What is important when choosing a web host? The most important things are:
1. Reliability:The main function of a web host is making your web site available for other users of internet all the time. Well, mostly all of the time. The best web hosts are operational more than 99.5 % of their time and they guarantee it. Stay away of web hosts that don't give you such guarantee.
2. SupportThis one is extremely important. Web hosts usually offer telephone support, live chat and email support. Make sure you have support available any time you need it. And I really mean anytime. If you can't contact your web host during the weekend you have a potential problem. The best thing to do is to test them. Call them to see how responsive they are. If they don't respond to your email in a timely manner consider choosing another host.
3. Price You would be fooling yourself if this wasn't an important factor. The thing is, price is connected with the first two factors. Higher prices do not make a good web host, but they raise the chance of getting good support and high reliability. I learned this lesson myself.
When I started my first web page I had a very low budget. I found a cheap hosting that promised me almost anything, but soon made my life full of painful moments. My web site was constantly up and down, without them even knowing that. My visitors were complaining they couldn't send me emails. I tried to contact this web hosting company but they were unresponsive for several days. Soon I had nothing else to do than move my files to another host. That was the last time I had choosen a cheap web host. Now best web hosts come with a money back guarantee which is great – don't even bother with a web host that doesn't offer you that.
4. Control PanelControl panel is the page from which you control everything about your web site. You log in to control panel using your username and password. You can edit your files there, add new email accounts, see usage of your disk space or statistics of your visitors to name just a few. There are differences in control panels among hosts so make sure your control panel can do what you want. You don't wanna call your web host every time you want to know how many visitors you had last week.
5. Technical detailsDisk space: is the amount of space you get. Most web hosts give you more space than you can use. Data transfer: is the amount of data transfered from your site to your visitors. Email: number of email accounts you can open.