| You'd be forgiven for thinking that cheap web | | | | Just how reliable is the web hosting company's |
| hosting and great support would be mutually | | | | service? What's their uptime? (99.9% uptime is |
| exclusive. | | | | pretty common) Ask about their data centre. |
| Here's the good news - the combination of ever | | | | Quiz them about whether they own their |
| decreasing hardware costs and the ever | | | | hardware or are they providing service through a |
| increasing number of websites is yielding | | | | third party. Enquire about their contingency plans |
| economies of scale that mean that you can now | | | | in case of any fatal hardware or data centre |
| find feature-rich cheap web hosting without having | | | | failures. |
| to dial ‘00' when contacting your web hosting | | | | 3. Features |
| company. | | | | Don't get distracted by features you might never |
| That's right, there are now plenty of UK web | | | | need. Focus on the core items: storage space, |
| hosting companies providing cheap hosting with full | | | | bandwidth, mailboxes, databases, easy-to-use |
| set of features for less than £20 per year. | | | | control panel (such as Plesk) and free tools (such |
| So before you trade features for price and real | | | | as Sitebuilder) to create a professional looking |
| support for FAQs, here are few key | | | | website. Most other things are likely to be nice to |
| requirements you should focus on to find cheap | | | | have but not really necessary. |
| web hosting without compromising quality of | | | | Blogs and forum facilities are becoming increasingly |
| service: | | | | important. So look for these and also look for |
| 1. Customer service and support | | | | available guidance to help you integrate these into |
| Can you get hold of your web hosting company | | | | your website. |
| when you need help? And what options do you | | | | 4. Platform |
| have - telephone, web chat, ticket or all three? | | | | The choice here is fairly straight forward and |
| Before signing up to any contract, look for | | | | driven by how your website might have been |
| prominent contact numbers for customer | | | | created. Most websites work under Linux |
| services and technical support on their website. If | | | | platform. However, if you want to run Windows |
| a contact number is not prominent, look for | | | | specific applications such as ASP.NET or MS SQL, |
| another hosting company | | | | you'll need a Windows platform. If you are at all |
| In short, satisfy yourself that you can get hold of | | | | unsure, a simple chat with your hosting company |
| the company when you need to, day or night. | | | | should provide you with the answer. |
| 2. Uptime | | | | |