Which is the right Web Hosting solution for you? Finding the right solution can be confusing like Alice discovered in her Wonderland written by Lewis Carroll when she followed the rabbit down the hole and found herself confused and confounded in a strange hall with many locked doors of various sizes. The answer regarding the “best” Web Hosting solution for “you” of course depends on several factors that are divided into screening criteria and evaluation criteria. Screening criteria include the minimum requirements with respect to hardware specifications, network resources, price, operating systems, etc., that a hosting solution needs to “make the cut” from your perspective. They are your minimum requirements. Evaluation criteria may and usually include screening criteria and are used to select the best hosting plan for you out of those plans that make the cut using your screening criteria. Think about shopping for a car. For you, screening criteria may include a high safety rating to keep insurance costs low, get 35 MPG highway for fuel efficiency and have Sirius XM radio to make the cut. You may find 3 cars that fit the bill. Now that they have been screened, it is time to compare and evaluate them based on both the screening criteria along with any other evaluation criteria that may arise as you shop around like rebates, trade in value, financing options, running board lights, warranty and service, etc. We’ve all dealt with the car salesman who is quick to point out why his or her car is better than the other guy’s car, and in a way shopping around educates you. Looking for the right Web Hosting solution is no different.

Alice in Wonderland (1951), Walt Disney
Before we get started it is important to point out that the history of the term “Web Hosting” with regard to semantics has meant many things to many people. Like the Mouse said to Alice in Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland….. “Mine is a long and sad tale” said the Mouse, turning to Alice and sighing. “It is a long tail, certainly,” said Alice, looking down with wonder at the Mouse’s tail; but why do you call it sad?” And she kept on puzzling about it while the Mouse was speaking. Web hosts have called themselves Web Hosting providers, Application Service Providers, Managed Hosting Providers, Collocation Providers, Internet Presence Providers, Virtual and Dedicated Hosting Providers, Ecommerce Hosting, SEO hosting and now recently Cloud Hosting and Cloud Hosting Providers or “on demand” utility like hosting accessible from any device, anywhere at any time. In realty, there are four dimensions with respect to Web Hosting that include Shared versus Dedicated Resources and Partial versus Fully Managed Service. Let’s look at the latest rhyme in time for the Web Hosting industry – Cloud Hosting. There are Public Clouds which are similar to Office Time Shares for small businesses that need to share resources to keep costs low so they don’t commit to a long term lease and only pay by the day or hour for temporary offices, conference rooms to meet clients, copier access, voice mail, P.O. Box, etc. Upside is cost. Downside is privacy, assurance that dedicated resources are there when they need them, etc. Some of these are fully managed with a janitorial staff, receptionist, etc., and some you clean up after yourself. Then there are Private Clouds which are similar to Offices in an office building housing several different businesses. These generally require paying a fixed rent for “your” office space based on square footage, include conference rooms when you book them, a common lobby, but utilities, taxes and insurance are based on “your” usage. You get private, dedicated back office space to work, but can also interface with clients waiting in the common lobby, or metaphorically a “firewall” that separate the two until you go out and bring them to say a conference room. Then there is the Dedicated Server hosting solution or Office Building where you own or rent it outright. You get all the benefits of dedicated resources, complete control, along with cloud flexibility by installing your own cloud on your own dedicated resources, but this comes with additional costs.
Now we come to the factors regarding choosing the best Web Hosting solution for you. And for that, we once again reference Lewis Carroll when …..Alice came to a fork in the road. “Which road do I take?” she asked. “Where do you want to go”? responded the Cheshire Cat”. “I don’t know, Alice answered.” Then, said the Cat, it doesn’t matter.” And so it is with Web Hosting. Defining the purpose of your web hosting solution or “where you want to go” is the first order of business. Different web hosts and the solutions they offer, just like office space, are not right for all customers. Some offer Cloud Services and different variations at that, others Dedicated Servers, Co-location or Shared and specialize in these areas. Some have network engineers, system administrators, and software developers on site, while others only first line technical support. If the purpose of your website is to merely have an online calling card or host non-critical applications then that will help you select your web hosting provider. On the other hand, if your web hosting solution is mission critical for your organization, then you may want something more robust. You can find reviews on the web but the best thing to do is contact the providers and discuss your website with them. To compare apples to apples you should make a list of screening and evaluation criteria in a spreadsheet in the vertical left most column. Then put the web hosting providers at the top horizontally. You can even leave some columns blank regarding criteria to later add some in that you’d not considered. If you like, assign a weight to the criteria you think that are more important for you than others.
Now you are ready to compare Web Hosting Providers using your screening and evaluation criteria so you can make the best decision. These criteria include “Technical Specifications” such as processor, motherboard, disk space, network topology and bandwidth, redundancy, scalability, backups, RAM, etc. You should also include “Customer Service/ Support” in your criteria. Do they have toll free 24x7x365 day service? Do they have online trouble ticket and email support, SLAs and FAQs? Do they outsource their customer/technical support or is it onsite in their own data center where your web server(s) are hosted? If they outsource their support and don’t own their own datacenter with their onsite engineers ready to provide you with onsite technical support, steer clear of them. “Pricing” is always important. All things being equal, what sort of pricing do they offer? Do they have discounts? Are there any hidden costs? Read the fine print when it comes to pricing. Some hosts will provide an upfront discount that expires after a period of time and then you’re stuck with an unexpected bill for the balance of your contract. Finally, look to see what “features and bolt-on” items they offer, how much they cost or if they are free. These include control panels, shopping carts, additional IP addresses, individual firewalls and intrusion detection, custom spam filters, web analytics for your site, monitoring and management applications, collaboration and file sharing, blogs, videos and more.
Once you make your spreadsheet of screening and evaluation criteria, visit the web hosts site and start comparing. Try to boil it down to three providers then call them up and start asking them about the specifics of what they do and do not offer using your spreadsheet. One buyer’s technique that is useful if you are not particularly technical is to get two sales engineers on the phone from competing companies and go down your list of criteria. However, some web hosts may be reluctant to commit those sorts of resources in terms of personnel unless you are spending a pretty penny on your solution. Remember the King’s instruction to the White Rabbit ….”Begin at the beginning, the King said, very gravely, “and go on till you come to the end: then stop.” Although your prospective web hosts are not on trial, make sure you evaluate them thoroughly to get the best solution for you at the best price, otherwise you’ll be spinning in Wonderland.
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