How to choose a web host?

Speed, accessibility, engagement – that’s what counts in working with customers today. Worldwide there are more than 1.24 billion websites. It is hard to imagine business without a web presence. What parameters do you need to pay attention to in order to choose the best hosting?

Hosting is to a business what an engine is to a car. In both cases you need good capacity, security, but price and many other factors also matter. In the simplest terms, hosting is the disk space that the owner of a server room provides us with. We use this space on our computer, constantly connected to the Internet.

Choosing a good hosting is also part of a strategic look at the company’s business. It’s worth considering not only your current goals, but also the business results you want to achieve some time from now.

Types of hosting

Once we have planned what we want to do in the future and what point we are at now, we can choose the type of hosting:

1. Shared hosting (web hosting) – a virtual device whose resources, processor and other parameters are separated from the physical server. This type of hosting is simulated by software. It will work well for smaller businesses, small companies, simple blogs, etc. Since the server is shared between different users, there may be performance issues. E.g. if you are starting with a small but promising business and plan to expand, it is better to choose a different type of hosting from the beginning.
2. VPS (Virtual Private Server) – this device also exists virtually, but the resources of the server (processor, memory and disk) are adapted to our needs. If these become larger, VPS also comes to our aid. A solution good for sites visited by hundreds of users a day, e-commerce, popular blogs. VPS gives you the opportunity to administer the server yourself.
3. Dedicated servers – own physical server at the full disposal of the client. Dedicated server is the highest quality among hosting, multi-core processor, sensational memory and disk resources. The best solution for large institutions, complex sites that use programming elements or for sites from which a variety of transactions are performed and maximum data security is ensured.

What to pay attention to when choosing hosting for your business?

In addition to the type of hosting, there are many important parameters:

• Server capacity – it is worth considering,
  how much space do we need? Do we plan to publish
  photos, videos that take up a lot of disk space in our business or will we mainly
  write back messages? The minimum recommended capacity is 1 GB.
• Link speed – data transfer, that is, the amount
  of data sent from the server to users of the client’s site. The data will be included in
  the contract, which you should read well. For smaller companies, 100 GB is enough.
  Data transfer affects the speed of page loading, this time should be
  maximum 3 seconds. If it takes longer than that, 40% of users leave
  the site.
• Limits – some service providers offer, for example,
  unlimited transfer. It is then worth checking whether you can send as many emails as
  you expect, or whether such an arrangement does not come at the expense of some other
  parameter. When determining the limits are also important:
  • Number of domains assigned to the account – means the number of
    standalone sites that a user can run with a given
    hosting account (for example, one account can run a store, a blog or a private
    site with photos). Many companies do not impose limits here, but then it is worth
    figuring out how this will affect server capacity
  • Subdomains – most often the number is
    unlimited
  • Number of email accounts – similar to
    subdomains
  • Number of databases – is used to store
    information on websites. Companies also usually offer an unlimited number of databases.

It’s also worth asking what the company’s policy is when exceeding limits.

• Uptime, which is a time measured by percentage,
  in which the hosting works without failure and the customer has access to services. The desired
  uptime rate is 99.95%, which will be confirmed in the SLA.
• Back up – all good
  hosting companies make security copies of the sites. It is worth finding out how
  often the backup is carried out and how long the copied
  files are kept on the server. In addition, let’s prepare security copies on our own on
  an external drive, so we can be sure that in case of failure of
  hosting company we will not lose data.
• Available technologies – you need to figure out
  whether the hosting company has up-to-date versions of PHP (above 5.6, and
  preferably 7.0 and higher), My SQL database and FTP. This will make
  sites go smoothly.
• Technical support – breakdowns can happen
  to the best companies, but for the customer it is important to have support in a crisis
  moment. Let’s check what options the hosting company has: phone, email, chat
  online? Some service providers offer
  such as a discount in exchange for service interruption.
• SSL certificate – or security
  domain. Many service providers offer a free SSL certificate, or Let`s Encrypt,
  which will work well for small businesses, bloggers etc. SSL certificate is most often
  paid, which not only adequately secures data, but also offers a level of
  brand authenticity.

Hosting at ITH

As a telecommunications company, we have more than 10 years of experience. During this time, we have provided a number of top quality services. We invite you to take advantage of hosting at ITH.

E. Adamska-Cieśla