Principles to Find a Better One

There are 1.7 billion websites online right now.

The way that those billions of websites sit on the internet is that they’re all hosted on physical servers that are hard-wired into the World Wide Web.

If you’re reading this article, you probably knew that already. After all, assuming you’re a website owner, you’ve probably had to go through the stress of picking a web hosting provider to get your site up and running.

While we get that you probably don’t want to go through that stress again, we really think that you should change web hosting providers (or at least consider it) next year to cash in on price and performance upgrades.

In this article, we offer some tips on how to find the perfect host to switch to.

1. Do a Reputation Scan

There are a lot of web hosts offering their services online. While many of them are good and dedicated to providing the best possible customer experience, other hosts aren’t.

Of course, no bad web host is going to advertise on their website that they’re bad. They’re going to promise you the moon and the stars and the moment that your credit card gets charged, they’re going to burn you.

To avoid getting bamboozled on your hosting experience, do reputation research on any hosting provider that you’re considering before signing on the dotted line. People’s online reviews should be telling as to what you can expect.

2. Look at Pricing

One of the top reasons why people change web hosting providers is that they want to cash in on better pricing. If you feel like you’re paying way too much to have your website hosted, you’re going to want to make savings a top priority in your plan to switch.

Web host pricing isn’t too hard to find. Just go on a host’s website and they should have their rates promoted on their front page.

As a matter of fact, any hosting provider that’s being coy about letting you know how much they charge is A) A scam company or B) A company that’s targeted at enterprise customers.

3. Watch Out for Promotions

One of the absolute worst parts about getting a web host is the bait-and-switch pricing schemes that they use. You know what we’re talking about.

A host flashes a great price in front of you and then 12-months later when your account auto-renews, your price magically goes up by 400%.

To make sure that you’re not caught off guard by promotional rates, understand how much your web host will cost when you to renew and shop based on that price rather than their low initial promotional rates.

Some hosts have price-lock programs that promise to keep rates the same. If you can find a host like that, jump on their offer.

4. Consider Upgrade Options

Different websites have different hosting needs. As your website grows, you may very well have to upgrade from one kind of hosting package to another.

Consequently, picking a web host that offers hosting plans that you can easily grow into is a big plus.

In general, a good host will offer shared, virtual private and private web hosting packages.

If your host only offers shared hosting, you might want to think twice about doing business with them since you may run into problems if a server migration becomes necessary.

5. Think About Customer Service

A lot can go wrong with your website. Your web host’s customer service team can either make solving those issues a breeze or a nightmare.

Read reviews regarding a web host’s customer service team. If you’re seeing that their group seems to be made up of unhelpful people that pass around problems and aren’t domestically based, you’d do well to avoid all of that.

Sometimes, you have to pay a premium for a web host that offers exceptional customer support. In our opinion, that premium is well worth it.

6. Get The Full Story on Unlimited

Just about every web host offers unlimited bandwidth, storage, sub-domains, etc. What they don’t tell you though is that they reserve the right to mess with your site if they feel you’re taking up more than your fair share of resources.

Ask what your prospective web host’s policy is on taking full advantage of their unlimited services. If they tell you that they will slow your site down or take your site offline if you scale too quickly, move on.

7. Always Go With a Trial

When you change web hosting, try to switch over to a host that ticks the boxes we’ve discussed thus far and offers a trial. Any web host that’s not willing to stand by their services by offering a trial or money-back guarantee is likely trying to take your cash and run out the door.

8. Ask Yourself if Migrating is Worth It

This post is meant to entice you to see what your alternative hosting options are. If you’re finding that new deals aren’t that much better than what you’re getting with your current hosting package, stay where you’re at.

There’s no point in undergoing the stress of a server migration if you’re not going to get something great out of your efforts.

Wrapping Up What to Look for When You Change Web Hosting

Most people that change web hosting providers enjoy better service for a lower price. If you stand to reap those benefits by making a switch, we recommend doing so!

Looking for more write-ups that can help you solve technical problems, improve your business and more? If you are, browse more of the content that we have featured on our blog now!

What Is VPS Hosting?

Are you having trouble figuring out what hosting package is the right choice for your business?

That isn’t surprising. There are a lot of choices out there, and if you aren’t up to date on tech, then it can be overwhelming.

But your hosting package is a decision that you need to get right. If you make the wrong choice, it can have a negative impact on your business.

The question is, what is VPS hosting, and how will it help? We answer those questions in this post.

Keep reading to learn what VPS hosting is and how you can benefit from it.

So What Is VPS Hosting?

A VPS server, or virtual private server, is a web hosting package that provides you a space on the internet to host your website. When you think of running a site, you may be thinking of big servers that run everything.

That isn’t the case with a VPS.

When you buy a VPS service, you’re renting a portion of one of these servers. They make use of something called virtual machines.

A virtual machine lives on a physical server. This server will contain several operating systems that each have their own web server. Each of these systems is isolated from the other ones.

Separating these web servers means that you won’t be sharing your resources with other websites. You get a dedicated amount of storage space, bandwidth, and CPU.

How Is VPS Hosting Different From Other Packages?

Most hosting packages are shared hosting. This means you share space on a web server with the other sites on your hosting package.

Shared space is excellent if the price is a concern. But it starts becoming problematic if your site begins to grow.

Shared hosting resources are shared between the websites on a server. When you share resources, and any site has a spike and traffic, it causes problems with everything on the server.

If you rely on your website to bring you business, you can’t have this happening.

A VPS will separate you from other sites, so all the resources are your own. You don’t need to worry about another website breaking your site.

Sure, you get the same thing with dedicated hosting, but you’re also paying more when you go this route. A VPS is a good compromise between features and price.

Of course, if you aren’t technical, you may have problems managing your server. In many cases, you get a blank slate that you need to build yourself.

This is where a managed VPS comes into play. These packages come with cPanel installed as a standard shared hosting account would.

This software makes things easier to manage if you don’t want to set up everything yourself.

Should You Use VPS Hosting?

Picking out the right hosting package for your business isn’t always easy. Do you go the less expensive route and give up resources, or do you go all out and buy more than you need?

When deciding if VPS hosting is the right choice for your website, ask yourself if any of the situations below apply to you.

You Need Control Over Your Server

Are you launching the next big app? If so, you should probably steer away from shared hosting.

A shared hosting package can’t be configured to meet your needs. Most packages contain PHP, email, and cPanel. You won’t have anything else.

You’ll get root access with your VPS server. This capability means you can install anything you want.

You Use Your Server for Email

While most shared hosting packages have the advantage of providing free email for your company, it may not be worth it if your email service is vital for your business.

Your emails will be coming from the same location as the other sites on your server. You’ll share the email reputation with the other people using the server.

If one of the other sites starts spamming or doing things they shouldn’t, your server could be flagged by email providers as having a bad reputation.

When this happens, email services will start flagging your emails as spam.

When you use a VPS, you can have your email software installed and not worry about other websites sending out spam.

You Need Security

If we had nothing but static sites that had no functionality, we wouldn’t have to worry much less about security. Sadly, that’s not the case.

If you share your server with other people, security is a serious concern. Much of the internet runs on WordPress. The problem is, WordPress is also one of the most hacked platforms out there.

The chances are you’ll be sharing a server with at least one WordPress site.

It doesn’t matter if your site is safe. You can still feel the impact when another site on your server is compromised.

If you use a VPS service, then you don’t have this worry. You only need to worry about securing your own site.

You Need Scalability

With shared hosting, your resources are limited and shared. If you need to scale your web application, you’re going to have a tough time.

This problem isn’t a thing with VPS hosting. If you want more resources, you can request them in your web hosting administration portal.

Since you’re on a virtual machine, your hosting provider only needs to change some numbers to increase your resources.

If you’re on a cloud VPS, you don’t even need to wait for your provider. Make sure you read more about how you can use a VPS to scale your application.

Try VPS Hosting Today

You should now be able to answer the question, “what is VPS hosting?”

Feature-wise, the only thing that beats it is dedicated hosting. If you think your website will need more than shared hosting can provide, then talk to a VPS provider today to see how they can help.

Once you get your site up and running, it’s time to get visitors. Head over to our business section to learn about promotion strategies to get people visiting your website.