Before you sign up for web hosting its a good idea to check if their support answers and if they know what they are doing.
When you call their 1-800 number or use their live chat to make sure they answer you can also ask them a few simple tech questions. Most of these questions should be simple enough they don’t ask you to make a ticket in their support desk software or to email them.
Our web hosting guides will help you find the type of hosting you need. If you need further help contact us.
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What Type of Web Hosting Do You Need?
As the Web hosting industry has matured and grown, hosting offers have split in several distinct categories, each with their own strengths and weaknesses.
Shared hosting (also called virtual hosting) means that you are sharing a server with other clients of that company. The host manages the server almost completely (though you maintain your site and your account). They can afford to charge you little since many clients are paying for use of the server. This is not a bad option for budget minded webmasters.
However, companies other than yours use the resources of that server. That means heavy traffic to one of the other sites on the server can hammer the performance of your site.
Co-located hosting means that you buy a server from a hardware vendor, like Dell or HP, and you supply this server to the host. The Web host plugs your server into its network and its power systems. The host is responsible for ensuring that the network is available, however, you are responsible for support and maintenance of your server.
Good hosts offer management contracts to their clients so that you can outsource much of the support to them and come to an agreement on managed dedicated hosting.
Unmanaged dedicated hosting is similar to co-location except that you lease a server from a host and do not own it yourself. Some very limited support (typically Web-based only) is included, but the level of support varies widely among unmanaged dedicated hosts.
This type of server can be bought for around $99/month. Support levels typically are provided only in general terms. Ask the host to go into specifics about what support it will provide — will it apply security patches to your server? — before signing up. This service is typically good for gaming servers (like Doom or Counterstrike servers) or hobbyist servers, but not for serious businesses that need responsive, expert-level service.
Managed dedicated hosting means leasing a server from a host and having that company provide a robust level of support and maintenance on the server that is backed by quality guarantees. This maintenance typically includes services such as server uptime monitoring, a hardware warranty and security patch updates.
Ensure that your managed dedicated host is specific about its managed services so that it does not disguise an unmanaged dedicated offering as a managed dedicated server. This has been known to happen, which is why it is important to do your homework and ask the right questions.
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