Whether you’re looking to start your very first website or you are just thinking about finding a new hosting provider, it is important to learn all you can about hosting and how it works. The problem is, there is so much information out there about hosting that many people don’t know where to start and end up ‘learning’ unimportant things and missing out on many essential facts.
The following are some important facts concerning web hosting and how to choose what type of hosting is right for you. While this is not an exhaustive list of what you should know, it is an excellent place to start your research or supplement what you already know.
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The first, and likely most important, fact about Web hosting that many people don’t realize is that no matter what features the hosting company is offering shared web hosting is typically oversold. When a server is ‘oversold’ it means that the hosting company is putting more customers on a single server than it can properly handle.
In many cases, the hosting provider will put the number of customers that a server can handle with average use. This is fine for most of the time, but if/when the sites on that server are getting a lot of traffic (peak usage times) the server won’t be able to keep up. This can cause outages, slow response times and other issues.
If you are going to use shared web hosting, make sure it is with a company like GoGetSpace, which is committed to offering only the best-shared hosting experience. This is done by keeping the total number of customers per server at a level that will ensure great performance, even during peak times.
Fact #2 – Massive Disk Space is Not Always Needed
One of the things that web hosting companies love to do is offer their customers a huge amount of disk space to try to get them to sign up. This is done because disk space is very inexpensive for the hosting company, and even users with little technical knowledge will know that they are getting a lot of room.
The fact is, however, that unless you will be directly hosting a huge number of pages or lots of video, you don’t really need all that much disk space to run a typical website. While lots of disk space is fine to have, you should be paying more attention to the type of disks being used. You’ll get far more performance out of a smaller amount of disk space on a solid state drive (SSD) than you would a traditional disk with hundreds of gigs. The configuration of the disks is also very important. RAID 10 configuration, for example, can help minimize the risk of your site going down, even if a disk fails!
Fact #3 – Managed or Unmanaged
When shopping for VPS or dedicated servers, many people don’t check to see whether the hosting provider is offering managed or unmanaged services. Managed web hosting means that the hosting provider will be responsible for many of the activities on your server such as software updates and things of that nature. While both managed and unmanaged options are fine, it is essential that you know what you’re getting before making a purchase.
If you don’t have a lot of technical experience, for example, you will definitely want to choose the managed option. Just beware of companies that lower their prices and don’t tell you that you’re getting unmanaged services until you need their support and they try to charge you extra.
Fact #4 – RAM is Critical
If you’re looking to get a VPS or dedicated server, RAM (memory) is one of the most important components to look at. Just like with your PC at home, the RAM is what holds the data that is being used or has recently been used. For most types of sites, the RAM is actually going to improve your performance more than virtually any other component.
Fact #5 – Types of Hosted Sites
If possible, it is a good idea to check what policies a potential hosting provider has for things like illegal or adult websites. If they allow these types of things it could result in having your site blocked or filtered by certain types of firewalls that block by IP address or IP range. This is a fairly small issue overall, but one that you should definitely be aware of.
Knowledge is Power
Whenever shopping for web hosting you will want to make sure you learn as much as you can. If you feel that a prospective hosting company is trying to hide something or won’t answer your questions, it is a good idea to avoid them and find a company that can be open and honest with you. Here at Go Get Space, we are committed to providing our customers with the best possible hosting experience and we always welcome any questions or concerns you may have.
