Is it your first time building a website and you wonder which web hosting to use? Web hosting may sound all technical and tech-savvy, but you can also do it even if you are a beginner.
Here are a few pointers to help you choose web hosting 2024 as a beginner.
Your Budget
How much do you intend to spend on web hosting? Most beginners usually look for cheaper web hosting services.
However, as you look for cheaper web hosting services, it’s important to consider the features that come with it. Look for affordable plans, that are reliable with the features, functionalities, and performance that you require.
The Type of website
What type of website do you want to create? Is it a simple blog, an affiliate site, a business website, or an e-commerce website?
If you are creating a simple website such as a blog or one for a small business, then you can use shared hosting. This type of hosting has many websites on a single server. Therefore, if something happens to other websites, it can affect your website. It’s the most affordable and doesn’t need you to be tech-savvy.
For medium-sized to large websites such as an e-commerce site, then VPS hosting is suitable. While users share a server, they have dedicated partitions. Your website is stable and its performance is not affected by other websites.
Traffic you expect
Usually, traffic to the website is slow at the beginning. If it’s a simple blog or a small business website, you can opt for a scalable shared hosting plan which you can change as the traffic increases.
Important features
As a beginner, some features in web hosting are a must-have. These will make it easy for you to host and manage your website. Some of these features include:
- Uptime guarantee. Uptime is the percentage of time when your website is up and can be accessed by the users. A good web host should provide 99.9% uptime.
- WordPress install: Can you install WordPress in one click? WordPress is a content management system( CMS) platform for building websites. As a beginner, this is an important feature.
- Easy-to-use control panel: The control panel should be as easy to use as possible for a beginner so that you can find managing your website enjoyable.
- Bandwidth: Bandwidth is the capacity of the web host to transfer data. A high bandwidth means that more data is transferred. You should choose a bandwidth depending on how much data is expected to be transferred on the website. It can be based on monthly visitors, web page size, and page views.
- Self-managed or managed hosting: In managed hosting, the host manages the WordPress for you such as security, automatic backups, updates, uptime, scalability, and caching. If you are a beginner, and not so tech-savvy, you should opt for managed hosting. In self-managed hosting, you are involved in managing all the above technical aspects of your WordPress. It requires someone tech-savvy to pull it off.
- Security: The web host should provide your website with security to protect your information. Most web hosts provide SSL Certificates which ensures that the communication between visitors and the website is encrypted. If it’s an online store, you are required to protect your customer’s information with secure servers.
- SSD storage. The web host should have enough SSD storage for fast data access and loading time. The storage is where files and data such as videos and images are stored in the server. Websites for small businesses, personal websites, and blogs need storage of about 100 GB.
All round support
While your web hosting may seemless, you will have peace of mind knowing that you can get customer support any time you need it. As a beginner, choose a web host with 24/7 customer support, which can be in the form of live chats, phone calls, and emails. Blogs and tutorials are also useful and you can use them to solve some of the problems.
Compare different hosting providers
Now that you know the features you need, compare different hosting providers and choose one that meets your needs.
First, you need to make sure that it is legitimate and offers reliable service. Check reviews from other users on platforms such as HostAdvice. Also, you can find out the hosting provider on a website using Sitecheker to know which web host other websites are using.
Another way is to compare different web hosts such as Cloudways vs Hostinger or Cloudways vs GoDaddy. You then analyze their pros and cons, to help you select the best for your needs.